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Orion Oyj B reported robust financial results for the first quarter of 2025, with net sales reaching €354.6 million, a 15% year-over-year increase, surpassing the revenue forecast of €347.02 million. The company’s stock responded positively, rising 4.46% in market trading, reflecting investor confidence in Orion’s growth trajectory and strategic initiatives. According to InvestingPro data, the company maintains a "GREAT" financial health score, with strong profitability metrics and robust cash flows that sufficiently cover interest payments.
Key Takeaways
- Orion’s Q1 2025 net sales of €354.6 million exceeded forecasts.
- Operating profit soared by 39% year-over-year, enhancing profit margins.
- Innovative Medicines division recorded a remarkable 70.4% growth.
- The stock price increased by 4.46% following the earnings announcement.
- Continued investment in R&D and geographical expansion are key focus areas.
Company Performance
Orion demonstrated significant growth in the first quarter of 2025, with net sales increasing by 15% compared to the previous year. This growth was driven by strong performance across its divisions, particularly in Innovative Medicines, which saw a 70.4% increase. The company also reported a 39% rise in operating profit, reflecting improved profitability and operational efficiency. With a strong return on equity of 35% and a gross profit margin of 61.36%, Orion continues to demonstrate operational excellence. InvestingPro subscribers can access 10+ additional key metrics and insights about Orion’s financial performance.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: €354.6 million, up 15% year-over-year.
- Operating Profit: €78 million, a 39% increase from the previous year.
- Divisional Growth: Innovative Medicines grew by 70.4%; Branded Products contributed €68 million.
Earnings vs. Forecast
Orion’s Q1 2025 revenue of €354.6 million exceeded the forecast of €347.02 million, marking a significant achievement for the company. Although specific EPS figures were not provided, the overall financial performance suggests a positive earnings surprise.
Market Reaction
Following the earnings release, Orion’s stock price increased by 4.46%, reflecting investor optimism. The stock’s movement positions it closer to its 52-week high of €65.72, indicating strong market confidence in the company’s growth strategy and financial health. According to InvestingPro analysis, Orion appears slightly undervalued based on its Fair Value calculation, while maintaining a 19-year streak of consistent dividend payments with a current yield of 3.45%.
Outlook & Guidance
Orion maintains a positive outlook for 2025, with net sales projected between €1,550 million and €1,650 million and operating profit expected to range from €350 million to €450 million. The company plans to continue its R&D investments and pipeline development, with a Capital Markets Day scheduled for May 22 to discuss future strategies.
Executive Commentary
CEO Lisa Huromme emphasized the company’s growth across all business segments, stating, "All our four businesses created growth." She also highlighted the importance of patient safety and quality in the pharmaceutical industry, reinforcing Orion’s commitment to innovation and excellence.
Risks and Challenges
- The decline in Fermion’s external sales could impact overall revenue.
- Potential U.S. import tariffs on Nubeqa could affect international sales.
- Continued R&D investment may pressure short-term margins, although it supports long-term growth.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the potential impact of U.S. import tariffs on Nubeqa, the costs associated with the new R&D facility, and the growth potential in the CNS portfolio. These discussions underscored the company’s strategic focus on managing external risks while pursuing innovation and expansion.
Full transcript - Orion Oyj B (ORNBV) Q1 2025:
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Orion’s earnings conference call and webcast for the financial period of January 2025. My name is Duca Hirvonen. I am the Head of IR here at Orion. In a few moments, as you know, we will start this event with CEO, Lisa Huromme’s presentation, after which you will have the possibility to ask questions from her and also from our CFO, Mr. Rene Lindell.
We will be first taking questions through the conference call lines and then you also have the possibility to send in your questions through the webcast question form. We kindly ask you to present the company organization you are representing before asking your question. And just before letting Lisa step in, just a reminder about the disclaimer regarding forward looking statements. And with this, it’s my pleasure to hand over to Lisa.
