Earnings call transcript: Orion Oyj B reports strong Q2 2025 growth

Orion Oyj B reported robust financial results for Q2 2025, with net sales reaching €416.5 million, a 27% increase year-over-year, surpassing revenue forecasts of €377.25 million. The company’s operating profit surged by 59% to €104.5 million, reflecting strong operational efficiency. The market reacted positively, with the stock price rising 4.31% to trade near its 52-week high. InvestingPro data shows the company maintains impressive financial health with a "GREAT" overall score of 3.2, supported by a strong gross margin of 61.54% and return on equity of 39%.

Key Takeaways

• Orion’s Q2 net sales exceeded expectations, showing a 27% YoY growth.
• Operating profit increased by 59%, underscoring improved margins.
• FDA approval of darolutamide boosts product pipeline strength.
• Stock price rose 4.31%, reflecting investor confidence.
• Full-year 2025 guidance remains optimistic with expected net sales of €1,630-1,730 million.

Company Performance

Orion Oyj B demonstrated strong performance in Q2 2025, driven by significant growth across its business segments. The company’s innovative medicines division grew approximately 80%, while branded products increased by 13%. This growth is aligned with broader industry trends, where the generic and animal health markets are expanding at a steady pace.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: €416.5 million (+27% YoY)
• Operating Profit: €104.5 million (+59% YoY)
• Operating Profit Margin: 25%
• Operating Cash Flow per Share: €0.57 (+200% YoY)

Earnings vs. Forecast

Orion’s Q2 revenue of €416.5 million surpassed the forecast of €377.25 million, marking a positive surprise. Although specific EPS was not disclosed, the substantial increase in operating profit suggests the company exceeded expectations.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings release, Orion’s stock price climbed 4.31%, reflecting strong investor sentiment. The stock is trading near its 52-week high, indicating confidence in the company’s future prospects.

Outlook & Guidance

Orion maintains a positive outlook for the remainder of 2025, with projected net sales between €1,630-1,730 million and operating profit guidance of €400-500 million. The company plans to expand its clinical pipeline and explore new geographical markets.

Executive Commentary

CEO Lisa Hourme emphasized the importance of the Nubeqa franchise, stating, "Nubeqa is a very, very important product for us." She also highlighted the company’s commitment to innovation, saying, "We are pushing and pulling our development projects forward."

Risks and Challenges

• Potential U.S. pharma tariffs could impact profitability.
• Competitive pressures in the generics market may affect market share.
• Macroeconomic conditions pose uncertainties for future growth.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the potential impact of U.S. pharma tariffs and the company’s R&D spending expectations. Orion’s management clarified their strategic focus on geographic expansion and the growth potential of Nubeqa.

Full transcript - Orion Oyj B (ORNBV) Q2 2025:

Tukka Hirvanenenen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Hello from sunny Helsinki, and welcome to Orion’s Q2 twenty twenty five earnings conference call and webcast. My name is Dukka Hirvanenenen. I’m the Head of Investor Relations here at Orion. In a few moments, our CEO and President, Lisa Hourme, will present the results and key events from the past quarter, followed by the opportunity to ask questions from Lisa and also from our CFO, Rene Lindel, who is here We will start taking questions first from the conference call lines and then afterwards we will turn to the webcast.

So you all have the opportunity to type in your questions using the chat function of the webcast. Kindly state your name and the organization you are representing before asking your question. And also to be noted that recording of this webcast will be available on Orion’s website later this afternoon and also to our Finnish speaking viewers information that also a Finnish interview of the CEO, Lisa Hourme, will also be available on Orion’s website later this afternoon. But without any further delays, I’d like to draw your attention to this familiar disclaimer or safe harbor statement before letting Lisa to take over. Lisa, please.

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Thank you, Tukka, and welcome on my behalf as well. I start with saying that all Orion’s divisions continued very good performance during the first quarter this year. But before I go to numbers, let’s look at some highlights from the second quarter. FDA gave approval and CHMP recommended for approval in EU darolutamide in combination with ADT, underganebrivation therapy or the use of darolutamide and ADT in patients with metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer. Our partner MSD has shared information that they have expanded OPEBESAstat program to women’s cancers.

