Indivior, a company that produces treatments for opioid addiction such as Suboxone and Sublocade, is currently discussing with shareholders about transferring its main stock listing to the US this year. This move is seen as another setback for London’s status as a leading global financial hub.
“The CEO of Indivior, Mark Crossley, has announced plans to start discussions with shareholders about potentially shifting to a primary listing in the US by 2024, while still maintaining a secondary listing in the UK.”
Despite the UK government’s attempts to entice and maintain companies within the country, there have been several recent occurrences of companies choosing not to go public or delisting from the London Stock Exchange, the most recent being one of them.
The previous week, Tui, a travel company from England and Germany, announced that it would no longer have a listing in London. This decision came after the majority of shareholders voted for a single listing in Frankfurt. According to the chief financial officer, Mathias Kiep, there has been a change in the amount of trading activity from London to Frankfurt.
Arm, a chip designing company based in Cambridge and owned by SoftBank in Japan, chose to be listed on Nasdaq in New York last year, along with other technology companies. This was seen as a rejection of the efforts made by Rishi Sunak’s government to convince Arm to list in London.
Indivior makes most of its revenue in the US, but the switch in its listing could prove a setback for its British business, which has historically been the home of its pharmaceutical research.
In 2023, Indivior experienced a 21% increase in net revenue thanks to the success of its Sublocade and Perseris medications. Additionally, the company has expanded its range of potential treatments for substance use disorders. On Thursday, Indivior announced an adjusted operating profit of $269 million (£213 million) for the previous year, marking a 27% rise from 2022.
Sublocade is a medication that is administered via injection and is prescribed for treating opioid addiction in adults, in conjunction with counseling. In contrast, Perseris is used for treating schizophrenia in adults.
Indivior, along with its previous parent company Reckitt Benckiser, a consumer goods company that it separated from in 2014, was involved in a legal battle in the high court of London last year. The lawsuit accused them of misleading marketing of Suboxone, but it was dismissed in December.
The Wirral council, located in north-west England, had intended to file a collective lawsuit on behalf of numerous investors. They claimed that Indivior had planned to transition the market for Suboxone from tablets to a dissolvable film placed under the tongue, right before the US patent expired. Both Reckitt and Indivior have denied these accusations.
The Wirral council stated that when Indivior faced charges in the US in 2019 for their involvement in the opioid crisis, it caused their market value to decrease by £550m. However, in a ruling by Judge Michael Green, it was determined that Wirral could not represent the company and the claims should be dismissed.
Pass over the advertisement for the newsletter.
after newsletter promotion
In 2019, the US Department of Justice accused Indivior of falsely advertising Suboxone film as superior and safer than other similar medications.
In July 2019, Reckitt made an agreement to pay a $1.4 billion penalty to resolve the case without admitting any wrongdoing. In 2020, Indivior admitted to making a false statement about healthcare matters in 2012 and stated that it will pay a total of $600 million over seven years to federal and state authorities.
In 2020, Shaun Thaxter, who was previously the CEO of Indivior, received a six-month prison sentence for confessing to his involvement in a plan to deceive officials about the risks of Suboxone film in order to obtain Medicaid coverage for it.
Crossley took over for Thaxter, who had previously been the company’s chief financial and operations officer and had been with the company since 2017.
Source: theguardian.com
