introduction - Ceva USA · Entrepreneurial Spirit, the ‘founding principal’ which has allowed...

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In 2009, we celebrated our ‘tenth anniversary’ in the midst of an unprecedented crisis; a crisis which did not leave us unscathed, but from which we have emerged stronger. At the end of the year our financial results were in line with our budget – turnover up by 7,8%, EBITDA up by 16,5%, with a 5% increase in our gross margin – results which testify to the strength of the bu-siness model we have developed over the years.The pride which we have all gained from weathering the financial storm is an excellent birthday present.

Indeed, if we have succeeded in the face of the financial crisis, it is because we were able to remain focused on our core values:

Entrepreneurial Spirit, the ‘founding principal’ which has allowed us to expand all over the world. During this crisis, our entrepreneurship was reflected in the willingness of every individual to assume accountability and responsibility for results.

Solidarity, which took on new levels of importance in this difficult year, developing from a culture of ‘helping each other out’ to become a genuine company-wide, organizational solidarity. This philosophy was behind the creation of international working groups, designed to minimise the impact of fluctua-ting exchange rates, reduce our stock levels and cut distribution expenditure.

“ In life there are no solutions;there are only forces at work. Create such forces and the solutions will follow.“ (A. de Saint-Exupéry)

Marc Prikazsky,Chief Executive Officer Ceva Group

introductionCeva, 10 years already And on the brink of a new dawn

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And we can be sure that, in the future, Ceva will continue to demonstrate that it can draw strength from this culture to cement its po-sition as a global force in Animal Health. A global force which is ethical and responsible, committed to the well-being of all populations, always keenly aware of the extent to which the problems of animal healthcare coincide with the major issues facing human healthcare.

Over the last ten years, we have already made considerable progress in this respect:

Today the company occupies a very strong position in avian biology, currently ranked third in the world in this field. But let us not forget that ten years from now chicken will be the world’s most popular meat, as it offers high-quality proteins at a price that is acces-sible to all. By protecting poultry farms from major epidemics, we are contributing to the security of global food resources, in a world that is far from capable of feeding all of its in-habitants.

Ensuring the hygiene of livestock farms also represents the best method of protecting hu-man population: 75% of emerging human di-seases originate in animals.

Hence our great efforts to consolidate our presence in the avian sector, and our desire to expand the scope of our biological expertise to take in other sectors. This desire is clearly evident in our development of Coxevac®, one of the only vaccines in the world capable of pre-venting Q fever, a disease whose potential for devastation was recently demonstrated in the Netherlands.

Innovation – last but not least, the quality upon which we have relied to maintain the ex-pansion of our strategic product range, which now represents 52% of sales, up from 30% ten years ago. Ceva has always encouraged its employees to innovate, giving them a great degree of autonomy. We expect this policy to continue to yield great results in the future, as the philosophy of innovation expands into fields beyond the technological sphere: crea-ting new business models, forging bold new partnerships…

In some respects, the 2009 crisis could be seen as a condensed reflection of Ceva’s eventful history. In 1999 Ceva broke away from the Sanofi group, taking 998 employees, annual sales of €120 million and 23 offices around the world. Not many people within the industry would have bet on our success. Yet today Ceva boasts 2275 employees, an an-nual turnover which has more than trebled to reach €395 million, and a presence in 47 countries.

But looking beyond these highly flattering figures, the proudest inheritance of these last ten years is undoubtedly our culture, a culture which has developed over time to become our most valuable asset. This is why we have dedicated a whole chapter of this re-port to celebrating Ceva’s culture: make no mistake about it, a company’s culture is the crucial unifying factor which assures internal coherence, while also serving to differentiate the company from its rivals. In hard times, it is this culture which focuses perspectives, lifts spirits and inspires us to find the ade-quate solution.

