Drug approval is shot in the arm for pharma firm

ShareS in Indivior shot up after its ground-breaking addiction medicine was approved by US regulators.

Shares surged 3pc, or 11.2p, to 382p after the US Food and Drug administration gave its Sublocade treatment the green light.

The medicine is used to treat patients with moderate to severe addiction to opioids – strong painkillers – and is the only injectable drug of its kind.

Demand for drugs that treat opioid abuse is particularly high in the US, where nearly 12m are hooked and an average four people die from an overdose every hour.

Last month President Donald Trump declared opioid misuse a national public health emergency and on Thursday announced that he had donated his third-quarter salary – of about £74,000 – to the Department of health and human Services to help tackle the crisis.

Sublocade is expected to be available to patients in early 2018. It will have a black-box warning – the strictest warning put in the labelling of prescription drugs – and distribution will be limited to prevent self- administration. Patients must also use other therapies for at least seven days before switching to it.

Shaun Thaxter, chief executive, said: ‘Sublocade is a scientific innovation that represents a new treatment option to help patients attain more illicit opioid- free weeks during their treatment.’

Leading the pack for the biggest fallers on the FTSE 250 was housebuilder Countryside after its largest shareholder sold around £230m worth of shares.

Private equity firm Oaktree Capital sold a 15pc stake of 67.5m shares in the company at 340p each – a 7pc discount to Thursday’s closing price of 364.5p, amid strong demand.

The shares were sold through an accelerated bookbuild – where they are offered for a short period with little to no marketing.

Oaktree will retain just under 36.2m shares, representing a stake of around 8pc.

It is the second major shareholder to sell a significant stake this year, and comes after richard and Graham Cherry, the sons of alan Cherry who founded the firm in 1958, offloaded nearly £36m worth back in June.

Countryside has enjoyed a stellar year and posted rising full-year profits last month after capitalising on Government support for first-time buyers.

Profit in the year to the end of September increased 34pc to £164.1m while sales were up 32pc to £1bn on the year before.

Completions increased by 28pc to 3,389 and the company hiked its dividend per share to 8.4p from 3.4p. But Oaktree’s sell off took a toll on shares, which finished down 7.3pc, or 26.5p, at 338p.

The FTSE 100 finished down 0.4pc, or 26.18 points, at 7300.49 points yesterday, while the FTSe 250 finished 0.5pc lower, or 98.49 points, at 19854.4.

Meanwhile analysts at Deutsche Bank upgraded miner Anglo

American’s rating from ‘sell’ to ‘hold’, which sent shares up 1.8pc, or 25p, to 1384p.

Royal Mail wasn’t so lucky, however. It dropped 3.9pc, or 17.3p, to 424.6p after the German bank downgraded its shares and reduced its price target.

Deutsche said it expects royal Mail’s operating environment to become ‘ even more challenging over the next 12 months’.

Deutsche cut its recommendation from ‘ hold’ to ‘ sell’ and reduced its price target from 450p to 359p.

analysts at Jefferies also reiterated their ‘ underperform’ rating on the group and slashed the price target to 300p from 330p.