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Thank you, Tukka, and good afternoon on my behalf as well, and welcome to Orion quarter one twenty twenty five webcast. I’ll start with some highlights from our first quarter. I’m happy to tell that all our four businesses created growth and the fifth one Fermion didn’t grow, but I will explain a bit about that later on. Also our geographic expansion and R and D capabilities program is progressing and we have opened an R and D site in Cambridge in purpose of strengthening our pharmaceutical development for biologics. Also there is a new key project in our clinical pipeline.
This Phase III is on levocement done for a pulmonary hypertension in certain specific patient segment. And this Phase three is carried out by Tenax Therapeutics in United States. On financials, the quarter one was excellent. Net sales grew 15% and our operating profit grew 39%. And also operating profit margin improved from last year’s quarter one.
Cash flow decreased to some extent mainly due to timing of royalty payments and some milestone payments Our net sales bridge looks a bit different than previously. If you remember earlier, we had net sales based on some of our biggest products and now we have divided our net sales picture based on our divisions. Now it’s easier to follow-up how each division is doing and what which divisions are creating growth and or more or less growth since all four human divisions and Animal Health is creating all three human divisions and Animal Health is creating growth. So Innovative Medicines, fourteen forty point four million in quarter one brandy products €6,800,000 and Generics one million euros and Animal Health three point three million euros of growth.
Fermion, as I already said, was not developing positively, but let’s remember that this is only external sales. And then there are some internal translations between other operations in Orion, which are very marginal here €400,000,000 But all this ended up 3 and €54,600,000 of net sales in quarter one. Operating profit bridge is pretty much the same as earlier, but we’ve made it a bit clearer with our text. So the first column here 13,700,000 points to the change in volumes. So this is the euros that the volume increase has created this much growth.
Then the second one includes the change that comes from changes of prices, course and product mix. So slight decrease there by €5,600,000 And then the third one is the effect of exchange rate on our gross margin. Fourth one royalties, clearly the biggest contributor here and the fifth one milestones compared to the last year’s first quarter a bit of minus there. And then other operating income and expenses. And then number seven here on the column seven, you can see the fixed costs, which is mainly sales and marketing costs in quarter one.
And all this ended up to close to €78,000,000 in operating profit during first quarter. Now I turn to Innovative Medicines, seventy point four percent growth here, which is almost created almost €100,000,000 sales in first quarter. So we didn’t yet break that €100,000,000 per quarter. And here in the right hand side, you can see a clear this phenomenon of back end loaded financial year in Innovative Medicines. You can see how the year ended in quarter four twenty twenty four with €152,000,000 actually.
And now we started with 92% on the first quarter. And then but you can clearly see that there is a huge growth compared to the quarter one. So no worries if there is a change downwards from the last quarter of the previous year. We’ve explained this earlier that the royalty rate really gets higher and higher during the year as certain sales in euros are exceeded. Also you can see here that the tablets that we deliver to Bayer reached at all time high number €38,000,000 Branded products almost 10% of growth.
And here you can also see a different type of a split here. We talk about CNS not specific products. And we can see that respiratory business is clearly the biggest one here and CNS business back on a growth track represents 30% of the branded products. And eSiHaler, the whole portfolio grew 8% and the combination of budesonide and Formotelor continued strong growth with almost 15%. And after a long time, entacapone you will see that on the top 10 list, but CNS sales grew 5.7% partly and mainly because of entacapone sales in Japan, but also because of some minor new products that are in that portfolio.
Generics and Consumer Health, almost 1% of growth, a wonderful achievement in that portfolio. And here the split geographically is so that Finland is the biggest single geography for generics and consumer health, Scandinavia the second biggest and then Eastern Europe. And to reach this almost 1% growth, one of the main drivers was actually Scandinavia. This time we were able to supply products that other companies were not able to supply in certain Scandinavian markets, which again shows and proves the excellent service level that we have in our generics business. Animal Health, strong plus 10% of growth.
It was a bit lower sales although, slower than last year, but still on a very good level in general in Animal Health business. And then Fermion, as I already mentioned, declined. But let’s remember, this is only external sales and a majority of the capacity is now bound to our internal own products. Top 10 products, there are pluses and minuses. Plus 85% for Nubeka, Easyhaler eight percent as I already said, Entacapone products plus 6%, Japan contributing to this growth as should be after repatriation from Novartis.
