Generic Suboxone Strips: Cost, Brand vs Generic, Mylan

What did the first year of generic Suboxone film change, and what has changed since?

Buprenorphine and naloxone are the two ingredients in Suboxone, the gold standard of office-based opioid treatment. The buprenorphine reduces withdrawal symptoms and cravings, and the naloxone is there to discourage misuse.

I first wrote this article in 2020, a little over a year after the first generic Suboxone films reached pharmacies. Six years later, patients still ask me the same questions. Is there a generic? Is it as good as the brand? Are the strips or the pills cheaper? What does it cost without insurance?

When I say Suboxone here, I mean buprenorphine and naloxone in any form, brand or generic, film or tablet. How the generic film arrived explains what the medication costs today and why some obstacles remain.

So, did generic Suboxone film solve the cost problem? Mostly, yes. And, where it did not, you should know what to ask for.

For years, buprenorphine and naloxone came only as brand products, and the price was the problem.

Until 2013, buprenorphine and naloxone came only as brand-name products, all approved by the FDA for opioid dependence. Physical dependence is not addiction, and treating it is what these products are for. Suboxone is the film, ZubSolv is a fast-dissolving tablet with a more pleasing taste, and a third product, Bunavail, was a film placed against the inside of the cheek. Bunavail has since been discontinued.

How do you take Suboxone strips? You place the film under your tongue, close to the base, and leave it there until it has completely dissolved. The Suboxone label says not to cut, chew, swallow, or move the film once it is in place, and not to eat or drink anything until it is gone.

The cost was the problem. Before generics, a single dose of Suboxone film, ZubSolv, or Bunavail could run ten to fifteen dollars, so a typical monthly prescription of sixty units might cost $600 to $900!

For a person who has just quit opioids and is trying to hold a job and a household together, that is not a price. That is a reason not to fill the prescription.

Generic Suboxone first appeared as a tablet, and the tablet was slow.

The FDA approved the first generic buprenorphine and naloxone tablets in 2013, and doctors, pharmacists, and patients were excited. In fact, prices fell to as little as $2 to $3 per pill at the time. Indivior stopped making the brand-name Suboxone tablet years ago, so the tablet you get today is always a generic.

Yet, here is where the problem occurred. Where a Suboxone film dissolves in a few minutes, the generic tablets could take 10, 15, or even 30 minutes, and you cannot talk, drink, eat, or smoke while you wait. Patients have told me that they meditate, take a nap, or watch television while the tablet dissolves.

While a quiet half hour may sound pleasant, many people cannot find one. If you are a mother with young children, imagine keeping your mouth shut for 30 minutes every morning. And, since buprenorphine often works best divided into two daily doses, you may find yourself with a full hour each day in which you cannot open your mouth.

When you take buprenorphine, your addiction moves to the background and you can live your life. A tablet that takes half an hour to dissolve does not let you forget that you are on medical treatment. The savings were real, and so was the daily burden.

Why did the wait for a generic film take so long?

The FDA approved the first generic Suboxone films, made by Dr. Reddy’s and Mylan, in June of 2018. Yet, they did not appear in pharmacies, because Indivior, the maker of Suboxone, was fighting the generic companies in court over its film patents. A patent dispute, not any question about the medicine, kept the generic film off the shelf.

In February of 2019, a federal appeals court lifted the order that had blocked Dr. Reddy’s from selling its film, and the generic launched. Within the same month, Indivior began selling its own authorized generic of the film, and Mylan’s version followed. The long wait was over.

While we waited, the workarounds were all we had. An uninsured patient could apply to a manufacturer assistance program, ZubSolv came with a voucher for free tablets, some compounding pharmacies made a low-cost buprenorphine troche, or lozenge, and some patients treated the tablet’s slow dissolve as a forced break in the day. I have written about free and low-cost buprenorphine programs separately. None of those workarounds was a solution, only a way to get by.

Insurance prior authorizations were a nightmare before generic buprenorphine existed.

Before generic Suboxone film or tablets existed, health insurance companies made it very hard to get Suboxone covered. They sent claim denial letters. So, patients either paid the cash price or went without.

Imagine that you have quit heroin or pain pills, made the phone call, shown up to see a doctor, and walked out with a prescription in your hand. Then, you are standing in line at the pharmacy and you learn that your insurance has denied the claim. You know that withdrawal is coming, and you know that after a few days of it, going back to opioid use will start to look like the only way to make it stop.

