  In this article we consider homeomorphisms of the open annulus
$\mathbb{A}=\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}\times \mathbb{R}$ which are isotopic to the
identity and preserve a Borel probability measure of full support, focusing on
the existence of non-contractible periodic orbits. Assume $f$ such
homeomorphism such that the connected components of the set of fixed points of
$f$ are all compact. Further assume that there exists $\check{f}$ a lift of $f$
to the universal covering of $\mathbb{A}$ such that the set of fixed points of
$\check{f}$ is non-empty and that this set projects into an open topological
disk of $\mathbb{A}$. We prove that, in this setting, one of the following two
conditions must be satisfied: (1) $f$ has non-contractible periodic points of
arbitrarily large prime period, or (2) for every compact set $K$ of
$\mathbb{A}$ there exists a constant $M$ (depending on the compact set) such
that, if $\check{z}$ and $\check{f}^n(\check{z})$ project on $K$, then their
projections on the first coordinate have distance less or equal to $M$. Some
consequence for homeomorphisms of the open annulus whose rotation set is
reduced to an integer number are derived.
