British ex-chief executive of opioid addict treatment group Indivior, Shaun Thaxter, jailed in US for six months
The British ex-chief executive of opioid addiction treatment giant Indivior has been sentenced to six months in a US jail after a long-running battle with US prosecutors.
Shaun Thaxter left the company with a £2.3 million pay package in July and a day later pleaded guilty to federal charges related to its opioid treatment Suboxone Film, used to ease the withdrawal symptoms of recovering opioid addicts.
He was sentenced last night in the US District Court in Abingdon, Virginia on a misdemeanour charge that he caused the company to misrepresent the safety of the medicine in submissions to Massachusetts' Medicaid programme. That led to the drug being prescribed to patients with children under six-years-old.
Thaxter's lawyer has stressed that he had only pleaded guilty on a "non-intent misdemeanour under the Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine" - US rules that hold senior management to account for events that happen in their companies even if they are not aware of them.
The lawyer said Thaxter had not been aware of the alleged misstatements when they were made.
However, the Justice Department said he "oversaw and encouraged" the efforts to get the drug approved.
The department has alleged Indivior, desperate to protect Suboxone from copycat rivals, deceived doctors by claiming the film version of Suboxone tablets was safer and less susceptible to abuse.
On 24 July, Indivior agreed to pay $600 million to settle criminal and civil liabilities over the issue, which followed a $1.4 billion settlement agreed with its former parent company, Reckitt Benckiser, last year.
The case has been a long-running crisis for the company, whose shares have fallen from 481p in June 2018 to 100p today. Hopes for a settlement had boosted the shares from 37p at the start of the year.
Thaxter led Indivior's separation from Reckitt in 2014 and led the company since 2009.
The Suboxone scandal cast a shadow over the tenure of former Reckitt chief executive Rakesh Kapoor who was accused, along with other executives, of making false safety claims. However, he has faced no charges.
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