Will I have to start opioid therapy from scratch if I switch from Sublocade to Buvidal?

No. A transition between long-acting buprenorphine formulations is a dose-equivalence conversation with your GP, not a restart of treatment. Both Sublocade and Buvidal deliver buprenorphine depot by injection — the main differences are the frequency, the buprenorphine concentration, and the delivery device. Your prescribing GP will work out the appropriate Buvidal dose and frequency based on your current Sublocade dose and your clinical situation. The goal is continuity of effect, not a cold transition.

What if neither Buvidal nor oral buprenorphine suits me — are there other options?

Methadone is the other PBS-subsidised opioid agonist therapy, administered as a daily supervised oral liquid dose through approved dosing points (typically a pharmacy). It suits people whose circumstances or preferences differ from those suited by buprenorphine formulations. Your GP can discuss whether a trial of Buvidal or a referral for methadone consideration is the right path, depending on your history and what's driven your preference for Sublocade.

Sublocade is leaving the PBS by December — and patients need a plan now

What just happened

Indivior, the pharmaceutical company behind Sublocade, has announced it will withdraw the product from the Australian PBS by 31 December 2026. The company has described this as a commercial decision, with reports suggesting it may be linked to shifts in US drug pricing policy.

Sublocade is a once-monthly subcutaneous buprenorphine depot injection — a long-acting formulation of buprenorphine delivered by injection rather than as a daily sublingual tablet or film. It sits alongside Buvidal (from Camurus, available in weekly and monthly formulations) as one of only two PBS-subsidised long-acting injectable buprenorphine products available in Australia.

For patients currently stable on Sublocade, this is the situation: a medication that is working, that they chose partly because it works for them, is being removed from the market. The clinical consequence is a forced transition within a six-month window — not because of safety concerns, and not because something better has emerged, but because a commercial calculation was made elsewhere.

Addiction medicine specialist Dr. Hester Wilson has described some patients as clearly preferring Sublocade over Buvidal — noting the formulations differ in dose delivery, frequency, and clinical feel. GPs, she says, are now in a position of managing patient distress while facilitating a transition they did not initiate.

The both-and

”There’s still Buvidal — people just switch”

This is the frame that is easiest to default to, and it misses something important.

Long-acting buprenorphine injections exist precisely because daily oral dosing does not suit every patient. The reasons vary: supervised consumption requirements, cognitive load of daily adherence, preference for a less frequent clinical touchpoint, or individual pharmacokinetic response. Patients on depot formulations are often there because alternatives were tried and did not achieve the same stability.

A transition from Sublocade to Buvidal is not equivalent to a generic substitution. Buvidal comes in weekly and monthly formulations, at different concentrations and injection volumes. The clinical adjustment is manageable — but it requires a consultation, a dose calculation, a period of monitoring, and patient confidence that the switch will hold. For someone who is stable and who chose this formulation for a reason, being told that reason no longer matters commercially is not a neutral experience.

”Six months is plenty of time”

The six-month window is a clinical planning window, not a waiting window. Starting the transition conversation in December is not the same as starting it now.

GP prescribers in opioid treatment programs are managing workload, access, waiting times, and continuity of care constraints that do not simply dissolve because a deadline has been announced. Early planning — including reviewing which of your patients are on Sublocade, flagging the transition in their clinical records, and booking a conversation before the backlog grows — is how a six-month window stays manageable.

For patients, the advice is the same in the other direction: the transition is more likely to go smoothly when it is not rushed. A conversation in July is categorically different from a conversation in November.

2 cents

If you are stable on Sublocade, the most important thing you can do this week is book an appointment specifically to discuss the transition. Not because it is urgent in an emergency sense, but because your GP needs to start the planning now — reviewing your dose history, understanding what has made Sublocade the right formulation for you, and working out whether Buvidal weekly, Buvidal monthly, or another pathway best preserves what is working.

The six-month window sounds long. In opioid treatment programs, it is not.

Medication-assisted treatment for opioid dependence works. The evidence for this is robust and consistent. What is being removed is one specific formulation that some patients prefer — not the class, not the principle, and not the access pathway. That context is worth holding while navigating the transition, even when the transition is legitimately frustrating.

Dr. Wilson put the clinical ask plainly: “start planning for this.” That is the right frame. And part of planning is making sure your GP knows that you are on Sublocade, what it has meant for your stability, and that you want to make a considered transition — not a rushed one.

Verdict: yes — the withdrawal is confirmed, the timeline is fixed, and the planning conversation needs to start now for anyone currently on Sublocade.

Sources cited

Medical Republic — ‘Commercial decision’ to withdraw opioid addiction treatment. https://www.medicalrepublic.com.au/commercial-decision-to-withdraw-opioid-addiction-treatment/127002