Growth is based on a competitive product portfolio developed through Orion’s in-house R&D, collaborative research and active product acquisition. Potential corporate acquisitions are also continually evaluated.
Orion’s core therapy areas are central nervous system drugs, oncology and critical care drugs, and inhalable Easyhaler® pulmonary drugs. Orion’s R&D operations concentrate on early-phase research. In addition to in-house research, Orion invests in early-phase R&D jointly with universities and other pharmaceutical companies. In the late phase of clinical development, Orion aims to share the costs with other pharmaceutical companies. Orion generally seeks partnerships for undertaking at least Phase III clinical trials, which are the final phase, especially for projects outside Europe. Orion also seeks to purchase new product candidates and further developed products to reinforce the research pipeline based on its own research projects.
In recent years Orion has worked to build up a competitive product portfolio. As regards Proprietary Products customers, the focus is on neurologists, urologists, pulmonary doctors, critical care doctors and other health care professionals in these specialised fields. For Specialty Products, important customer groups in Finland, for example, are general doctors and pharmacy staff. Orion’s primary aim is to exploit all business opportunities from the drugs in the current product portfolio, such as Stalevo®, Simdax® and the Easyhaler product family. Orion’s next projects in late-phase development and commercialisation are launching the intensive care sedative dexmedetomidine in European markets, development of inhalable Easyhaler combined formulation products and development of the Parkinson’s drug Stalevo for Japanese markets. Orion also aims to ensure continuity of clinical trials through active early-phase research.
To be successful in the generic (i.e. off-patent) prescription drug and self-care product sector, it is especially important to have a broad and continually renewed portfolio. Orion seeks to secure a continuous stream of product launches through active product acquisition and its own development work. Orion determines the product portfolios individually for each market. The Company continues to strive for growth, especially through expanding the self-care product portfolio in the Nordic countries. In Eastern Europe, for example Russia, Orion’s product portfolio focuses on generic prescription drugs in certain therapy areas.