And also we shared information in our Capital Markets Day that our first Orion’s first biologics will enter clinical stage during the next twelve to twenty four months. We’ve also broadened our research pipeline by exercising option with the company called Kligos to use their antibody drug conjugate next generation ADCs for development of products for cancer. Also, we’ve made an agreement with company called Silpa for recombinant albumin and with the company called Cresetto for apomorphine or omecosal apomorphine for treatments of Parkinson’s disease patients. And we’ve also updated potential of eSiHalo portfolio to be exceeding €300,000,000 in annual sales. Now first, let’s start with the Q2.

Our net sales grew 27% and totaled to €416,500,000 Operating profit grew 59% with operating profit margin of 25%. And operating cash flow per share increased almost 200% to €0.57 per share. I will come back to that later on. When we look at the net sales development in different divisions, it’s very self evident and clear that the biggest growth comes from Innovative Medicines and from Nubeqa sales and royalties from Nubeqa sales and also product deliveries to Bayer. However, all the other major divisions are also performing well.

We see here branded products with EUR 9,400,000.0 growth, generics growing EUR 8,500,000.0 and animal health EUR 6,900,000.0. Afirmion was slightly lower sales than in the previous year’s quarter two mainly due to the some capacity constraint. And then looking at the operating profit, pretty much the same message here. Royalties contributing to almost EUR46 million and increase in sales volumes EUR30.1 million. And change in prices, cost of goods and product mix we can see minus EUR14.5 million.

And this comes of course from mainly from the Simdex and Dexter, which are losing where the prices are still decreasing due to the generic competition. And I would like to draw your attention to the fixed cost, which is €22,000,000 and this is all planned. We have clearly stated that we are investing more in our research and development and sales and marketing. So this is all according to our plans. Now I move on to first half of the twenty twenty five.

Again, more than 20% growth in net sales ending up to EUR771 million, EUR100 million and then operating profit growing almost 50% ending up to €182,500,000 And operating cash flow here when we look at the first half of the year is more leveled out compared to the second quarter and ends up with EUR 1.12 per share. And now I move on to different divisions. And here you can clearly see the Innovative Medicines. We have slightly changed the way we show the data here on slide, so we can see the second quarter, always the quarterly results and then year to date. So here we can see the first half of the year.

So the growth both on a quarterly level and on a half year level is around 80%. And on the right side picture with several columns showing the quarterly sales or the quarterly royalties we are receiving from Bayer and also the product deliveries, product sales to Bayer, we see clearly the back end loaded dynamics of Nubeka year of Nubeka to Orion. And already we see again at all time high product sales to Bayer. And Branded products keeps on going with a steady more than 10% growth. Growth in quarter two compared to the previous year’s quarter two was healthy 13% and even during the first half year more than 10%.

Driver of growth here is clearly Easyhaler portfolio and within that portfolio budesonide formoterol combination product. And CNS sales here in a lighter blue is growing due to the staliva rights repatriation of staliva rights in Japan. But also there are some new minor products that we are launching or smaller products that we are launching across Europe currently to our CNS platform. And the latest in licensing agreement, as I already mentioned, was for Aperon, a novel apomorphine oral mucosal spray, which treats the OFF episodes of Parkinson’s patients, a very good way to quickly get a treatment to a very difficult situation. Our women’s health keeps on growing.

It’s the smallest segment within branded products with the highest growth percentage. Generics and Consumer Health is really

: doing good work. We do know that generics market usually grows or the average growth is from 4%

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: to 6%. And if you look at the second quarter numbers here, the growth was 6.7% compared to the last year’s second quarter. And when we look at the first half of the year, we are almost growing 4%. This is a result of hard work both with new launches. We have had several new launches across Nordics and Eastern Europe, but also we’ve been able to provide and service our customers.

So we’ve been able to take a bit of an advantage when other companies haven’t had the products available in our regions. Animal Health keeps up the good work growing almost 23%. But here we of course need to remember that the comparison year was very, very tough for Animal Health. So this is kind of gearing up towards the normal Animal Health performance. And here again growth comes from all segments from livestock, from companion animals and many, many different geographies.

And this is especially I’m happy to show this top 10 list if I compare to how it looked like a year ago. Almost all products are on par and most of them are growing. Of course, Nubeqa as the first one, e inhalers, entacapone products, animal health sedatives, Divina series actually growing second fastest after the Nubeqa. Burana more or less on par and Simdaxendextor fighting against the generics and thus decreasing. Also what we can see here is that the major divisions, Innovative Medicines and Generics and Consumer Health are getting more and more balanced.

