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Ohio To Get $40M In Multistate Suboxone Settlement

Suboxone film strips that dissolve under the tongues of people addicted to opioids.
Charles Krupa
/
AP
Suboxone film strips that dissolve under the tongues of people addicted to opioids, easing their withdrawal symptoms, were marketed as safer than competing opioid addiction treatment drugs.

The state Attorney General's Office says Ohio will receive nearly $40 million as part of a nationwide settlement with a British company that once distributed a drug used to treat opioid addiction.

An attorney general spokesman says Reckitt Benckiser Group signed its agreement with all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Justice in July announced a $1.4 billion recovery from Reckitt Benckiser to resolve potential criminal and civil liability involving a subsidiary called Indivior spun off by the company in 2014.

The DOJ said Indivior marketed opioid-based Suboxone Film as safer than competing opioid addiction treatment drugs. Indivior faces a federal criminal trial next year in Virginia.

Reckitt Benckiser denied any wrongdoing in July.

The states' share of the settlement is $700 million.