The minus on Dexdomitor animal health sedatives is mainly due to timing of shipments to our partners. So no worries there. There’s been a lot of fluctuation between the quarters lately. And Divina series, meaning mainly our estradiol gel product, 30% growth. I think that’s the after Nubeqa that’s actually our fastest growing product currently.
Burana more or less at par with the previous year’s first quarter. This is very normal. It’s plus or minus 1%, two % depending on the Finnish sales and SIMDUX and DECKS portfolios are sliding down due to generic competition. Trexan again shipments from one quarter to another one. And then a new entrant to this list is really ketiapine products from our generic portfolio.
It has climbed up to our top 10 mainly because the Dex is going down. And I guess we’ll see some of the biggest generics actually entering to this list as Dexter and Cimdex are sliding down. But we do sell ketiapine in all the Nordic countries. And Innovative Medicines almost 30% of the revenues, branded products 22% and generics 37%. And clinical pipeline.
We have here two Phase three projects ongoing with Nubeka. Very familiar to this audience AraNote, which is already in registration phase globally Ara Steppe Phase three, then two projects ongoing with OPEBESOstat, Omaha one and Omaha Two for a different segment or phase of prostate cancer. And then one Phase two study ongoing with opevesostat, which is a continuation from the Phase two study that we used to design the Phase two, Phase three studies that we have here above the SUPIDES study. And ODM-two 12, a new mechanism for cancer treatment for solid tumors in Phase I. And as I last time told, we are expanding that Phase I this year so that we have enough data to choose the right doses for the Phase II study.
In tazipimidine study, our program, we continue with the Phase II this year. We started with the very small Phase 2a and now we are expanding to the full blown Phase two. Then the new entrant, which we could call TNX one hundred and three as Tenax calls it. This is an oral levocimendant. So the molecule is same as in the Simdax product, but that’s an IV product.
This is an oral one and is used to the pulmonary hypertension with patients with heart failure and ejection fraction of certain magnitude, which in this case means that a normal fraction. But these patients suffer of pulmonary hypertension. And this is rather a long story why this popped up in our clinical pipeline and maybe you do have questions regarding to this. But I may shortly and briefly summarize the story, already more than ten years ago, we made a deal with a company called Fuxus at that time, an American company. They wanted to develop oral levocemendan for low cardiac output syndrome.
Unfortunately, that study failed. We still continued collaboration with the same people now in the company called Tenax. And they managed and succeeded in getting finance for this program with level cement done for this indication and this came public March. So this was the right time to bring it also public here in our pipeline as this is our molecule and partner agreement like we have partner agreements with our other with other companies like Bayer, Merck and also smaller companies. Then to a very different subject sustainability and highlights from 2024.
As many companies in Europe, we reported or had our first CSR and D report and that was published in March as part of report by the Board of Directors. This was a huge job and I thank the team for this. I think all the companies have been working a lot to fulfill these European requirements. Pharmaceutical industry is all about patient safety and quality. And in 2024, we conducted two fifty eight audits.
Imagine that means that every week there are approximately five audits. And if you count out Christmas and Easter and all the other holidays and bank holidays, it means that every week there are many groups of people from Oriental visiting other companies checking how those factories are from the quality perspective. And I think this also tells a lot about our external suppliers, how many of those suppliers we have. Then of course environment is another very important aspect. And here we’ve been able to reduce Scope one and Scope two emissions by 21% during this 2024.
And we have a very ambitious target that is explained in our report to until year 02/1930. Safety of our colleagues is also very, very important both in our operations, but in general for all of our colleagues whether they are working in sales, R and D, operations. And to that purpose, we conduct safety discussions, safety sessions where we discuss topics in every other management meeting or team meeting. And you can see here that 72% of our line managers held this kind of a safety session with their team every month. Of course, there might be teams that hold those more often and maybe teams that hold them a bit more seldom.