Their share of total sales of Orion is approximately 30% for both of them. And then for branded products, it’s 20%. Now on our clinical development pipeline. We showed this slide first time at the Capital Markets Day in May, and you can see that we’ve added two new projects that we are not carrying out by ourselves. One is Dassel high cap for darolutamide.

Bayer is totally responsible for this study for neo adjuvant prostate cancer. But ORION has an option to jump into the study, if you could put it that way. And then also, of course, receive royalties of as a result of this. Then we have levozimaran or our levozimaran, our partner Tenax is developing that. And SUPIDES is still ongoing.

We’ve had some questions regarding this Phase II study, but it’s really a study where we are completing the Phase study and are responsible for that. This study was initially the one that was used the data from this study to design OMHA-one and OMHA-2A. But it is so that pharmaceutical companies are obliged to carry on studies as long as patients All other studies are proceeding as planned. And of course then I forgot to mention the expansion that I actually talked about in the beginning expansion of opevesostat program to women’s cancers in Phase two.

Now to a very different topic sustainability. We are very happy that science based targets initiative or based on the science based target initiative, our near term emission reduction targets are in line with the latest science. And we have a twofold strategy here. One is that we are committed to decrease our Scope one and two emissions by 70% and by 2030 by 70% using 2023 as a base year. The other commitment is a different one.

And there we commit that 78% of our suppliers, which is a huge number actually of suppliers around the globe, are committing to the science based targets initiative by 2029. So how can we do this? Well, first of all, we have a very, very good track record. Now you can’t really see the history except from the year 2023, which is a base year here that we reduced already 21% of emissions during one year to 2024%.

: And

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: now they release a very concrete plan how we will reach that minus 70 by 02/1930. The biggest source and you can see here the darker blue bulk and the lowest bulk here is really production of steam in our factories and that those processes we are going to be electricity we are going to use electricity there. We’ve used already or done already a lot of work changing to the bio to gas and biogas and trying to reduce emissions as much as possible on that part. Of course, other big part is the district heat is just heating your factories and your offices. And there we are we’ve done also a lot of work changing from the to a local heating centers where we use the energy from our factories in our campuses, but there is still a lot to do to change to greener choices in the remaining parts.

And of course, the residual part comes from the traffic and cars and car fleet where we slow where we step by step are moving to electric cars and other forms from diesel or benzene cars. And we updated our outlook on July 9 and you can see here the numbers, the updated numbers, no change to those in this session. We say that we will reach net sales of EUR 1,630,000,000.00 from EUR 1,630,000,000.00 to EUR 1,730,000,000.00 and for operating profit from EUR 400,000,000 to EUR 500,000,000. And here are some upcoming events. Next time when we will be reporting quarter three, it will be October 28.

And then in February, we will report our financial statement. And I think I’m all done with this presentation. And I guess it’s time that Rene and Duca will join me here.

Tukka Hirvanenenen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Yes. Thank you, Lisa, for the presentation and remarks. As stated in the beginning of the webcast, we will first take questions from the conference call line. So at this point, I would like to hand over to the operator.

Operator: The next question comes from Sami Sarkamis from Danske Bank Markets. Please go ahead.

Sami Sarkamis, Analyst, Danske Bank Markets: Hi. I have four questions. We’ll take this one by one. Starting from the new guidance, you’re still maintaining €100,000,000 wide ranges even though you have derisked the first half of the year. What are some of the main uncertainties you’re faced with in the second half of the year?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Will you take it?

Rene Lindel, CFO, Orion: Yes, can take that one. So I think that’s similar as earlier in the range on UBEKA. Of course, with these kind of numbers and volumes and growth rates, there is a range of uncertainty in where we land up in the end of the year. And as we know, Q4 is the highest when it comes to the royalty percentage on UBEKA. And also, as we’ve been seeing, the tablet deliveries have been growing quarter by quarter.

So where we then land up at at really the last months can have quite a big effect on net sales and also on EBIT. And of course, the R and D OpEx is another one where we do know which projects we have ongoing and what are the costs for those. However, the timing of those can impact quite a lot on which calendar year then basically the costs will be recorded. So is it this year or next year? That adds another significant variation.

