June 18, 2007

Intervet urges EU to do away with irrelevant animal health regulations

Animal pharmaceutical firm Intervet is urging the European Union to get rid of unnecessary regulations for medicines and vaccines for the animal health industry.

During last week's Agri Vision conference in Noordwijk-aan-Zee, the Netherlands organised by Nutreco, Intervet CEO Ruurd Stolp told  an attendance of over 300 people, that it takes "a minimum of twelve years" for an EU animal health company to develop a new product, from introductory planning to marketing, which makes EU highly uncompetitive in the field of veterinary medicines.

Other companies elsewhere in the world only takes 4 to 8 years to manufacture medicines and EU should avoid "overdoing things" on animal health policies especially when it comes down to emerging diseases, he said.

Stolp had lauded China and India for "intelligently using its veterinary workforce" in developing vaccine and medicines immediately.