Our code of conduct was renewed last year. And here you can see that 94% of Orionis have had the code of conduct training last year. And of course, our target is 100%. And in most of the functions, it is 100%. But anybody understands that in a big organizations, big people are coming in new people and going out.
So there is, of course, some limitations to reach full 100%, but that’s definitely our aim because that’s implemented in our starting pack when anybody starts in Orion they need to do the code of conduct training from here on. Our outlook remains the same for this year as we’ve stated in February. So it’s from €1,550,000,000 to €1,650,000,000 regarding net sales and €350,000,000 to €450,000,000 regarding operating profit. We will hold a Capital Markets Day in Helsinki on May 22. So I warmly welcome all of you to attend our Capital Markets Day.
We will share more light and more wider and deeper information on each of our divisions, their product portfolios, current portfolios, divisions and also operations current operations. And here you can see other upcoming events for the rest of this year, the half year financial report in mid July and then finally October 1 ’9 months. And at this point, I thank you for your attention and I think it’s time for questions. So I welcome our CFO, Rene Lindel on stage and Tukka will join us as well.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Thank you, Lisa, for the presentation. And as stated in the beginning of the event that we will first take questions through the conference call line. So at this point, I’d like to hand over to the operator, please.
Conference Operator: The next question comes from Ansi Rousey from
Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: questions and I go one by one. First one is on NUPEKA and its product sales, which were especially strong in Q1. So have you had any discussions with Bayer? Or do you have a view on this if it was a bit of a pre buying to prepare for the possible tariffs? Or if it was just too early to meet strong underlying demand?
Year over year growth was like 113% or something like that in product sales.
Unidentified Analyst: All
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: right. A very good question in this current situation that whether this is related to tariffs. To my understanding, this is not related to tariffs, but really to underlying demand from the markets and patients.
Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Okay. Clear. Thanks. And the second one on your operational expenses. You mentioned in your report that these were lower than you anticipated.
So which items you are referring to? And what explains lower expenses? And also do you expect that these, let’s call them savings are coming back later this year? How do you see this?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Rene, would you like to
Rene Lindell, CFO, Orion: take Yes. I think overall our operating expenses grew year on year if you compare to last year and that is as planned. We’ve added more projects to our R and D early pipeline. We had the biologics there. So of course the costs have increased and also sales and marketing.
We have increased sales force to drive our business, especially in Europe. And of course, there’s also inflation otherwise in across the board. But I think what we referred to is it’s a bit lower than we had anticipated in overall. Sometimes this is typical in the beginning of the year. Not everything starts as you have planned.
And some of those costs are probably coming during the year. So some catch up is most likely to happen and are happening at the end of the year. But let’s see. I mean, it’s a typical start I think in Q1, but we expect some catch up on the
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: expenses
Rene Lindell, CFO, Orion: as well.
Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Thanks. Got it. And maybe finally on levozimendan. So do you have any estimate when Tenax could complete its Phase III studies with levozimendan?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: I think they have commented this publicly.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: You look at clinicaltrials.gov, the current level trial is expected to have a primary readout already in 2026. However, they need to have another Phase III trial, which is then the confirmatory trial, which can lead to product registration and this is all based on their statements. And they are planning to start the other Phase III trial during this calendar year. So we will have to wait and see when they then expect that trial to read out.
Conference Operator: The next question comes from Sami Sarkamis from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Analyst: Hi. I have three questions. We’ll take this one by one. Firstly, starting from U. S.
Import duties. Can you comment if the discussed tariffs could have a material impact on Orion’s Lubbock franchise? And if you have means to mitigate the impact through for example price increases or changes to your production setup?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Well, I think the situation in general with the import tariffs whether it’s pharmaceuticals or any other goods is very unclear and it changes from day to day. So it’s very difficult to make any conclusions at this time to our products. It’s not even yet known regarding pharmaceuticals at which level of the value chain those would be impacted. But of course, if such tariffs would be set that would have an impact also for Orion’s income. But it’s still very early and too early to say anything about it.