And that’s why the range is kept as wide as it has been. There is really no space to narrow it down at this point of time.

Sami Sarkamis, Analyst, Danske Bank Markets: Okay. Then I would actually like to continue on R and D costs. If we look at the Q2 cost level, is that a good proxy of the current run rate? Or should we assume a material step up during the second half of the year?

Rene Lindel, CFO, Orion: I think in the first half of the year, the R and D spend has been a little bit lower than what we had expected. It’s also quite typical that it takes some time for the year to build up the cost base. And as projects move forward, we are expecting to have a bit higher R and D expense in H2 than H1. I mean, not a significant step up as you phrased it, but yes, if the project move forward then according to our plan, there should be slightly higher cost.

Sami Sarkamis, Analyst, Danske Bank Markets: Okay. Thanks. Then I have a question to Lisa. What are the main challenges of Orion? And what are the CEO priorities at the moment?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Well, CEO priorities are very, very clear. It’s really filling our clinical pipeline. We are pushing and pulling our development projects forward actually which brings to the previous question of R and D spend this year that it the programs are there, but it’s difficult to say exact timing. So that’s clearly one of the most important things for the CEO currently. And of course, then the other one is seeing that Nubeka is succeeding together with Bayer.

Nubeka is a very, very important product for us. It’s a very important product for our partner. So that joint collaboration is another priority for us. And then, of course, the rest of the business divisions, which happily are also performing extremely well currently. So I think really walking to talk is the third priority that we do benefit from the wide portfolio that we have and the different business segments.

So proceeding at the same path as we’ve done this far.

Sami Sarkamis, Analyst, Danske Bank Markets: Okay. Thanks. And then finally related to U. S. Pharma tariffs, this is a bit speculative, but I mean even 200 percent tariffs have been proposed.

I mean, we assume a lower level, let’s say 50% or even 100%, how could those impact NUPEKA franchise? And to which extent could you mitigate the impacts Yes. If that were to

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Thanks. Maybe I continue even from the previous question. You also asked about the challenges not only about the priorities. Well, you already mentioned The U. S.

Market. There are several challenges and changes that I’ll talk about regarding U. S. Market. Tariffs is one thing.

And I think there, we need to wait and see. Of course, we are not only waiting, but we are also preparing different type of scenarios and so does our partner do. So I think everybody is prepared that something probably happens, but we don’t think that that would have any material impact to this year, so for the second half of this year. So we don’t think that that is a challenge or tailwind for this year by no means. And on a broader picture then regarding tariffs, we haven’t seen any put in force for pharmaceuticals yet.

So let’s see what happens. And if such would come in force, we would of course bear our share based on our agreement with Bayer. So it would have an effect to us. But I think it’s really a wait and see strategy for most of the pharma companies at the moment and no material effect for the rest of the year. However, you asked that what are the major challenges for this year.

Of course, we and Renia can continue U. S. Dollar euro ratio is one of the things that we follow very carefully where that would go. And otherwise, generally, the situation in the world that there are a lot of things happening and we need to follow carefully other negotiations and initiatives for the pricing both in U. S.

And Europe and act accordingly. Maybe, Rene, do you want to say something about The U. S. Yeah.

Rene Lindel, CFO, Orion: I think for this year, we’re pretty much already factored in kind of the current situation into our outlook and see it quite unlikely that there would be major impacts. However, of course, in the long term, if the dollar weakens, that starts to, of course, have an impact on the business as we are growing in USA through Newbeck.

Sami Sarkamis, Analyst, Danske Bank Markets: Yeah. Maybe a follow-up. You previously said that you don’t have any plans to establish production capacity in The U. S. Could it look different if the tariffs were really high, like 100 that is still like a point where you actually need to reconsider that stance?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Well, I think this I can only answer as I answered to you earlier that we need to look at the situation at that moment. But right now, we don’t have any intentions to set up manufacturing capacity in U. S. And as the pharma sector has clearly informed and communicated setting up any new manufacturing capacity would take four to five years. So for any company that’s a huge undertaking to be done.

Sami Sarkamis, Analyst, Danske Bank Markets: Okay. Thanks, Sarta. Don’t have any further questions.

