Just seven weeks after projecting an 18% revenue boost for this year, Indivior has slashed its estimate to an 8% increase, citing competitive pressures for its opioid addiction treatment Sublocade and “payor dynamics” for its schizophrenia drug Perseris.
The Richmond, Virginia-based company will discontinue sales of Perseris, despite it achieving a sales increase of 50% last year to $42 million. The grounding of Perseris will save the company $50 million, Indivior said, as it will lay off approximately 130 staffers.
The company also revealed it will pay $85 million to resolve an antitrust case which was set to go to trial on July 15. It is another in a series of settlements Indivior has paid over the last several years to resolve antitrust and aggressive marketing claims.
As for the company’s top-selling product Sublocade, Indivior has dropped its 2024 sales projection from $820 million to $880 million to a window of $765 million to $805 million. Last year, Sublocade generated $630 million in revenue for a 54% year-over-year increase.
Accordingly, Indivior has sliced its overall 2024 revenue estimate from $1.24 billion to $1.33 billion to a new range of $1.15 billion to $1.22 billion.
With Tuesday’s business update, Indivior’s share price has dropped by 33%.
“We are taking decisive action that we believe is in the best interest of shareholders,” Indivior CEO Mark Crowley said in a release.
Crowley added that “increased payor management” made Perseris’ “future no longer financially viable.”
Meanwhile, new competition from Camurus’ extended-release opioid use disorder treatment Brixadi has cut into the sales of Sublocade. Another factor negatively affecting sales has been the “elimination of COVID emergency measures related to automatic Medicaid coverage renewals,” Crowley said.
The company also is counting on its new opioid overdose medicine, Opvee, a nasal spray which was approved 14 months ago after holding its own against Emergent’s market leader naloxone in a head-to-head study. Indivior gained Opvee in a 2023 acquisition of Opiant for $145 million.