Our biggest sales in U. S. Our biggest income in U. S. Comes from Nubeqa.
And I guess that was what you were referring to. And then we have nothing to do with the pricing of the product and then that’s really Bayer’s question and should be discussed with Bayer. But any changes or any tariffs that would impact that product would naturally also be impacted on Orion to the certain magnitude that the agreements must state that. So we are not out of that scope by any means, but I think it’s better to wait and see what will eventually happen with the tariffs.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Thank you. Moving on, I have two questions regarding the pipeline. Firstly, starting from the Tenax project. Can you please discuss the market potential for the chosen indication?
What would roughly be your royalty rate? And how does the protection work as Cimdac’s patents have already expired?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Well, let me start and I let Thuka to continue with the market potential. I’m not sure what Tenax has really given out. To this one applies the same thing as with our projects licensed projects with Bayer and Merck that the best one to comment is really 10x. But that much we can of course share that the agreement is such that the royalties are really low two digit number for us when the product hits the market. And the market potential for such an indication, I think there are very many different, how would I say, discussions on that on different reports that they vary from maybe a billion to several billion.
So I don’t think there is any exact information. It’s really you can find it on public sources this debate on what would be the market potential for this indication.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Thank you. And then finally, you still didn’t complete the Phase one for ODM-two twelve. Are you still expecting to start Phase two studies before the year end? Or is next year a more realistic timeframe?
If there is a delay into next year, do you think this could have an impact on R and D cost outlook for 2025?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Well, we communicated early this year in February that we will continue the Phase I throughout the ’25. So this is really the year when we complete the Phase I study. There is a new guidance by FDA that you need to collect rather much data to be able to define the right dosing for oncology drugs. So based on that guidance we continue and I think ’26 is a good estimation for the start of the Phase two. And you asked about the costs for the Phase one are included in our budget currently.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Thanks. I don’t have any further questions.
Conference Operator: The next question comes from Sean Hammer from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Sean Hammer, Analyst, Jefferies: Hi, there. Two questions from me. So firstly, is your if you’re allowed to disclose, is your price for Noveka with Bayer fixed in the contract, which would imply that Bayer would basically front all the impacts of potential tariffs? And then secondly, is there any appetite within the company to divest any of the lower growth businesses such as the generics or consumer health businesses? Thank you so much.
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Well, I start with the Nubeqa. The price of course in the agreement between Bayer and Orion states the price that we the price with which we sell tablets to Bayer. And then again, as I think one of the previous persons asked that what would be the impact of tariffs to Orion, it really depends on what part of the value chain those tariffs would be hitting. So whether it’s really the price that the tablet is transferred from Europe to U. S.
Or whether it’s the sales price in U. S. So it’s really difficult to say anything about it. But it is definitely sure that whatever spot or segment of the value chain it is, it will have an impact to Orion’s royalty income as well. And the second question was?
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Is there any appetite to divest other
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Thank you for reminding me, Touka. No, there is no appetite right now to divest any of our divisions.
Sean Hammer, Analyst, Jefferies: Thank you.
Conference Operator: The next question comes from Graeme from Paris. Please go ahead.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Hello, Graham. Are you there?
Graham Parry, Analyst, Bank of America: Yes. So it’s Graham Parry from Bank of America. So just wanted to understand the follow-up on tariffs again. In terms of the shipment of the product, is that actually shipped across the border in The U. S.
By Orin? Or is it shipped across the border by Bayer? So you actually owns the product at the point of shipment. So if we wanted to understand various different scenarios when if and when there’s a tariff announcement, how that exposure sits? So if it was, for example, ORION shipping across the border, would you have a full exposure to the tariff?
Or if it’s Bayer, would the Bayer have exposure to the tariff, but then contractually, they could pass some of that down to you? And secondly, on tariff, if Bayer were to raise the price in The U. S. To pass on any impact of tariffs presumably that would also benefit your royalties that’s based on in market sales in The U. S?
Thanks.
