Competition in the Finnish pharmaceutical market kept heating up. Orion’s 1988 Annual Report tells about a product rationalisation programme jointly agreed by the Finnish pharmaceutical industry, whereby over 200 products were withdrawn from the market. The industry also agreed on focusing on selected indication areas with a view to honing international competitiveness. Orion ceased the manufacture and marketing of  solutions and irrigation fluids. The Annual Report states that the company consolidated its position in heart arrhythmia, psychiatry, enteral nutrition, penicillin and certain over-the-counter products. Farmos – in which Orion had acquired a majority stake in 1988 – in turn bolstered its position in cancer and epilepsy drugs as well as infusions and irrigation fluids.

Rolling out proprietary drugs

Research began to bear fruit in the 1970s. Farmos synthesised a new molecule in 1979, codenamed MPV207, which had been observed to lower blood pressure highly effectively. The downside was that it caused severe fatigue. All that hard work seemed to have gone down the drain. However, MPV207 turned out to be excellent for use in the sedation of animals. Development was started up, leading to marketing authorisation for the successful drugs Domosedan® (detomidine), Domitor® (medetomidine) and their reversal, Antisedan® (atipamezole). From the same platform, Orion initiated the development of a drug for human use, leading to dexmedetomidine, a sedative for patients in intensive care that was named Precedex®.

In 1987, Orion initiated Phase I clinical trials on nitecapone, a COMT enzyme inhibiting molecule studied for Parkinson’s disease. At around that time, Orion’s researchers showed that cardiac muscle contractility can be increased by sensitising troponin C – the calcium receptor of the cardiac muscle – to calcium. The groundwork had been done for the heart failure drug levosimendan, which was given the trade name Simdax®.

As is often the case in pharmaceutical research, the developed molecule does not always function as expected. Due to insufficient efficacy, nitecapone had to be replaced in the early stages of clinical research with a new molecule, entacapone. However, research indicated that nitecapone provided good protection for the cells of the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract – the research goal was shifted to the gastroprotective impact of nitecapone independent of acid secretion. However, nitecapone development was halted during Phase II clinical trials because it was not efficacious enough. On the other hand, entacapone development continued, yielding Orion’s first human proprietary drugs with substantial sales figures, the Parkinson’s drugs Comtess®/Comtan®, launched in 1998, and Stalevo®, brought to market in 2003. 

Exports get under way

Orion started up small-scale pharmaceutical exports at the end of the 1960s, but the spearhead was Uricult®, a urinary tract infection test that is still included in Orion Diagnostica’s product range. Also Fermion’s business was already based largely on exports. However, the company did not have confidence in the export possibilities of pharmaceuticals until the mid-1970s. Nevertheless, exports had to be kicked off due to the small size of the domestic market. The initial target markets were the CMEA and Nordic countries. Pharmaceutical exports to the Soviet Union were initiated as part of bilateral trade. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, they peaked at close to FIM 100 million in 1985. In 1974, exports and foreign subsidiaries accounted for about five per cent of the net sales of the diversified Orion – ten years later, they generated a quarter.

The company began to make a concerted effort to step up exports of drugs to western European markets in 1977. It was then that Orion’s subsidiary in Switzerland, Interorion AG, acquired the Ercopharm company in Denmark. Ercopharm also operated in Sweden and Norway. Denmark had already joined the European Union (then the European Community) in 1973, and this acquisition gave Orion a beachhead into the pharmaceutical markets of Central Europe and the Nordic countries. It also opened up better opportunities for new inlicensed products.

As exports grew, the company established a dedicated unit, Orion Pharma International. In 1995, the net sales from international pharmaceutical operations amounted to FIM 869 million, or about EUR 168 million.

Thanks to Orion’s proprietary drugs, exports began to surge. By 2000, the net sales generated by Orion’s  international pharmaceutical operations had already risen to EUR 261 million, representing 58 per cent of net sales. Proprietary products accounted for seven per cent of Orion’s net sales in 1995 – five years later, this figure had soared to 28 per cent. As proprietary drugs gained ground, the company started partnering up with other pharmaceutical companies. This cooperation has become increasingly important.

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