Operator: The next question comes from Sian Hammer from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Sian Hammer, Analyst, Jefferies: Hi. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I’ll take them one at a time as well, if that’s okay. So just following on some of the tariffs impact. So irrespective of what’s actually tariffs, is it a fifty-fifty share with Bayer?

Or is it sort of more of a skew to one company versus the other?

Rene Lindel, CFO, Orion: I mean, we’re not going into the details of that contract, but basically tariffs is something that is taken off typically from the net sales and then you move on from there. So of course, it has an impact on us as well.

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Exactly. And we share it according to our current

Rene Lindel, CFO, Orion: of course, we have a certain royalty percentage and of course, that’s you can think about how that flows down between the companies.

Sian Hammer, Analyst, Jefferies: Understood. Thank you. And then, just in terms of the underlying market dynamics for Noveka, what has Bayer communicated there? And then also, how much of the Aeronaut approval do you think contributed to that performance of Noveka this quarter?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Well, indeed, Aranot approval was very good news for us and also CHMP recommendation. We’ll see then how much and it’s definitely barriers task to communicate what would be the potential of a specific study or indication to the full potential of Nubeqa. But let’s remind us all that the message has been very clear that to reach the €3,000,000,000 yearly sales, peak sales, all the ongoing studies including AraNote needs successful. To So I think the best way to put it is that AraNote’s success or approval makes it more probable to reach that SEK 3,000,000,000.

Sian Hammer, Analyst, Jefferies: Understood. Thank you so much. And then does that also include the neoadjuvant prostate cancer? Would that have to succeed as well?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Could you repeat the question, please?

Sian Hammer, Analyst, Jefferies: Yes, of course. Does the neoadjuvant prostate cancer study have to succeed as well to reach that SEK 3,000,000,000?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Yes, indeed. As I said, all the studies will have to be successful.

Sian Hammer, Analyst, Jefferies: Understood. And then just one more please on opivacostat. So if we do get R PFS in 2026, what’s the bar to be here? And based on its mechanism, how is Okubesestat competitive? Thank you.

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Now I didn’t quite get

: the

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Could

Tukka Hirvanenenen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: you, Jean, repeat also this question please?

Sian Hammer, Analyst, Jefferies: Yes, of course. So I was saying, if we do get RPFS data in 2026 for OPEBESSATA, what’s the bar to be? And then based on its mechanism, how is OPEBESSATA competitive? Thank you.

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Well, I can start from the mechanism of OPEBESOstat that, of course, when you shut down the whole steroid production, including also other steroids than than testosterone. The mechanism is very, very unique. It should actually really, really prohibit the growth of the tumor. And there is no other drug that would do that. So I think that clearly, clearly distinguishes it from other products at the market coming or the products that would be coming to the market.

Operator: The next question comes from Ansi Rousey from SEB. Please go ahead.

: Yes, hi all. It’s Ansi from SEB. A couple of questions left. And the first one is a bit of a clarifying question regarding Lupeka’s R and D pipeline. So as you said, you have not yet jumped into this early stage study, but you have an option to do so.

But what kind of financial impact this would have for you? Like would you have to pay something retrospectively? Or how should we think about this?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Yes, indeed. We haven’t of course shared the details of Beerorean agreement, but option works like that that you have different time points when you can opt in and pay a share of the study costs. But we haven’t yet made the decision at which stage we would do that.

: And I guess you can’t disclose the ballpark here? What kind of amount we would be talking about?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: No.

: Okay. That’s clear. And maybe one more question regarding your guidance upgrade. So can you tell us like what was the latest data point you received from Bayer? Or what kind of assumptions you received from them?

Anything to comment on this?

Rene Lindel, CFO, Orion: I mean, we always discuss with Bayer on a continuous basis, of course, how the sales is going and what volumes need to be tablets need to be delivered and how the year is looking. So of course, we used the latest data that we had at that point on both companies and made a new projection. And of course, the first half year was also very good for Nubeka. So I think everything was pointing into a very good direction. And we made a recalculation of the full year.

Tukka Hirvanenenen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Also with other businesses, not just Nubeka for the second half.

: Yes, understand that. Maybe lastly, about your expenses and the cost base. So admin expenses increased quite significantly. So what was the driver here? Something one off type expenses or natural increase?

