Orion: Finnish drug development utilising the LUMI supercomputer and cutting-edge research methods

With a history spanning over a century, Orion is a globally operating Finnish pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures, and markets human and veterinary medicines as well as active pharmaceutical ingredients. The company has been conducting drug research for a long time and has utilised computational methods for over two decades.

The LUMI supercomputer is accelerating Orion’s product development. Orion is also expanding its research activities in the United Kingdom and the United States, with the aim of strengthening its foothold in the world’s largest pharmaceutical markets. Orion’s core therapeutic areas in drug research are cancer and pain. Proprietary products developed by Orion are used to treat cancer, respiratory diseases and neurological diseases, among others.

Computational methods at the heart of drug development

Drug research aims to understand the biological mechanisms of diseases—such as the growth of cancerous tumors, resistance to treatments, and the survival of cancer cells—and to apply this knowledge to the development of new therapies. In Orion’s product development, computational methods—and in particular molecular simulations of drug candidates—play a central role, and these have a long history of enabling innovation.

The collaboration between Orion and CSC began in the summer of 2024, spurred by the Supercomputing for Business event organised by CSC. The collaboration was also accelerated by discussions between Professor Antti Poso and CSC’s Development Manager Atte Sillanpää, who paved the way for utilising the LUMI supercomputer in molecular dynamics simulations as part of Orion’s large-scale drug development.

From idea to practice

– In the early stages, our computational workload was better suited to commercial cloud environments, but as our ambitions grew, the situation began to evolve. We quickly moved from ideas to practice when the time was right—and we’re still on that path, says Heikki Käsnänen, Head of Molecular Intelligence and Data at Orion Pharma.

Käsnänen already had a strong foundation in using CSC’s supercomputers from his doctoral thesis work in the early 2000s, and he wanted to leverage high-performance computing to accelerate Orion’s product development as soon as possible.

Orion purchases the computing capacity it needs directly from CSC. Orion’s R&D unit strengthened its international expertise when Tuulikki Tuukkanen, a Principal Scientist and experienced computational research expert, was recruited from Germany and began conducting molecular modeling at LUMI.

– Using physics-based molecular simulations and AI methods, we investigate, for example, how the target protein behaves at the atomic level, how the drug molecule binds to it, and how precisely it recognises the exact protein target. We also investigate how structural changes in the protein, such as mutations, can affect the drug’s activity, Tuukkanen explains.

Orion as a leader: toward a new generation of drug development

The pharmaceutical industry is a key export sector for Finland and a driver of future growth. Orion is leading the development work in Business Finland’s Veturi project, which involves over 50 participants ranging from startups to large companies and academic partners. The project aims to modernise research and development in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in the use of data and artificial intelligence, and to ensure that Finland remains a strong player in the industry’s transformation.

LUMI is easy to use and well documented

Orion’s experience with LUMI has been very positive. Although Tuukkanen previously worked abroad and was not familiar with CSC’s supercomputers beforehand, the implementation went smoothly.

– LUMI is very well documented, and you quickly become familiar with its special features. We’ve really only needed CSC’s expert support during the implementation for installing a few new software packages, Tuukkanen says. – Our collaboration has since deepened, and in recent years we’ve received valuable assistance from Atte Sillanpää and his team. They have played a key role, for example, in the successful implementation of a key workflow. We greatly appreciate their contribution and are extremely grateful for their valuable assistance, Tuukkanen continues.

– CSC’s science support team assists Tuukkanen’s team as needed with, among other things, automating the use of GROMACS-based software for job runs in the HPC environment and optimising resource utilisation. CSC has close ties with the developers of these software tools through the BioExcel project collaboration, and the direct, in-depth support we’ve received from them has been invaluable, says Sillanpää.

Advancing Finnish drug development

– For Orion, the key benefits of using LUMI are its computational speed, parallel processing capabilities, and reliability. Orion plays a central role in Finland’s drug research ecosystem, and we want to actively strengthen Finnish product development, Käsnänen emphasises.

– In the future, we will be able to tell our Finnish customers that the drugs developed to meet their needs were created using Finnish expertise and the LUMI supercomputer, Tuukkanen adds.

According to Käsnänen, Orion is currently in a phase of strong growth and transformation, both in terms of expertise and the expansion of the use of simulation and machine learning methods. LUMI will continue to play a significant role in this going forward.

Dan Still, Partnership Manager at CSC, sees the collaboration as valuable.

– Orion is a very interesting client for CSC. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors, and research and computing play a permanent role in it. It is important for us to understand the industry’s evolving R&D needs, and our collaboration with Orion has provided valuable experience in this regard, says Still.

Image on top: OrionPharma