Indivior changes CEO after warning sales will fall in 2025

UK-listed pharma company Indivior has appointed pharma veteran Joe Ciaffoni as its new chief executive, replacing Mark Crossley.

Indivior, which focuses on treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD), said that Crossley had had a "distinguished tenure" as CEO since taking the role in June 2020, but will be stepping down after a handover period and will also no longer hold a position on its board. 

Crossley is expected to stay in the role until after the company's annual general meeting in May.

The change in leadership comes shortly after Indivior warned that it is expecting a sharp decline in its revenues in 2025, despite seeing 9% sales growth last year to almost $1.2 billion. That was driven by its buprenorphine-based opioid withdrawal product Sublocade, which contributed $756 million of that total.

This year, however, competition in the US is expected to peg back sales growth, with Indivior expecting to make around the same revenues from the drug as last year.

At the same time, it is predicting a swift falloff in sales of older OUD therapy Suboxone Film (sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone) – potentially a 50% decline – and will also discontinue Perseris (risperidone), its once-monthly schizophrenia drug.

Ciaffoni – who has been an independent director of Indivior since December - has more than 30 years of experience in pharma and biotech, having most recently served as president and CEO of Massachusetts, US-based Collegium Pharmaceutical, which he left in May 2024. Prior to that, he held senior positions at Endo International, Biogen, and Shionogi.

At Indivior, he will be charged with fulfilling the target of driving Sublocade sales to a target of $1.5 billion a year – which could be helped by FDA approval of new labelling that could help enhance uptake – and building sales for other new products, including nasal opioid reversal drug Opvee (nalmefene), which competes with Emergent BioSolutions’ Narcan and Hikma Pharma’s Kloxxado, but has so far struggled to build momentum in the market. Opvee revenues came in at $15 million last year.

Indivior's chair, David Wheadon, said that Ciaffoni is "an accomplished leader with a strong track record of delivering positive outcomes for patients while generating shareholder value. He has a clear mandate to fuel the next stage of Indivior's growth and deliver on the company's significant potential and we look forward to supporting his success as CEO."