Orion Corporation announced its plans to shift focus to new proprietary drugs in oncology and pain, expecting to cut 37 jobs.
Orion President and CEO Timo Lappalainen/Courtesy Talouselämä
Finland’s Orion Corporation announced that it is shifting the focus of its R&D programs, with plans to invest in new proprietary drugs in oncology and pain. In that regard, it is shifting away from efforts on rare and neurodegenerative diseases. As part of this restructuring, it expects to cut up to 37 jobs.
Oncology has been one of the company’s three core therapy areas. It is collaborating with Bayer on darolutamide, a drug that is at the global launch stage. Another is ODM-208, which has demonstrated positive results in the clinic for prostate cancer.
“Research in cancer diseases and pain management are very active fields where a lot of good results are being produced,” Outi Vaarala, M.D., Ph.D., Orion’s senior vice president, R&D, said. “There is still much to be achieved in these fields from the point of view of patients. With the planned changes, we want to concentrate investment in research and development on proprietary drugs in these therapy areas.”
Otherwise, the company plans to phase out funding into neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and rare diseases by the fall of 2022. It also plans to evaluate its inhaled pulmonary drugs in early-phase development. It is currently working on a new inhaled tiotropium formulation for pulmonary indications in the European market, with an ongoing bioequivalence study. It also has its Easyhaler portfolio, which will lean on going forward.
The company also plans to develop several new generic drugs internally and in partnerships. Orion also has a healthy R&D program for veterinary drugs it plans to continue.
The company intends to initiate negotiations under the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings, a Finnish labor law, regarding 430 salaries staffers and senior salaried employees in Finland in Espoo, Turku and Kuopio in the research areas they’re discontinuing, primarily neurodegenerative and rare diseases. They hope to transfer most of these people to cancer and pain research. They hope that, at most, they will only need to eliminate 37 positions, with some reductions made via retirement, part-time work and training opportunities.
The company’s 2021 annual report reported annual net sales of 1.041 billion Euros, down 3.4% from the previous year’s figure of 1.078 billion Euros.
Timo Lappalainen, Orion’s president and chief executive officer, stated, “In 2021, Orion and its employees performed well again as the COVID-19 pandemic continued and affected our operating environment in many ways. Our primary goals have been looking after the health and safety of our employees, ensuring production continuity and product availability, and safeguarding patient safety in ongoing clinical trials.”
He added that net sales were slightly lower and operating profit marginally lower for the year, but it was anticipated and primarily the result of three factors: “The milestone payments that were clearly smaller than in the comparison period, a drop in the sales of Dexdor and Simdax owing to the expiration of their product protection, and the expiration of a significant distribution agreement for veterinary drugs in the previous year. In other respects, the business achieved a strong development in many areas, thereby mitigating the anticipated decline in consolidated net sales and operating profit. Excluding milestone payments, our operating profit was on par with the previous year.”
The Animal Health unit saw an increase of 20%. Still, its Easyhaler portfolio showed a drop from pandemic-related restrictions in the first half of the year but had an excellent second half. The sales of Simdax “exceeded expectations, as the product did not yet face direct generic competition … in most markets in 2021.”
Orion projected 2022 net sales to be similar to 2021, with similar operating profit.
