The story
The company was founded in 1995 and their first product Diabact UBT, a breath test for diagnosing the causative agent of stomach ulcers (Helicobacter pylori), was introduced in 2000. In 2003, the company adopted the name Orexo and in 2005 the company was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
In 2008 the development of Abstral, a drug for the treatment of breakthrough cancer, was finalized. Abstral was the first product developed based on Orexo´s world-leading sublingual platform.
In 2010, through a right issue, Novo A/S became the largest shareholder in Orexo. With the investment from Novo A/S, the Board of Directors reviewed the strategy and created a vision of establishing a commercial business in the US.
In 2013, Orexo established a commercial subsidiary in the US and launched ZUBSOLV, a drug for the treatment of opioid use disorder.
In 2018, the company won a multiyear patent battle against the generic company Teva/Actavis securing patent protection for ZUBSOLV in the US until 2032.
With the intention to grow its business to include evidence-based therapeutics, Orexo started a collaboration with GAIA in 2019. GAIA is a world-leading digital therapeutics company based in Germany. Today Orexo commercializes three digital therapies on the US market, targeting patients within opioid use disorder and adjacent treatment areas.
In 2023, Orexo won another multiyear patent litigation, this time against Sun Pharma, securing ZUBSOLV’s patent protection in the US until 2032 and confirming the strength of the patents protecting the innovation and technology behind ZUBSOLV.
To meet the large need of efficient high-dose opioid overdose medications, such as OX124 and OX125, Orexo has developed the drug delivery technology AmorphOX it is powder-based and can be delivered intranasally or via inhalation. Orexo opted for powder-based technology for this product as powder-based products are more thermally stable and they have a longer shelf life.
From Wikipedia’s article on Orexo, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5