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In the companion animal market, Ceva continues to excel in three core areas: cardio-logy, behaviour, and pain relief. We have always been dedicated to enhancing the quality of life and life expectancy of pets, animals which are so important to maintaining the human/animal balance in our increasingly urbanized world. The emotional link which binds man and ani-mal makes pets a reassuring presence, so im-portant for lonely or isolated people who may be weakened by age, or living with a disability.In this respect, the Cardiology Symposium which we organised in 2009 is a perfect example of our ability to form innovative, ef-ficient partnerships. This event brought to-gether, for the first time, researchers in human cardiology, academics and animal healthcare professionals from 12 different countries, who gathered to discuss the key role of aldosterone in heart failure. This unique crossover initiative is sure to lead to further collaborations, as all parties represented at the Symposium were impressed by the fruitfulness of their discus-sions. Finally, in the ‘large animals’ sector, Ceva continues to focus its efforts in the fields of reproduction and injectable antibiotics.This year, for example, Ceva clearly demons-trated that innovation is not limited to ‘new, blockbuster products’ by acquiring 5 Mar-keting Authorisations for generic products. Innovation is just as important in the field of generic products: be sure to read the article devoted to our new Clas® bottles, which are lighter and stronger than traditional bottles, and to our work on increasing the ‘injectabi-lity’ of our products. A great deal of effort and a strong team spirit form the backbone of a large network of our employees who work to-gether to deliver better solutions for our cus-tomers and make their everyday tasks easier and less expensive.

Having succeeded in establishing an original identity in the field of animal health, Ceva is now entering a new stage in its development.To realise our ambitions we must of course continue to consolidate our position in strategic areas, and to expand into new markets, but we must also learn to better organise our business.

In short, we must change our methods and expand the scope of our vision in order to achieve our goal of becoming a market leader.Perhaps we need to become more mature, but not without a certain sense of opportunism, and without losing our driving spirit of small-business entrepreneurship. We must remember that it is often from a spirit of dreaming and non-conformism that great destinies and big changes are born, and that an innovative business must constantly strive to maintain this spirit, without sacrificing the rigour which is necessary to turn dreams into successful, durable business strategies.Let us never forget how much we owe to the great commitment of our staff. We thank them sincerely for this commitment, and hope to maintain it by continuing to give them the opportunity to express themselves through creativity and enterprise.

As we prepare to confront the challenges we have set ourselves for the coming decade, we have decided to adopt a new logo, a logo which clearly symbolizes our identity: the globe re-presents our international ambition and dedi-cation to strengthening our relationships, both internally and externally with our partners.Under this new banner we march into the fu-ture, ready to rise to its challenges – as we always have done, throughout our ten years of existence.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, I would like once more to declare my pride in this com-pany, because a company without pride has nothing. But let us not forget that pride can be a fleeting emotion, and that if we want to live up to our aspirations, we must maintain the same strength of commitment and conviction for another ten years, drawing more and more upon our spirit of innovation and solidarity.

Marc Prikazsky, Chief Executive Officer

PROUD OF WHAT WE HAVE BUiLTTOGETHER

Ceva is proud of its culture

A company’s culture is one of the most im-portant factors in its success.

Every day, in a way which is subtle and unspo-ken, a company’s culture informs the way its people work. This is why the culture concerns

everybody, why it can be a powerful force for internal cohesion, and why it can help set a company apart from its competitors.

A corporate culture is an identity which forms over time, through shared tribulations and triumphs. Ceva’s culture has undeniably been shaped by the many challenges we have faced over the course of our first ten years. In this time, the company has asked much of its employees: unwavering dedication, initiative, intelligence and flexibility. But in exchange we have offered our staff a great degree of autonomy, encouraging them to innovate in an atmosphere of support, friendship and mutual trust.

It’s this mutual pact of trust which gives Ceva’s culture its purpose and dynamism.

This culture is built upon a foundation of 3 core values, which are the key to the company’s identity. They are the source of our sense of belonging, and inform our rela-tionships with our customers and partners.

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Ceva, 10 years of success founded on Entrepreneurial Spirit

Entrepreneurial Spirit, Ceva’s founding prin-ciple

When a company wants to conquer the world, there is no guidebook. Confronted with uncer-tainty and the unknown, it owes its success to the ability of its staff to show initiative, to be flexible, responsive and above all responsible and independent, in the spirit of entrepre-neurship. Staff members must be committed, but for this they need the company to entrust them with a suitable degree of autonomy.

In this respect, entrepreneurship is definitely Ceva’s “founding principle”. But this value must evolve; Ceva has grown to become a large company, and a big corpora-tion needs structure.

Our challenge for the future is to maintain this entrepreneurial spirit, while adapting it to the organisational requirements of a large organisation. We must choose to be pro-active rather than reactive, and give priority to col-lective rather than individual initiative.

Our 3 core values are inseparable, and mutually reinforce one another in our mission to satisfy customers and partners

PROUD OF WHAT WE HAVE BUilT TOGETHER

Solidarity:helping us weather the financial storm

Constantly increasing our SolidarityMoving beyond “helping each other out” to establish organizational solidarity.

