Orion Pharma, one of Finland’s leading pharmaceutical companies, is making a decisive move into the UK’s life sciences landscape with the launch of a new Biologics Research and Development Centre in Cambridge. Set to open later this year, the facility will focus on advancing the company’s biologics pipeline and harnessing the UK’s world-renowned biomedical ecosystem.
The investment signals Orion’s strategic commitment to biologics as the future of innovative medicine, and places the company at the centre of a thriving cluster of research excellence. The choice of Cambridge, long regarded as a global nucleus for biotechnology and pharmaceutical research, reflects Orion’s ambition to integrate into a mature scientific community with access to world-class academic talent and deep industrial expertise.
For Orion, Cambridge offers an unrivalled combination of scientific infrastructure, established networks, and a strong pool of experienced professionals. The city’s close ties to the University of Cambridge and its reputation as a life sciences powerhouse make it an ideal base for Orion’s biologics operations. Practical factors such as minimal time difference with Finland and the availability of advanced laboratory space further reinforced the decision.
This expansion builds on Orion’s long-standing UK presence, which includes clinical development operations in Nottingham and commercial functions in Reading. The Branded Products division—responsible for some of the company’s most well-established treatments—is also headquartered in the UK, underscoring the country’s central role in Orion’s European strategy.
Heading up the new Cambridge centre is Dr Eugene Zhukovsky, a seasoned leader in biologics R&D, who recently joined Orion to lead the biologics unit. Zhukovsky is tasked with shaping the site’s scientific agenda while ensuring that Orion’s hallmark Nordic values—collaboration, transparency, and work-life balance—are embedded into the centre’s culture from day one.
The new site is expected to operate with the energy of a startup but benefit from the scale, stability, and scientific heritage of a company that has been innovating for over a century. Orion’s leadership believes that this combination will foster the kind of long-term, high-impact research needed to bring the next generation of biologic therapies to patients in the UK, Europe and beyond.
The company sees this move as a natural evolution of its global R&D structure. Orion has historically focused on small molecule therapeutics, and its expansion into biologics—alongside the recent establishment of a clinical development hub in New York—reflects a broader shift towards more complex, targeted therapies.
