Vienna, Austria - on December 10, 2020, BIOTECH AUSTRIA was founded as the first interest group for the biotechnology industry in Austria. The initiative to found the company came from board members of APEIRON Biologics AG, Haplogen Bioscience GmbH, Hookipa Pharma GmbH and Lexogen GmbH.
The aim of BIOTECH AUSTRIA is the establishment of an independent, independent interest group for Austrian biotechnology, the promotion of an innovative and financially strong branch of 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 around 2000 employees and is one of the most important drivers in the healthcare sector. The Life Science Report 2018 by aws (Austria Wirtschaftsservice) attests to continuous growth in the industry. With a current sales volume of around 14 billion euros in the biotechnology & pharmaceutical industry, which is exclusively attributable to research, development and production, it is also an increasingly 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, as a GLP and GMP-certified contract laboratory and service provider in the biotech industry, supports and accompanies biotech companies in the early phases of product development through to market release in the biotech industry and would therefore like to get actively involved, exchange and expand knowledge and experience.
“In 2020, 70% of the analysis projects carried out by VelaLabs were carried out by biotechnology companies that carry out their own research. Among these many projects, we were particularly proud to be able to carry out the evaluation of the clinical study on the COVID drug from Apeiron, ”said Albert Lauss, Chief Operating Officer and Klaus Hajszan, Chief Quality Officer and member of the VelaLabs management.
Markus Roucka, Member of the Management and Head of Business Development at VelaLabs, on the potential of the newly founded industry association: “We want to support BIOTECH AUSTRIA and our customers above all with our many years of experience in product development under GMP and GCLP and our market expertise. With this know-how, we would like to make a valuable contribution to strategic and content-related communication topics at BIOTECH AUSTRIA. In this way we can contribute to increasing the awareness of the biotech industry and Austria as a location and help prepare the way for innovative developments in the health sector.
About VelaLabs:
VelaLabs (founded in 2006) is a global, GLP / GMP-certified and GCLP-compliant contract laboratory that