Solidarity has always been a feature of life at Ceva.

But in our early years it was more a spirit of conviviality, characterized by a willingness to help each other out in tough situations.We hope this spirit will continue to exist, butsolidarity must also take a new, more struc-tured form: a success enjoyed by an em-ployee or a department is not really a success unless it contributes to the overall success of the company.

It is this spirit that we witnessed during the economic crisis, helping us to reduce ex-penses, give pay rises only to those who needed them the most, set up cross-depart-mental working groups, reduce stock, mini-mize potential losses caused by fluctuating exchange rates, etc.

This new form of solidarity is the only way to ensure that our spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation can yield its full potential. Such solidarity is demanding in our day-to-day work, as it requires every member of the company to make the necessary effort to un-derstand the difficulties faced by others, and to work together to implement key decisions.

Our 3 core values are inseparable, and

mutually reinforce one another in our mission to satisfy

customers and partners.

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Our 3 core values are inseparable, and mutually reinforce one another in our mission to satisfy customers and partners.

Continuing to prioritise Innovation, to become the market leader of tomorrowInnovation, a value which guarantees our futureIn a business environment as dynamic and rapidly changing as the bacterial cultures in our laboratories, it is essential to innovate continually. For a long time the principle of innovation was restricted to the technological domain. Our company is innovative through its products, but we also strive to give the idea of innova-tion a broader meaning.

Because for scientific innovation to thrive, a company must be innovative in all respects: The success stories of tomorrow will be those companies with the vision and intelligence to create new business models, forging bold, imaginative partnerships with suppliers, clients, universities and others.Ceva’s core value of innovation represents our commitment to giving imagination free rein in all areas, to offer the world something different.

CEVA LOOKS TO THE FUTURE WiTH A NEW LOGO

All human groups – clubs, sports teams, com-panies, countries – create their own emblems so they can be instantly identified. This repre-sentative function is what makes a logo so important. A logo makes a company visible by differentiating it; it binds together the many di-verse elements of a group of people under a single, unifying banner. For this reason, its co-lours and forms must also reflect a company’s sense of identity.

Marc Prikazsky, Ceva Group’s CEOConvention in Budapest, 2010

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A logo which is ‘global’, like our mission:

To become a world leader in healthcare

To be a responsible, ethical company

To have respect for the well-being of all people

To bridge the gap between animal health and human health

To bind together the chain of partners involved in our mission

So what does the CEVA logo mean? • First and foremost: a globe asserting our international

dimension and our openness to the changing world. Not

forgetting that the sphere is also what brings our clients

and us together under the same roof. The globe also de-

monstrates universal solidarity, team spirit based on

shared aspirations and ambitions to create one world.

• Then the ‘C’ from Ceva, which should be viewed as more

than just a capital letter. The “C stamp” is a truly distinc-

tive symbol, the signature of the group’s identity and testi-

mony to our commitment. We stand by what we do.

• In this globe, in this ‘C’ and in the lower letterset of Ceva,

you can read great flexibility, the mark of our agility and

our proximity to clients.

• Lastly, we have removed the original green and we have

kept the blue as it is a part of our DNA: blue symbolizing

both the world and medical expertise and, by its universal

nature, the spirit of open-mindedness of CEVA.

FROM iNNOVATiON

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TO STRATEGY

People often make the mistake of confu-sing innovation with invention, which partly explains the tendency to consider it as so-mething only relevant in science and techno-logy. But the reality is very different.The role of innovation in a company is much more subtle: most of all, it is about integra-ting novelty ‘into’ the status quo.Innovation is a bit like a Venetian mask with two faces: one side is ‘novelty’, the other side is ‘making this novelty a permanent reality’. And for this to happen, we cannot simply fo-cus on the technological side of innovation.

Because we could fill pages and pages with a list of inventions and new ideas which were turned down in their time, ideas which were too original, and hence too different and hard to accept. In the same way, many new technologies must pass through a long period in limbo before their worth is recognized: at first oil was nothing but a nuisance for the mining industry, but nowadays it is black gold.

If we look closely at the way in which technological innovations are rejected, it seems clear that the level of organizational innovation needed to firmly establish a new tech-nology is often greater than the degree of innovation required to invent that technology.

American industry suffered as a result of this phenomenon in the 1960s and 1970s: the country’s research and development industry was too heavily dominated by NASA. As a result the Americans had the technology to fly to the moon and build invisible stealth bombers, but they were unable to reap the benefits of this technological know-how in the civilian sphere. The Japanese, on the other hand, very quickly understood that the true importance of innovation lies in making new technology available to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.

