Suboxone is Indivor’s big money-maker, but two generic versions could hit the market as early as next Tuesday after the latest ruling from a US appeals court

Indivior is adamant that the generics infringe on its patents and is taking its case to the Supreme Court

PLC ( ) has been dealt another blow in its bid to protect its star drug after a US court ruling cleared the way for two rivals to launch their generic versions of the opioid addiction next week.

The drugmaker has been aggressively defending Suboxone, which makes up the bulk of its annual revenue, for several years now, claiming that cut-price treatments from Dr Reddy’s and Alvogen infringe on its patents.

But last week, a US appeals court ratified an earlier decision by a district court in Delaware that gave the generics the all-clear.

is taking its case to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the US, and had hoped to delay the launch of the copycat versions until after then.

But that request has been rejected by the appeals court, which has told Indian giant Dr Reddy’s and Alvogen that they can start selling their drugs into the market next Tuesday (19 February).

Dr Reddy’s not averse to an ‘at-risk’ launch

Any launch would be on an ‘at-risk’ basis though – when litigation is still going – as Indivior is still trying to protect its intellectual property (IP) through a court in New Jersey as well as the Supreme Court.

That wasn’t a concern for Dr Reddy’s last summer though when it briefly launched its version ‘at-risk’ and took a decent chunk out of Suboxone’s market share despite only being available for a few hours.

Indivior shares were down 2.2% to 104.7p. Last summer they were changing hands for more than 500p.