In response to the increasing demand for its products, Orion will invest a total of approximately EUR 30 million in the coming years to increase its production capacity in Finland. The investments will focus on inhaler production at Orion’s pharmaceutical plant in Espoo, production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) at Fermion’s plant in Hanko and a pharmaceutical packaging in Salo production site. The investments will start in 2023 and will be completed by 2026.
In Espoo, Orion will build a new dry-powder inhaler filling line to increase the production capacity of the Easyhaler product family for asthma and COPD. Easyhaler is currently Orion’s second best-selling product line and demand is expected to grow. This estimate is based, among others, on initiatives and recommendations1,2,3 by healthcare systems to prefer dry-powder inhalers over metered-dose inhalers (MDIs ie. aerosol inhalers) for climate reasons.
In Hanko, the new plant unit of Orion’s subsidiary Fermion was completed in 2018, at which time part of the new factory premises were left empty to await future growth investments. Now, one of the two vacant special synthesis facilities will be taken into use and the equipment needed to produce Orion’s innovation darolutamide will be acquired. Nubeqa, containing darolutamide, is currently Orion’s largest product and sales are expected to grow strongly in the coming years. This assumption is based on estimate by Orion’s partner Bayer, according to which Nubeqa’s annual global peak sales could exceed EUR 3 billion. Bayer holds global commercial rights to darolutamide and Orion is entitled to receive annually tiered royalties on global darolutamide sales.
In Salo, Orion will build a new blister packaging line for tablets, which will be the third in the Salo plant. The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly moving from bottle to blister packaging, which has strengthened the need to increase blister packaging capacity.
“The investments to production capacity are significant by Orion’s standards and are intended to ensure our ability to meet the growing demand for the products we manufacture. Nubeqa and Easyhaler are important products for Orion and will be key growth drivers for the company in the coming years,” says Juhani Kankaanpää, Senior Vice President of Orion’s Global Operations.
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