This is why I have never seen a denial letter as a paperwork problem. For a person in early withdrawal, it is a relapse risk, and with fentanyl in the drug supply, a relapse can be an overdose. If that ever happens to someone near you, call 911 for anyone who is unresponsive or barely breathing, and keep Narcan, or naloxone, within reach.

I remember sitting on hold for long stretches, only to have a non-physician at the insurance company tell me that there was nothing they could do. A “peer-to-peer” review with one of their doctors could take days to schedule. Sometimes the “peer” called back, and sometimes they did not.

Prior authorization asks the wrong questions at the worst possible time.

The “prior authorization” process asks a doctor to fill out forms making the case for why the patient needs their medication. Unfortunately, the questions were often insulting. Has the patient tried alternatives? There are no alternatives. Has the patient had two drug tests on consecutive monthly visits? The patient just walked in the door after kicking heroin! How would we have two months of urine testing?

An analogy that might help is a fire extinguisher. Imagine that your kitchen is on fire, and before anyone will sell you an extinguisher, you must prove that you tried putting the fire out some other way first. While this is not a perfect analogy, that is what a prior authorization for buprenorphine felt like from the doctor’s chair.

I do not believe that the people answering those phones intended anyone harm. Yet, a denial letter delivered to a person in withdrawal has consequences that the letter does not mention, and I believe some of those consequences were overdoses. When it comes to prior authorizations, as usual, the answer is found by following the money.

Fortunately, the generic tablet took much of the fight out of the insurers. If a patient did not mind the slow tablet, the insurance would usually cover it.

What happened when the generic film arrived, and why do patients ask about Mylan?

Within weeks of the February 2019 launch, my patients were filling generic Suboxone strips. The generic that local pharmacies stocked most often was the Mylan buprenorphine and naloxone film, so “Mylan Suboxone” became the name patients used for the generic strip. Mylan has since become part of Viatris, and several other manufacturers now make the film.

Patients who tried the Mylan strips told me that there was little, if any, difference from the brand. While the packaging looked different, the film dissolved quickly, just like the Indivior product. So, there was no reason not to get the generic.

Suddenly, no one had to choose between a high-priced brand and a slow tablet. Some patients who had been taking tablets to save money, or because that was all their insurance would cover, made the switch, and others simply found that their copay had dropped.

Whatever the motives of the executives and lawyers at Dr. Reddy’s, their court fight saved lives. A medication that keeps people alive was finally within reach of more of the people who needed it.

With generics on the shelf, Indivior pulled its Here To Help program within days.

How did Indivior respond to generic competition? Before 2019, Indivior ran a program called Here To Help, which provided free Suboxone film to patients who could not afford it. A doctor could have up to three patients on the program at a time, and it kept people in treatment.

Within days of the ruling that allowed Dr. Reddy’s to sell its generic, the program was gone. I received one fax, with no letterhead and no name on it, stating that the cancellation was effective immediately. Patients on the program had no warning.

Did anyone lose access to treatment and relapse as a result? We may never know. I suspect that some patients did not fare well when their free medication was cut off overnight.

Manufacturer help has changed since 2020. As of 2026, Orexo, the maker of ZubSolv, offers two vouchers for fifteen free tablets per patient over a lifetime and a copay card worth up to $225 per fill, but it no longer publishes a free-medication program for people who cannot pay at all. Indivior’s patient support has changed since then, so ask your pharmacist or check the manufacturer’s website for what is current.

Is generic Suboxone the same as brand?

Yes, in every way that matters for treatment. The FDA requires a generic to have the same active ingredient, strength, dosage form, and route of administration as the brand, and to be bioequivalent, meaning it delivers the same amount of drug at the same rate. Minor differences in appearance, such as color, are allowed, and the inactive ingredients, such as flavors, may differ.

In a small minority of patients, an inactive ingredient, such as a flavor or a dye, can affect how a product is tolerated. Yet, in my experience, patients switching from brand film to a generic film have reported no difference. If you are the rare person who does notice one, that is a conversation to have with your doctor, not a reason to stop.

There is one exception worth knowing. The Suboxone label states that not all film strengths are bioequivalent to the tablets, so a switch between film and tablet is something your doctor should oversee, not a swap the pharmacy makes on its own.

