Vienna, Austria – On 10th December 2020, BIOTECH AUSTRIA was founded as the first organization representing the interests of the biotechnology industry in Austria. The initiative for the foundation was taken by members of the Board of Management of APEIRON Biologics AG, Haplogen Bioscience GmbH, Hookipa Pharma GmbH and Lexogen GmbH.
The aim of BIOTECH AUSTRIA is to establish an independent community of interests for Austrian biotechnology, the promotion of an innovative and financially strong industry within the Austrian economy and the representation of Austrian biotechnology at home and abroad.
The biotechnology industry in Austria comprises around 150 companies with about 2000 employees and is one of the most important drivers in the healthcare sector.
The Life Science Report 2018 of aws (Austria Wirtschaftsservice) shows continuous growth of the industry. With a current turnover volume of the biotechnology & pharmaceutical industry of around 14 billion euros, which is exclusively attributable to research, development, and manufacturing, it is also an important economic factor in Austria. The industry is young – the average age of companies is 8 years – and only 15 of the companies were founded before 2000.
VelaLabs, a GLP and GMP-certified contract laboratory and service provider in the biotech industry, supports and accompanies biotech companies in the early stages of product development up to market release and therefore wants to actively engage, exchange, and expand knowledge and experience.
“In 2020, 70% of our analysis projects were carried out for biotechnology companies having own research. Among these we were proud to conduct the evaluation of the clinical trial of Apeiron’s COVID drug ” said Albert Lauss, Chief Operating Officer and Klaus Hajszan, Chief Quality Officer and Members of the Management Board of VelaLabs.
Markus Roucka, Member of the Management Board and Head of Business Development at VelaLabs, about the potential of the newly founded industry association: “We want to support BIOTECH AUSTRIA as well as our customers above all with our many years of experience in product development under GMP and GCLP and our market expertise. Using this know-how, we want to make a valuable contribution to strategic and content-related communication topics of BIOTECH AUSTRIA. In this way, we can contribute to increase awareness of the biotech industry and the Austria location and help to prepare the way for innovative developments in the health sector.”
About VelaLabs:
VelaLabs (founded 2006) is a globally active, GLP/GMP-certified and GCLP-compliant contract laboratory that provides analytical characterization services for pharmaceuticals, including proteins, biosimilars, hormones, monoclonal antibodies, and peptides. With its broad experience in tailormade analytical method development and quality control and a highly motivated team, VelaLabs supports its customers from research to preclinical & clinical phases to product commercialization and market release in Europe. VelaLabs, based in Vienna (Austria), has been part of the Tentamus Group since 2016.
More information about VelaLabs: www.vela-labs.at or www.tentamus.com
More information about BIOTECH AUSTRIA: www.biotechaustria.org
Contact VelaLabs GmbH:
VelaLabs GmbH
Ute Jahn
Marketing and PR
+43 699 1314 3195
u.jahn@vela-labs.at
www.vela-labs.at