Bernard Emery,Associate Director,

Strategy & Business Development Director

This model is easily applied to biology and pharmacy. The more spectacular the progress made in the technology of our ‘products’, the greater the need for innova-tive services to do these products justice. And if we think logically about this “innovation in services”, it is obvious that it must be powe-red by the “creation of new par-tnerships” which were previously unimaginable.

In the field of biology, great expertise is required for the development of effective new vaccines. But such developments affect the whole field of vaccination, increasing the general level of technology and good practice; as a result, the whole chain requires expert management and oversight. In this respect, the part of the chain we refer to as “services” assumes ever greater importance; in the early stages of the process, to encourage and guide the development of innovative products, and further down the line, when it comes to explaining and selling such innovation to clients. This is what we intended to demonstrate with our ‘Scientific Investigation and Support Service’ and our ‘CHICK Program’.

The same rule applies to phar-macy too. Our first contribution, “Cardiology –at the heart of inno-vation”, demonstrates the extent

to which partnerships between cardiology researchers in the ve-terinary and human medical fields will be crucial in years to come. It also reveals the promising ad-vances made in biomarker tech-nology, which could lead to a new branch of medicine which will owe its effectiveness to its specially-tailored development. The final ar-ticle, “Generics reveal their new-found status,” makes it clear that the business of generic medicines is dynamic and ever-changing, and that these development teams too are fully implicated in the drive for improvement and development.

In tomorrow’s world, in both bio-logy and pharmacy, clients and veterinary pharmaceutical com-panies will innovate together, alongside partners from all sec-tors of society.

FROM in novAtion TO strAtegY

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Solutionsbased on scienceThe massive progress achieved in recent years in the field of molecular biology, as well as in the knowledge of infectious diseases and the mechanisms of immune defence, now put us in a position to imagine totally new vaccine “so-lutions” that are infinitely better than those that have previously accompanied the develop-ment of intensive livestock farming.

Making these solutions available to farmers has become the very core of Ceva Biology business. What we at Ceva call a “solution” is not research for research’s sake, novelty for novelty’s sake or a product for its own sake.

It is a genuine chain of partners which starts very early on, involving collaboration with research institutes and the selection of ideas (concepts, processes, techniques), and then continues with the development of these ideas, their transformation into a marketable vaccine, fine-tuning of the equipment required for perfect administration, development of dia-gnostic tools, monitoring of the zootechnical performances of vaccinated animals, impro-vement of their health status, and ultimately, tangible progress in the control of infectious diseases.

‘A “solution” at Ceva means – first and foremost – the total commit-ment of the professionals working on the solution, and making their skills available to farmers.”

It is with this in mind that Ceva developed a Scientific Investigation and Support Depart-ment. Its aim is to provide in-depth knowledge about everything that concerns a disease and the vaccine(s) designed to prevent it.

Yannick Gardin, Scientific Director Poultry Biologicals

This work is generally not required by registra-tion authorities, but it ensures that the vaccine is optimally suited to the context in which it is to be used and that a better response is given to the practical questions raised by vets and farmers: efficacy of the vaccine in young animals that still have maternal antibo-dies, the possibility of interference with other vaccines or treatments, the best ways of moni-toring (“tracking”) the vaccine and evaluating the quality and level of protection provided under the conditions at hand, elaboration of full vaccination programmes, knowledge of the infectious agents and their variations, etc.

This end-to-end, realistic approach brings us closer to the farmer and makes Ceva a high-performing and innovative partner!

Vaccination at the hatchery : a new form of collaborative workThe poultry sector is going through a phase of spectacular worldwide growth at a pace that does not look likely to slow. In 2020, with the po-pulation continuing to grow and a significant part of that population still having difficulty getting enough food, chicken will be the most wi-dely-consumed meat: it is cheap, of-fers good dietary qualities as it is not particularly fatty, and from an envi-ronmental viewpoint contributes the least to the development of green-house gases.

This growth comes hand in hand with a more and more marked concentra-tion of production. A factor which is bound to have an effect in both eco-nomic and health terms on animal and human health. Remember that the bird flu viruses show particularly high levels of virulence and if they are crossed with highly contagious swine viruses, the consequences could be very dangerous to the population.

