LONDON (Reuters) - London's High Court threw out a representative lawsuit against Reckitt Benckiser and Indivior over their alleged false marketing of opioid addiction treatment Suboxone on Tuesday.
London-listed drugmaker Indivior and Reckitt Benckiser, its parent until Indivior was spun off in 2014, had faced a claim brought on behalf of hundreds of investors potentially worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
Wirral Council in north-west England had wanted to bring a representative claim based on an alleged scheme to switch the market for Suboxone from tablets, which were about to lose patent protection in the U.S., to a sublingual film.
But High Court Judge Michael Green said in a ruling that the Wirral may not act as a representative and the claims should be struck out.
"I therefore conclude that, in the circumstances of this case, my discretion should be exercised against the Representative Proceedings and in favour of the Multi-party Proceedings, should the Claimants wish to proceed with them," he said.