The US-based manufacturer Indivior will soon withdraw its anti-addictive medicines Subutex and Suboxone from the Swedish market. The company also plans to exit from four other European countries.
Last week, the US-based and Nasdaq-listed Indivior, which develops the two medicines used to treat opioid use disorder, abruptly informed Swedish healthcare providers it would stop selling these products in Sweden. It also notified the Swedish Medical Agency (MPA) of their withdrawal.
In a letter to the care providers, the company wrote that it has recently conducted a strategic review of its operations outside the United States and that, “after exploring several options, has decided to discontinue support for operations outside its priority markets.”
Speaking to Euractiv, the Swedish Minister for Social Affairs, Jakob Forssmed, who has pharmaceuticals in his portfolio, expressed concern.
“Swedish authorities have a mandate to work against shortages and residual situations. This is a typical example of a shortage situation when medicines disappear in this way,” he said, adding that this is also related to US pressure tactics.
MPA Blindsided
In its third-quarter report for 2025, the company stated that it also plans to withdraw from the U.K., Ireland, Finland, and Italy.
Its subsidiary Indivior Europe Limited, which is the market authorisation holder in Sweden, has its head office in Dublin.
“The company has told us that Subutex will not be sold in Sweden after January 12, 2026, and Suboxone not after December 15, 2025,” Eva Pettersson, group manager at the Department of Medicine Availability at the Swedish MPA, told Euractiv.
The agency was caught off guard by the notification, having received no advance signals from the manufacturer. It will now analyse the situation and start a dialogue with the manufacturer to persuade them to continue selling these products in Sweden.
Replacement therapies concern
The Subutex depot injection, in particular, could be more difficult to replace, as it is a long-acting injection that releases the drug slowly over time, helping many patients with drug addiction as they only need to take it once a month.
The Suboxone product is listed as a critical medicine product by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare.
“There is another approved preparation that is used for the same indication, but it is not directly interchangeable. Doctors will have to make individual reviews,” Pettersson told Euractiv.
“I was very surprised, as this is a type of treatment that has become quite popular and is the latest drug to be approved. Suddenly, it disappears”, Joar Guterstam, an addiction specialist at the Karolinska University hospital and a researcher in addiction medicine at the Karolinska Institutet, told Aftonbladet.
Guterstam calls the withdrawal “an emergency” and says doctors must now rethink their priorities and “quickly try out alternatives for the patients”.
Forssmed noted that this case represents a typical example of a shortage when medicines suddenly disappear from the market. He did, however, point to the US administration’s trade strategy as a means of pressure.
“We are now seeing rapid changes in the pharmaceutical sector as American policy really affects the pharmaceutical market in Europe. This is very worrying for us, and we need to work faster in this area,” he told Euractiv.
Complex system
Forssmed also admitted that the Swedish pharmaceutical system needs improvement as it is very complex. “This is something we need to work on, and work on quickly. However, I think that we should be cautious and not read too much into this individual decision. But it is clearly worrying,” he said.
Bengt Mattson, senior advisor at LIF (the Swedish Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies), told Euractiv that he cannot comment on a single case. However, in a general remark, he noted that “There will always be situations in global competition where companies may prioritise one market over another.”
Mattson explained, “It is not unreasonable to believe that companies could be influenced in such prioritisations by the US administration’s initiative on tariffs and the Most Favoured Nation campaign, which aims to see lower prices for medicines in the US. This will most likely have consequences on the market”.
Euractiv asked Indivior’s media officials for comments, but the drug manufacturer had not responded at the time of writing.
[VA, BM]
