Vet Medz

Last night on my way home from work I picked up a copy of one of the free papers used by commuters all over London to quicken their journey and distract themselves from the 20-60 minutes that they spend each day squashed insanely close to strangers’ armpits.

Somewhere between the latest on the economic down turn and an interesting piece on Lindsay Lohan’s mismatching tanned legs and pale feet was a curious little article that got me thinking about my latest conference – Companion Animal Products.

The ‘phenomenon’ on the web of icanhascheezburger.com is a site less than two years' old that was sold for an estimated $2m nine months ago. It gets more than two million hits a day and has been named the 8th most powerful blog by The Observer. The website contains pictures of people’s cats and funny captions, 10,000 people submit their efforts daily with only nine or ten making the cut.



These jokes have developed their very own subculture, constantly referring back to earlier musings. It has its own language - a cross between baby language and text speak known as “lolspeak” - with very strict rules and its own wiki conversion site, reoccurring characters and even its own mythology.

Believe it or not, visitors to the site recently attended a huge convention at the O2 arena. Many admitted to stalking their cat with a camera and not being able to look at their pet without thinking of captions in the now cult language of lolspeak.

Icanhascheezburger.com is just one example of the increasing devotion of people to their pets but it reflects the growing opportunities for product development in this area and is the main reason for the growth that we have seen in the companion animal products industry.

This years’ Companion Animal Products conference, Prague, 26-27 November 2009, has been designed show you how to spot the best opportunities for your product portfolio and predict your competitor’s pipeline. Attendees will benefit from leading market analysis, recent product launch industry feedback and the latest developments to address the unmet needs in the companion animal product market. www.animalpharmevents.com/summit



Obviously you need to come to the conference to get this expert market intelligence and industry researched information from our experienced speaker panel but for the time being I hope that you enjoy this insight into a large section of your target market’s psyche....

http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/

Save the date! 26-27 November 2008, Prague

Vaccines: They get the animal health people talking

If the topics I’ve been discussing this week with the Animal Health industry are anything to go by, AnimalPharm’s Veterinary Vaccines conference this year promises to be an exciting event.

The main topics which have emerged as being particularly important this year are many and varied but have centred around emerging diseases and especially Blue Tongue.

People are interested to hear about the public perceptions surrounding vaccination:

How governments are planning policy to respond to the threat of emerging diseases; how regulators have responded to the rapid requirement for the blue tongue vaccine; the final draft of annex I and what it means for industry; compare and contrast between the two vaccines which have been developed for blue tongue; lessons which can be learnt from the Pirbright foot and mouth outbreak; how the new variations legislation will affect veterinary vaccines; how the DCP is being harmonised across the Member States; the development of the blue tongue vaccine; overcoming problems in the manufacture process of a vaccine; industry and national planning for emerging diseases; technology updates for novel vaccine vectors; recombinant vaccines; adjuvant technology; vector vaccines...

The media circus outside the Institute of Animal Health, Pirbright, Surrey. The incident is another talking point Photo: Salina Christmas

...DNA vaccines; prime boost vaccines; plant vaccines; delayed release systems; alternative administration techniques; views of different countries on rolling out vaccination programmes for avian influenza (AI); selecting for animals which respond well to vaccination; vector borne diseases; fish vaccines; pox viruses; viral particle vaccines; development of activated pan-reactive vaccines; the melanoma vaccine for canines; parasitic vaccines, and advice for registering products in Europe and the US.

So… as you can see, I’ve got my work cut out trying to fit all of these topics into a mere two-day agenda (!) but with the level of innovative work going on in the veterinary vaccines arena at the moment and the excellent guidance I have received from people working in this area, I am sure that the result will be a highly topical and interesting meeting.

If there are any topics or specific speakers that you would like to see at the veterinary vaccines conference, or if you yourself are interested in speaking this November please leave a comment!

My goodness, my Guinness

Networking (and drinking) in action: Alex Tait, VMD (second left), Noel Joseph, VMD (third left), Olivier Roy, Cebiphar (second right)

The Animal Pharm Events team enjoy a welcome drink. From left: Caroline Capon, Gemma Cook and Emma Williams

Drinks in the bar for all!

Bottled! Display at the Guinness Storehouse

We just received these lovely photos by Olivier Roy of Cebiphar from Naomi Gill, our Divisional Marketing Manager of Life Sciences Conferences.

You can't do Dublin without a trip to the Guinness factory. Well, I missed out on that one during my first visit in 1999. Being a rugby and a rowing fan, I was more obsessed with the old Landsdowne Road Stadium and the river.

As one of the highlights of the Informa Life Sciences' 4th Annual Regulation of Veterinary Medicines in Europe conference, which took place in Dublin from 4th to 5th of March, our Life Sciences crew took the delegates to the factory for some networking and for some Guinness sampling.

If you are in the photos, let us know! And if you've got any photos of the Informa Life Sciences events you've been to, do send them to us. Who knows, we might even open a dedicated online photo gallery just for the event attendees and Animal Pharm readers.

Our reporter and online sub-editor, Jo Power, was there to cover the event. You can read more about it on our website.

Everyone likes a dark horse

Today we published a story on our website about Pfizer Animal Health's plan to fund research into new treatments for laminitis in horses in partnership with the Barbaro Memorial Fund.

The fund was set up by The National Thoroughbred Racing Association after the death of Barbaro, the winner of the Kentucky Derby 2006. Two weeks after winning the derby, he shattered his leg during a race at the 2006 Preakness Stakes. Barbaro developed laminitis in his left rear leg, and later in both front legs. He was put down in January 2007.

If you get to see the Barbaro Memorial Fund video on YouTube, you'll read all these gushing tributes from fans who were so touched by his death.

What endeared Barbaro to the US public was the fact that during the 2006 Derby, nobody expected him to beat 20 other horses in the race. His odds of winning were 6:1. But he charged ahead during the last turn and won by six and a half lengths. It was the largest margin of victory at the Derby since 1946. It was said that the jockey didn't even whip him as he finished his final furlong.

Everyone likes a dark horse. We all like the underdogs (pardon the metaphor) that, against all expectations, defy the odds and triumph. In Barbaro, we see ourselves and what we know we could be. No wonder his death broke so many hearts.