International research creates opportunities for new cancer treatments

In line with a strategic choice Orion made a few years ago, the company is focusing its medicine development efforts on cancer and pain medicines.  
 
“These medicines have great potential to address diseases still lacking effective therapies,” says Outi Vaarala,  Executive Vice President, Innovative Medicines and R&D.
 
Orion currently has two cancer medicines in the clinical phase and is advancing their development with partners.  
 
“One is darolutamide, which we are continuing to develop with Bayer for new subtypes of prostate cancer. And then there’s opevesostat, also for prostate cancer, which we have licensed to MSD.”  
 
There are also other cancer drugs in the development pipeline. Vaarala sees potential in the ODM-212 molecule, still in early clinical development, for example.  
 
“It shows promise across several types of solid tumours. We hope to have it in the second stage of clinical trials next year.”  
 

In the near future, Orion will have new molecules in the pre-clinical phase in immuno-oncology. Vaarala is pleased with the progress being made.  
 
“We only started this line of research six years ago and it’s pretty great that we’ll soon reach clinical trials with these medicines.”  

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We are now on a path of strong international expansion.

Next steps: biological medicines 

Another big step is the development of biological medicines.  
 
“It was also less than ten years ago that this was started in Finland. This spring, we moved operations to Cambridge and opened a research and development unit there. This is really important for us, and we expect to have biological medicines in clinical trials within 18 months,” says Vaarala. 
 
In 2023, Orion also opened a small research unit in the US.  
 
“We need to do clinical development for the US market on the ground. This is also a way to build cooperation with local stakeholders.” 
 
Summing up the direction of Orion’s research activities, Vaarala says:  
 
“We are now on a path of strong international expansion. Our development work has also expanded from medicinal molecules to biological medicines and other modalities. We are operating on the principle that we develop medicines to completion.”