Gesundheit und Medizintechnik, Austria Export - Advantage Austria

AUSTRIAEXPORT
For the good of man & animal
One of the goals Vienna’s University of Veterinary Medicine (VUW) has
set for itself is improving the collaboration between science and industry,
especially in the fields of joint research, commissioned research and
patent licensing.
Lines of showcase products for purposes
such as influencing (patho)physiological
processes, fighting infection and
prevention, in biomedicine and biotechnology,
food safety and risk analysis, innovative
diagnostics and movement analysis, aid in
structuring and determining the direction of
research. As a result, the VUW will take on a
clear identity, and integration into the
European research community will be certain.
One criterion for taking decisions is
scientific performance in the respective field
and relevance to veterinary medicine. The
VUW also cooperates with Vienna’s INiTS
Universitäres Gründerservice Wien, a service
for young entrepreneurs. And the fact
that useful specialized know-how can itself
be exported is proven by a joint project
involving the VUW, the Schönbrunn Zoo
and the National University in Ulan Bator for
repatriation of the Przewalski’s horses to
their original homeland, Mongolia.
Particularly innovative was and still is the
use of Austrian RFID know-how to fight animal
epidemics. The extensive knowledge of
Radio Frequency Identification possessed by
Philips Semiconductors Styria, the Austrian
Highlight • Highlight • Highlight • Highlight
With Animal Health GmbH, Novartis has its own export firm
for highly specific veterinary antibiotics intended to prevent
and treat bacterial diseases. In Austria, the Novartis Animal
Health AG sells pharmaceutical products for small and domesticated
animals.
VA TECH ELIN EBG supplied the building technology for what
was at the time the most modern pharmaceutical manufacturing
facility in Europe, PLIVA d.d., based in Zagreb, Croatia,
where products for veterinary medicine are made in addition
to foodstuffs, pesticides, cosmetics and hygiene products. After
construction of the new manufacturing plant for oral solid
forms in Zagreb, PLIVA d.d. entered new territory, as this was
its first large-scale investment with a general contractor.
This project was realised with the aid of VA TECH ELIN EBG’s
Elveco Lhoest technology concept.
competence centre for wireless identification
technologies in Gratkorn, provides a foundation
for systematic action relating to efficient
collection and recording of data about domesticated
animals. As a result, the outbreak of
animal epidemics can be effectively contained,
thereby ensuring that consumers have
healthy food to buy. While tagging with a
computer chip according to ISO standard
11784/85 is optional now, on January 1,
2008, after a transitional phase, it will become
obligatory for EU members with a sheep and
goat population of more than 600,000. All
information will be gathered in a central database
in each member country. Comparable
action is being taken in North America: In
Canada, electronic tagging became mandatory
on January 1, 2005, and in the USA, discussions
are underway concerning obligatory
electronic tagging of all domestic animals.
LiMed, the Austrian laboratory, research
and development company, has begun marketing
successful innovations intended for
human medicine – with modified recipes to
produce similar effects on animals – under
the brand name Melotex. Melotex is intended
especially for the digestive tracts of dogs
and cats.
A more comprehensive view of things in
preventative animal nutrition has already
been provided by the Royal Canin Veterinary
Diets product line, which combines the "best
of both worlds”: respect for and familiarity
with animals, specialized know-now concerning
proper nutrition and continuous innovations
from Royal Canin Österreich GmbH,
joined by the scientific knowledge produced
at the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, the
world’s leading authority for the keeping of
and feeding of pets. Each nutrition plan goes
beyond the treatment of a certain disease, as
they also take into account the effects of
obesity on joints, coat and skin in addition
to the risk of diabetes. ❚
Even veterinary medicine represents
an interesting and significant market.
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austriantrade.org
112/2005
© point of view/Robert Alexander Herbst