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Yeah. This is exactly very, very valid and good questions that we sell the tablets to Bayer and that happens in Europe. So they ship it to U. S. And then, of course, if there is some kind of a tariff on that one, they are responsible for it.
But of course, there are many parts in the agreement that would partly affect also us. As I said, any tariff on any part of the value chain will also have an effect on us. Similarly, if they would raise the price in U. S. That would have an effect on our royalties as well.
Rene Lindell, CFO, Orion: Raising prices
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: will continue.
Rene Lindell, CFO, Orion: Yes. Raising prices would have a mitigating impact. Exactly. If tariffs we would feel the impact proportionally and if they can raise prices then we also get benefit from that.
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Exactly. So it goes
Sean Hammer, Analyst, Jefferies: both ways.
Graham Parry, Analyst, Bank of America: Yes. That’s super clarity. So you effectively share the tariff regardless where it is, and you benefit from any price increase in royalty. So yes, you’re effectively sharing it contractually. And then second question for me is just when should we expect the cost of the Cambridge R And D facility to start to appear in your R and D cost?
Thanks.
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Those costs are already included to that amount that we think they will appear to this year’s R and D budget.
Graham Parry, Analyst, Bank of America: Sorry, just to be clear, I understand that’s in your guidance, but have they started to be incurred in Q1 or is this something which is going to be more back end loaded into the cost for the year?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Sorry, Greg. Yes, it will be more back ended clearly, yes.
Graham Parry, Analyst, Bank of America: Yes. Thank you.
Conference Operator: The next question comes from Ansi Rousey from SEB. Please go ahead.
Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Yes, I have one question left actually, and it’s on Dvina. So really strong growth in Q1, but was there something extraordinary or is it just picking up in the pace of growth?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: It is picking up. It’s been picking up actually for a few years now if you look at the numbers. I think it started to pick up right after the COVID or the last year’s first with the 10%, five % growth, 10% growth, 15%, twenty % and it’s actually accelerating all the time. So now it was thirty percent. And that’s really a market demand of this type of treatment.
This is an estradiol mainly the Divina series growth is mainly due to the estradiol gel that we manufacture and sell across Europe and in some other countries. It’s really the market demand for this type of product.
Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Okay. Thank you.
Conference Operator: There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Thank you. We have a few questions coming online. But before going there, we actually forgot to answer one of Sami’s questions regarding the levocementan protection.
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Yes. Well, again, Tenax would be the right party to ask this about the protection. And you are correct, the molecule levocementan is not protected anymore. In U. S, you can get data protection based on the data you produce in your clinical studies for certain indication.
So I would assume that the protection market protect that’s called actually data protection or market protection. So the business case is based on that one.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Thank you, Lisa. Then we can turn on to the webcast questions. We have first couple of ones from Onni Hautala from Nordea. So does ORION have other clinical trials being developed by partners that could enter ORION’s pipeline in the future? And if so, can you mention what is in Phase II in such cases?
I guess only referring to levosimendant case here.
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: I fully understand. This came it might seem that it came out of nowhere, but that’s not really the case. We report key clinical projects, which for us means Phase three projects. So clearly we are not reporting Phase 2s except the SUPIDES, which is there still ongoing. There might be Phase 2s if we really think that they are key ones.
And I’m trying to think really our partners that is there something that would be going on that would result in a similar type of a raise to our clinical pipeline, but nothing comes to my mind currently.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Of course regarding openbecestat, we have stated that we will include Phase 3s. But if you take a deeper look at MSD or Merck, they have some Phase 2s ongoing for instance with combinations targeting prostate cancer.
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: That’s very true. I guess Dave shared some information on those. And I hope actually that we could discuss more of those in our Capital Market Day.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Absolutely. All right. Then moving on another question from Onmi and still regarding Tenax’s Levosimendaan case. Can you further explain Orion’s role here? What part of the intellectual rights are owned by Orion?
