New ways to treat pain

Pain is one of the most common reasons why people use healthcare services. It causes a large number of sickness absences and leads to loss of productivity. Pain can completely paralyse an individual.

Current treatments are generally only partially effective in relieving pain, and poor tolerability limits their use. Severe acute pain after surgery and chronic pain caused by nerve damage or osteoarthritis, for example, can affect an individual’s quality of life in many ways. With current medicines, it is difficult to treat pain resulting from nerve damage in particular, as well as long-term musculoskeletal system pain.

Strong painkillers involve a number of risks. The excessive and uncontrolled use of opioids has led to a high rate of addiction, abuse and death, and has caused a public health crisis in some countries. Orion is working to find new types of painkillers and pain treatments for patients suffering from acute or chronic pain.

Researchers aim to alleviate the pain signal 

The goal is to develop more effective, safer and non-addictive medicines that can fill the gaps in existing treatment options. Orion is studying several prospective non-opioid treatments.  Our two main lines of research are
affecting pain signals and affecting the immune system. In both cases, the aim is to weaken the pain signal and thus reduce the sensation of pain in the brain.