PROVIDENCE – Reckitt Benckiser Group has agreed to pay Rhode Island $5.2 million in a settlement over allegations that it improperly marketed and promoted the drug Suboxone, resulting in improper state Medicaid expenditures, R.I. Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced Monday.
Rhode Island’s settlement is part of a larger $700 million settlement with six states related to civil fraud allegations affecting Medicaid and other government health care programs.
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Suboxone is a drug approved for use by those recovering from an opioid addiction to avoid withdrawal symptoms while they undergo treatment. The drug contains buprenorphine, a powerful and addictive opioid.
Of Rhode Island’s settlement, $2.9 million will be returned to the R.I. Executive Office of Health and Human Services, the state’s Medicaid administrator and $2.4 million of the state’s settlement money will be returned to the U.S. government, Neronha said.
The allegations against Reckitt Benckiser Group included charges that the company knowingly promoted the sale and use of Suboxone to doctors for uses that were unsafe, ineffective and medically unnecessary, to patients without any counseling or psychosocial support; promoted the sale of the drug based on false and misleading claims; falsely claimed to have discontinued manufacturing of Suboxone tablets due to expressed safety concerns and took other steps to delay the entry of generic competition to control pricing.
