Finnish pharmaceutical company Orion left Russia

The largest manufacturer of methylprednisolone Orion Pharma (OP) left Russia, should from the company’s report.

According to the report of the pharmaceutical company, the decline in revenue from the sale of certain drugs is due to the “termination of commercial activities in Russia.” In addition, the manufacturer records a drop in operating profit in the first six months of 2023 – compared to the same period last year, the company lost 25 million euros in profit.

In the fall of 2022, Vedomosti sources reportedthat OP began liquidating the Russian office, it was planned to close before the end of that year.

OP has worked in Russia for about 15 years. The main drug of the company is metipred, which is intended for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Nikolai Bespalov, development director of the analytical company RNC Pharma, said that this medicine accounts for 82% of all Russian sales of drugs with the international non-proprietary name “methylprednisolone” in packages and about 84% in monetary terms.

Bespalov at the same time stated that Russia is one of the largest markets for the Finnish company and it is unlikely to have the same prospects in the European market. It was noted that in the first half of last year, the Eastern European market and Russia accounted for 17% of all OP sales (44 million euros).

In 2021, the manufacturer ranked 98th in the ranking of the largest pharmaceutical companies, according to DSM Group. In 2022, she rose to 90th place. Revenue of the Russian division of the company for 2021 according to RAS reached 4.7 billion rubles, having increased by 45% compared to the previous year. Net profit for the same period amounted to 121.6 million rubles. against 129.7 million rubles. a year earlier.