Rene Lindel, CFO, Orion: Yes. I mean, of course, there’s always a small kind of expense increase every year. There’s wage inflation across the board. But however, there’s also some fluctuation regarding the equity incentives, which are dependent a lot on the share price. So a lot of that fluctuation is actually related to the share price fluctuation or the growth of the share price during the last few quarters.

: Okay. So can we assume that this is the level in Q3 as well? Or is it too early to say?

Rene Lindel, CFO, Orion: Well, I mean, if nothing strange happens, of course, are fluctuations But I mean, major, I think. But of course, you never know.

: Okay. Thank you. That’s all from

Operator: I

Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: have still a couple of questions, and I’ll take these one by one. So firstly, your R and D pipeline for the remainder of this year and 2026, so what news could materialize?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Well, regarding 2026, first of all, we are expecting the Phase one to finalize for the ODM-two zero two towards the end either by the end of this year or early next year, which would then mean that we would be able to start the Phase two next year in 2026. Approximately the same applies for the ODM105 that we are expecting to see the data by the end of the year or in the change of the years of 2025 and 2026, which would again allow us to start the next phase next year. And then regarding news, as I stated in the beginning, we have said that within next twelve twenty four months, we would be bringing new biologics into our clinical pipeline. So those are definitely news regarding the pipeline. But for the existing products right now there, I think those are the key ones except

Tukka Hirvanenenen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Yes. Well, actually we have one projected compound with Tenax and their current level Phase III trial is due to read out based on clinical trials next summer. However, as we have stated earlier and also Tenax has said that there needs to be another Phase III before filing that compound and they are expecting to start that second Phase III towards the end of this year. So that’s also expected news flow from the pipeline.

Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Okay. And you don’t expect any news or no better to start to materialize next year?

Tukka Hirvanenenen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Well, as we have stated earlier, if you look at clinicaltrials.gov, you can see that the readout estimates are 28 and ’30. We have also reminded that there are two primary endpoints out of which the other one will be reached probably earlier than ’28 and ’30. And now just recently during the quarter in connection with ASCO, MST actually said weekly that they have three compounds out of which OPEBESOstat is one from which they expect some readouts over the course of the next around year or so. So that’s basically the latest update from our partner regarding these OMAHA trials.

Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Okay. Thanks. And regarding 01/2005, so are you still expecting to find a partner for Phase III?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Yes.

Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Okay. And then on Parkinson’s sales, it performed well. So were there any timing factors involved? Or is this kind of a good proxy for the remainder of the year?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Yes. That’s a good question since for many, many years we always talked about timing issues and regarding the deliveries to our partners. But at this time, we don’t see anything like that at the moment. This is really a good performance of that product speeded up by the Japanese sales, ORION owned Japanese sales now.

Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Okay. And then the same question applies to Animal Health. What’s driving sales in this segment? And what long term growth rate that should or can you give us any kind of long term growth that could be kind of sustainable for this business?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Yes. That’s a very good question. As I say, this year’s growth rate of 20% or something like that is not quite normal. It’s really getting back to the normal, so to speak, after the previous years. And then again, what would be expected running rate or growth rate there?

I think animal health market grows like 4% to 6% on a yearly basis globally. So you could talk about low single digit numbers on a broad perspective.

Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Okay. And then regarding the generics business, you mentioned that peers experienced supply challenges. So which products can you comment? And are there or in this business any drivers that could sustain above average growth or above the you mentioned the average growth that it has been about 4% to 6%. So could that be sustainable in the short term?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Yes. I did indeed mention that there are stock outs and that’s a general information that there are a lot of stock outs unfortunately for generic products in all European countries. I wouldn’t name any specific products. We have such a wide portfolio more than 300 products. So it’s here and there in this country or that country where we’ve been able to then pick up the market.

So it really comes from the several products. And of course, similarly, there might sometimes be stock out for our products. So it’s a very, very dynamic market for anybody who works there and the winner is the one who can deliver, especially for the bigger products. But as we see it currently, this kind of a growth of say low single digit growth looks quite probable. I don’t know if Rene is saying something else, but I hope not.

Rene Lindel, CFO, Orion: No. I mean, it’s a competitive market.

Sami Sarkamis, Analyst, Danske Bank Markets: So, I

Rene Lindel, CFO, Orion: mean, it’s a dynamic market, and we’re very happy how JetBricks has been able to do now I think for the second year in a row, Very grow at a very nice

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: good.