And what will be Orion’s role in the future?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Our role is really such that we’ve licensed the rights to develop oral levosemendan for this indication to Tenax. We also develop the pharmaceutical products itself since we know levocementan very well. It’s quite natural that we are responsible for the product development here. And of course it remains to be seen whether we manufacture the product or not in future. Otherwise, I think that’s in all its simplicity our roles in this agreement.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Great. Thanks, Lisa. Then moving on another question regarding R and D pipeline coming from Mr. Alabdas. This is actually referring to ODM-one 11.
Can we expect the preclinical data on ODM-one hundred eleven at any conference? Do we have any plans to publish the preclinical data? I’m sure that the clinical data probably will be published at some point.
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: I’m sure. But this is something that you will also hear more at our Capital Markets Day. So welcome to listen Otti Varela, our Head of R and D, since I can’t say that whether we are going to publish that or not and or when we are going to publish that.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Thanks, Lisa. Then moving on, we have one question regarding branded products and entacapone. So this comes from Alexander Huitfeld from Cinco. Beyond entacapone sales in Japan, are there any other key initiatives or growth drivers within your CNS portfolio that you are currently developing or prioritizing? Are there any products or indications you’re especially focused on going forward?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Excellent questions. Yes, we are focusing in CNS and in CNS definitely to Parkinson’s disease. Oryon is still very well known in that sphere. And we’ve been approached by many companies that have this type of value added products which are maybe combinations of older molecules or new formulations of older molecules for Parkinson’s disease or other neurodegenerative diseases. So we are building a portfolio around STALIVO and COMTAN and COMTES currently.
And there I think the first launch would be this year in Finland for this type of a very microscopic or small kind of a powder product of entacapone combined to some other drugs that would allow patients to titrate their dose in a better way than with entacapone. So it would be the segment would be on a rather late state of the disease before a very much more rougher treatments like intestinal dopamine or other that type of treatments. So there will be new products. And again, I repeat myself, I’m sure Hao Pan who leads the Branded Products division will share more light on this portfolio in the Capital Markets Day.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Thanks, Lisa. Then we can continue on Capital Markets Day. There’s a question from Christopher Arnenmark from Orland’s Bank and that will you provide additional information regarding the capital allocation strategy during the CMD? The balance sheet is solid. It seems to be a number of M and A possibilities out there.
Or is it still dividend focused?
Rene Lindell, CFO, Orion: Yes. I’m sure we also discussed the capital allocation at that point.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: But maybe it’s good to remind that we haven’t changed our financial objectives as they are Then moving on, we have one question from Matti Kaurola from OP. Regarding potential tariffs, could you please remind us the key advantages that Nubeqa has versus competitors? And why U. S. Doctors would prefer Nubeqa over other products despite the potential tariffs?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Well, we have discussed the benefits of Nubeqa earlier. It’s very much the side effect profile. It’s as you would say, it’s a very kind drug to patient. Usually cancer drugs have this and that as a side effect, but we do know from experience and how doctors are what doctors are telling us that the side effect profile is very nice and they like and of course patients like that type of product. Whether this plays a role when you talk about tariffs, I don’t really know.
It’s very difficult to define any such criteria for any drug or any group of drugs that would make them more preferable than others if tariffs are set. Of course pricing, I exclude pricing from this pricing would definitely play a role there. But otherwise, I think it’s really the known effects of Nubeqa both on the side effects and the efficacy of the drug.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Thank you, Lisa. Now it seems that we have exhausted the questions from online. Thank you at this point for the lively discussions and questions we’ve received. I understand that there might be one more question online in the teleconference line. So at this point, I again hand over to the operator.
Conference Operator: The next question comes from Matti Carolla from OP Corporate Bank. Please go ahead.
Matti Carolla, Analyst, OP Corporate Bank: Hello. Thank you. You already replied to my question that I sent via chat, so nothing to add from my side.
Duca Hirvonen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Thanks, And I guess there are no further questions online in the teleconference lines. So at this stage then it’s time to conclude the event. Lisa, any final words?
Lisa Huromme, CEO, Orion: Well, I thank you for your attention and of course all Orion colleagues for the good quarter one. And we continue the year as we have promised within our outlook. Thank you.
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