The US Federal Trade Commission's antitrust complaint against Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC for its promotion of Suboxone film (buprenorphine/naloxone) as less susceptible to accidental pediatric exposure than the tablet formulation shows the kind of product hopping behavior the agency may pursue in the future.
The agency has expressed interest in going after drug makers for so-called product hopping, in which a drug manufacturer tries to delay generic competition for a product about to go off patent by getting consumers to switch to a new patent protected formulation. The FTC began investigating Reckitt Benckiser and its former subsidiary, now Indivior PLC, several years ago but did not file a