Are Suboxone strips or pills cheaper?

The generic tablet is usually the cheapest form of buprenorphine and naloxone, the generic film costs a bit more, and the brand-name film costs the most. In my experience, insurance formularies follow the same order, so a plan that balks at brand film will usually cover the generic tablet without an argument.

Some patients still choose the tablets on purpose. The price is lowest, some insurance plans prefer them, and not everyone minds the wait. Patients have told me that the half hour of enforced quiet is the one moment in the day when no one can ask them for anything.

Most of my patients prefer the film, because it dissolves in minutes and lets them get on with the day. The difference in cost between generic film and generic tablet is now small enough that most patients can choose the form that suits them. Either way, choose the form that you will actually take twice a day, and let your doctor confirm the dose if you switch.

What does generic Suboxone cost in 2026 without insurance?

Far less than it did. In 2018, a month of brand film could cost several hundred dollars in cash, and in 2026 the discount-card price for thirty generic films of the most common strength at many pharmacies is in the tens of dollars. I will not quote an exact figure, because the price changes by pharmacy, by strength, by quantity, and by month.

The best thing you can do is compare before you fill. A prescription discount card, GoodRx being the one most patients know, will show you the cash price at each pharmacy near you, and the spread between the cheapest and the most expensive can be surprising. Ask the pharmacist to run both the discount-card price and your insurance copay and tell you which is lower.

If you have insurance, in my experience most plans now cover the generic film or tablet without the prior authorization ordeal of the past. If you are uninsured, the discount-card price for generic tablets is usually the lowest number you will find.

The remaining obstacle at the pharmacy is not the price.

Fortunately, more pharmacies than ever carry generic buprenorphine and naloxone in both forms, and pharmacists have become more knowledgeable about the medication. Unfortunately, there are still pharmacy staff who do not understand opioid use disorder, or addiction in general, and it shows at the counter.

While a pharmacist cannot be expected to know every patient’s story, a patient who is treated with suspicion at pickup, questioned in front of other people in line, or made to feel like a criminal for filling a legitimate prescription may decide not to come back.

At worst, that humiliation can trigger a relapse. Addiction is a chronic condition with serious acute flare-ups, much like diabetes or heart disease, and the people who show up to treat it deserve the same courtesy as anyone else at the counter.

It is not a bad idea to ask your doctor’s office which pharmacies keep the medication in stock and treat patients well. Because an electronic prescription goes to one pharmacy, tell your doctor which one you prefer before the visit ends.

One practical caution comes with generics. Generic tablets and films vary in size, color, shape, and even how quickly they dissolve, so keep your medication in its original container with the pharmacy label on it. If you ever suspect that you have mixed up two medications, take them to your pharmacist to sort out, because taking the wrong medication is dangerous.

When it comes to affordable buprenorphine, we can still do better.

Have we solved the problem of making this medication affordable for every patient? I believe we still have further to go. Most drugs cost very little to manufacture at scale. These drugs are cheaper than water, yet a month of buprenorphine still costs several times what a month of a generic blood pressure pill costs.

I have heard that patent issues kept the price high for years, and I still do not fully understand why the government could not override an obstacle like that during an overdose crisis. Some pharmacies have given away thirty days of certain generics just to get people in the store. Why is buprenorphine not on that list?

Of course, public funding must cover the doctor visits as well as the medicine. There are pilot programs around the country that provide buprenorphine treatment at little or no cost, and we need more of them, in more places, with an easier way for patients to find them.

For now, if you have been away from treatment for years and are afraid of what the medication will cost, the answer is better than you remember. Generic Suboxone strips are here to stay.

Dr. Leeds prescribes buprenorphine films and tablets by telemedicine in Florida.

Dr. Leeds provides buprenorphine treatment with Suboxone and its generics to new patients throughout Florida by telemedicine, with in-office visits available in Fort Lauderdale. Patients start at home with phone support, and when fentanyl is involved, a low-dose initiation is used when needed. Care continues at the patient’s pace, whether the goal is long-term maintenance or a gradual taper.

To ask about generic buprenorphine, cost, or starting treatment, contact Dr. Leeds through the contact form.

This article is educational. It is not medical advice, and reading it does not create a doctor-patient relationship. Decisions about starting, continuing, or tapering any medication should be made with your own physician.