Reckitt Benckiser contemplating selling drug addiction treatment area of company

As profits for the drug addiction treatment portion of the company fall for the first time, chief executive officer of Reckitt Benckiser, Rakesh Kapoor, is exploring options moving forward -- with one of them being to sell the drug business. 

Reckitt Benckiser, which is best known for its sales of Suboxone, had a decline of 18% in sales of this product in the third quarter of 2013 and saw the same number at the year's end.

The sales decreases come from generic and branded competition of these types of drugs coming into the field, according to Live Mint.  

According to Yahoo Finance:

The options for the business, which has developed a Suboxone film to replace the tablets, include a float, sale, demerger, joint venture, or Reckitt keeping it.

At this point, the company is moving forward after choosing a new chairman for this area. This individual, Howard Pien, is a pharmaceutical adviser based in the United States and will help with the strategic review.