Orion, a Finnish pharmaceutical company, and Gedeon Richter, a Hungarian pharmaceutical company, have entered into a comprehensive and long term collaboration agreement for the discovery and development of new chemical entities in the field of cognitive disorders.

The partnership provides an opportunity whereby the two companies jointly select and bring forward three discovery phase candidates and share all the development related expenses on an equal base. The territory related marketing rights have not been determined yet.

“Alzheimer’s disease and other neuropsychiatric conditions with cognition deficit are devastating illnesses, and at Orion, we are deeply motivated to develop new therapies for these patients,” said Dr. Reijo Salonen, senior vice president of R&D, Orion. “A fundamental pillar of our R&D model is to seek collaborations that leverage the strengths of both organizations, and at Richter we have found scientific skills and an organizational culture that will likely result in a successful partnership. This collaboration increases probability to succeed in this challenging therapeutic area. Colleagues from both companies are looking forward to working together in the future.”

Dr. Zsolt Szombathelyi, research director of Richter, added, “I am very excited about the cooperation with Orion, which strengthens the research in the CNS area of both companies in a cost and time efficient way. We highly appreciate the level of professionalism of Orion staff, which will add to our current knowledge and experience, resulting in mutual benefit for both parties. We look forward to working with Orion team and jointly developing new therapies in order to meet both patients’ and doctors’ unmet needs.”