🔒Icelandic firm sets up ‘tapering clinic’ in Maine

A clinic headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland, has launched a location at 225 Gorham Road in South Portland.

Prescriby Health provides personalized tapering plans to help patients comfortably reduce or taper off prescription drugs — such as opioids, benzodiazepines, sleep medications and anti-depressants — to avoid addiction and dependence.

The plans are designed to avoid painful withdrawal symptoms.

“We think it’s that important to your well-being overall that it deserves its own clinical space,” Jennifer Monti, a Portland-based cardiologist serving as advisor for the launch of the South Portland location, told Mainebiz.

Monti is part of the Roux Institute Future of Healthcare Residency.

Personalized plans

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control first issued tapering guidelines in 2016. The guidelines include considerations such as pain management, behavior support and individualized tapering rates.

Prescriby was founded by Kjartan Thorsson and opened in Reykjavik in November 2024. Since then, the company has helped nearly 900 patients discontinue prescription use and has an 88.2% success rate, according to a fact sheet.

The U.S. operation is led by COO Jack Auer, Monti and Dr. David Kispert, the Portland-based medical director.

Response plans typically focus on treatment and distribution of naloxone, a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. There is also medication assistance treatment, such as methadone or suboxone.

By contrast, Prescriby addresses prevention by helping people avoid long-term dependence before it starts and escalates, the company said. It provides medical supervision, personalized tapering plans and ongoing support to help patients reach their goals.

Maine tie

Prescriby identified Maine as a location for its second clinic through a “Nordic Health Hackathon” in Iceland in 2019, sponsored by the Maine International Trade Center.

Thorsson won the grand prize for personalized tapering plans for patients. Thorsson learned about opportunities in Maine through the hackathon. As Prescriby launched in Iceland and explored opportunities to scale up abroad, Maine emerged as an ideal location.

Through connections with MITC and Maine’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, including the Roux Institute, Thorsson met Monti and Kispert.

Rare specialty

It took about half a year to find the right location, Monti said. Considerations included public transportation and infrastructure so patients could reach the clinic.

In addition to Kispert as medical director, the practice includes a nurse practitioner, Christina Solak-Goodwin.  The practice is building a referral network and recently scheduled its first patient. It is an approved provider in Maine with Medicare, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

Patient capacity will start at roughly 20 per day, but could grow as providers are brought on, Monti said.

“I think there’s a lot of demand,” she said.

The use of tapering plans and the prevalence of tapering services is rare, she said.

“We haven’t found another company with a brick-and-mortar presence credentialed with insurance in this region,” she said.

“There’s a science to tapering,” she added.