Tukka Hirvanenenen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Yes. Basically, the growth needs to be made every day. If you think about our key markets, the Nordic countries and the tender rounds in Finland, we have four times a year in Sweden every month in Denmark every second week. So that basically means that we need to keep on running all the time to make that growth happen.

Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Okay. But is basically the average growth of 4% to 6% sustainable in your view? It would be mid single digit growth rather than low? Well,

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: thank you for correcting me. Maybe that’s the right expression that it’s a mid digit, not low single digit.

Ansi Rousey, Analyst, SEB: Okay. Thanks. And finally regarding your peer Xtandi patent expiry in the coming years. What is the expected time line for this in your view? And do you think that it could have a negative impact on the market sales?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Well, I’m not going to comment our competitors’ loss of exclusivity when or how it could happen. I think those are always tricky situations for anybody. But to our understanding, Bayer and this is, of course, good to ask from Bayer, they have calculated in their projections. Also they have included this generalization of

Operator: There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers.

Tukka Hirvanenenen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: Thank you, operator. We have a few questions coming from the webcast. And please do take the opportunity and type in your question if you have any. Now it’s a good opportunity to do so. Just wanted to remind about the comments regarding the €3,000,000,000 peak sales estimate made by Bayer that was back in 2022 and the comments we are referring to were made by Bayer then in ’twenty two.

Just as a reminder, no new news flow from that front in that sense. But then to the questions from the webcast. We have couple of here from Matti Kaurla from OP. The first one actually was about the Omaha studies and we covered that already. So we can step on to the next one.

The next one is how do you see geographical sales expansion of generics and branded products proceeding? What time line we could expect for current road map? Could we see another case Japan in the near future?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Well, that’s a very good question. And regarding generics and branded products, our generics division has a clear strategy to expand from the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe to the big five in Europe, not with the pure generics, but rather with the value added generic products. Value adding meaning, for example, in hospital, a product that needs to be stored at refrigerator, but you could provide a product that could be stored at room temperature or a product that is readily already diluted, so it saves time from the nurses or it provides some other advantages. And I think one good example of this is the recombinant albumin license agreement that we signed with Silpa a few months ago. And that will definitely that’s one of the major products that will be driving the expansion of generics to big five countries in Europe.

There are other products as well, but we haven’t reported they don’t have the same potential as a single product that the portfolio is forming all the time. And I can here say that we are expecting to launch first of those products hopefully in 2027 and then build on that portfolio as we go onwards. I’m not sure if I can call it case Japan because we are already in Europe. But for generics, it’s definitely a new step to the big market. And then when we look at the branded products, it’s the big question is actually Japan that we are and are trying to build up a portfolio around Stalivo there as we are doing also in Europe.

So we are currently more or less trying to support the countries and build the portfolios in the new countries like Japan and then expanding generics to Big five.

Tukka Hirvanenenen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: All right. Thank you, Lisa. Then we have one additional question from the webcast. This is related to our R and D pipeline and specifically to ODM-one hundred five. The question is what is ORION’s current or updated strategy for developing new pain treatments?

And does ODM-one hundred five still play a role in this strategy due to its analgesic properties?

Lisa Hourme, CEO and President, Orion: Again, very, very good question due to the analgesic properties. It is a part of that portfolio clearly because pain and sleep are related. Either people can’t sleep because of the pain or other way around. And that could provide also help on that front. However, currently, do see with that product that it would be aimed for general practitioners, more for general practitioners in U.

S. So that’s why we would need to have a partner. Regarding our pain portfolio, in general, we do have new molecules in development in our research pipeline. So we are currently building that portfolio as well. But it takes a few more years before we will see those entering our clinical pipeline.

Tukka Hirvanenenen, Head of Investor Relations, Orion: All right. Thank you, Lisa, for the answer. Now we have exhausted also the webcast questions. We could once more turn to the teleconference lines and ask from the operator whether there are any follow ups. Thank you.

Then we have exhausted all the questions. Thank you all for joining us this Friday summer Friday afternoon. Thanks for your attention. Good questions. And next time we will be reporting, like Lisa said, in the October.

So for the time being, everybody enjoy the summer and see you next

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