In re Suboxone (Buprenorphine Hydrochloride and Naloxone) Antitrust Litigation

Berger Montague represented a certified class of direct purchaser plaintiffs who purchased Suboxone tablets directly from defendant Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now known as Indivior Inc.) (“Reckitt”) between January 1, 2012, through March 14, 2013. The case was litigated from 2012 to 2024 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and was captioned In re Suboxone (Buprenorphine Hydrochloride and Naloxone) Antitrust Litigation, No. 2:13-md-02445-MSG (E.D. Pa.).

Plaintiffs alleged that Reckitt engaged in various acts and practices as a part of an overall scheme to coerce a switch of the Suboxone market from Suboxone tablets to Suboxone film and to delay the market entry of less-expensive versions of Suboxone tablets, in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. 

During the course of the litigation, Berger Montague attorneys were involved in nearly all aspects of the case including overarching litigation strategy, overseeing and guiding aspects of fact and expert discovery, including depositions and motion practice, briefing dispositive motions, oral argument concerning the opinions to be offered by the parties’ experts, class certification briefing, working with experts, depositions, appellate briefing, trial preparation, and settlement negotiations.

The District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued numerous rulings in plaintiffs’ favor. The Court denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims on December 3, 2014. The Court certified the Class of direct purchasers of Suboxone tablets on September 27, 2019, and the Third Circuit affirmed the court’s class certification decision on July 28, 2020, in a published opinion (In re Suboxone (Buprenorphine Hydrochlorine & Naloxone) Antitrust Litig., 967 F.3d 264 (3d Cir. 2020)).  On August 22, 2022, the Court denied defendant’s two motions for summary judgment.  The parties prepared for an October 30, 2023 trial date. 

Shortly before trial was scheduled to start (the Court had set the trial start date for October 30, 2023), the parties reached a $385 million Settlement. On October 30, 2023, the Court entered an order preliminarily approving the proposed Settlement and, subsequently, on February 27, 2024, the Court entered an order granting final approval to the Settlement bringing the case to a close. In an opinion explaining the order granting final approval, Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg reasoned that the Settlement was “highly favorable” and that the Suboxone litigation was an “extremely complex case litigated over the course of ten years.”

About Berger Montague

Berger Montague is a national law firm focusing on complex civil litigation in federal and state courts throughout the United States. For over half a century, Berger Montague has played lead roles in consequential, precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $60 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago, Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto, Washington, D.C., and Delaware.