In this respect, industrial farming operations offer a more assured gua-rantee of safety for human beings. It

is easier to prevent disease at these farms since surveillance measures can more easily be applied in a large production unit and, especially at the hatchery, rather than on a large number of small farms. This means that hatcheries can play a very im-portant role in strategies to stamp out pathologies, providing they are well equipped, well managed and their staff are well trained. So it is easy to understand that success in terms of health is not merely a matter of the quality and efficacy of products, but also of vaccination pro-tocols and procedures that are beco-ming increasingly sophisticated and require more in-depth support from the pharmaceutical firms. Indeed, “industrial” vaccination requires two areas of expertise:


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Fabio De Souza,Poultry & vaccination production manager at Ceva

Biological expertise to administer the right dosage at the right moment, check the effects, and decide on corrective measures.

Technological expertise in order to take full advantage of sophisticated technology which, like any technology, requires assistance in set-ting up the machines, inspection and regulation, cleaning, maintenance and troubleshooting.These two aspects share the same requirement for staff skills and training and for global moni-toring of the process.

This is why Ceva has set up the CHICK Pro-gram, the aim of which is to assist hatchery professionals in 5 areas: products, vaccination equipment, vaccination techniques, vaccina-tion tracking, and the twofold area of injection quality and staff training.

This assistance is under the responsibility of dedicated managers in charge of conducting the CHICK Program on clients’ premises.

The first part in this program consists in fully understanding the specific issues of the far-mer in order to help him define the best-suited organisational protocol : choice of machines, organisation of the vaccination itself, staff trai-ning.

In the next stage, Ceva guarantees its pre-sence throughout vaccination, to ensure that good practice is respected and to measure the efficacy of the vaccination.

TRANSMUNE®

The WORLD LEADER in VECTOR and IM-MUNE COMPLEX vaccine technology.Since the early nineteen’s, both technologies of Immune Complex and Vector vaccines were known to the scientific community. Few companies in the world have made the ef-fort and the bet to work on these solutions in order to built the bridge between a concept and a real product in the customer’s hand. Immune Complex vaccine against Infectious Bursal Disease : Immune complex vaccines consist of IBDV-specific antibodies mixed with a live attenua-ted IBDV vaccine strain (Winterfield 2512). The concept aims at avoiding the interfe-rence between the maternally derived anti-bodies (MDA) present in the chicken at hatch and the vaccine virus.To date, the only disease in which this vac-cination concept has found an application is the IBD – the global leader in this category is a Ceva vaccine with more than 3,5 billion vaccinated birds in 2009 and expectation of 5 billions birds in 2010 : Cevac ® Transmune IBD. Vector vaccine technology provides ad-vanced disease protection (Vectormune range).

Finally, we carry out the monito-ring tasks: maintenance and repair of machines, upkeep of various reports.

The CHICK Program is a good il-lustration of this new type of col-laborative work which looks set to develop between suppliers and clients. Because in some respects, when the pharmaceuti-cal company enters the hatchery to assist its client and offer him a range of complete services –choice of equipment, set-up of vaccination programmes with their tracking procedures– it is giving itself a unique opportunity to capitalise on the experience in a far more effec-tive way than it used to do.

Not only does this new form of symbiosis offer the client the pri-vilege of having his specific needs catered for in a tailored solution, it also gives the company the op-portunity to benefit from full-scale and diversified experiences in the field. And ultimately this benefits everyone: the farmers, pharma-ceutical companies and the public, who eat better quality food and are protected against zoonoses.

PRiLACTONE®

The publication of Prilactone® clinical trials in the JVIM, pu-blication of reference for vete-rinary medicine, marks Ceva’s scientific commitment to cardio-logy. The published results de-monstrate the benefit of giving Prilactone® (spironolactone) to dogs with chronic heart condi-tions. Prilactone®’s main benefit being to increase life expectan-cy as already proven in human medecine. Valuable exchanges of informa-tion between Human and Vete-rinary cardiology experts took place at a Ceva sponsored global symposium, underlining our commitment to promoting the cross benefits of One Health for all.

*Journal of Veterinary Internal Medecine


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‘The Heart’of InnovationContrary to popular belief, innovation is rarely the result of strokes of genius from experts hidden away in their laboratories. Real inno-vation is more often the product of inventive collaborations between experts from different disciplines who come to realize that the pro-blems they are working on have structural si-milarities, or require similar skills and exper-tise. It was in this way that the end of World War II witnessed the birth of cybernetics in the USA, as researchers working in automatism and biology, the former on controlling the ratt-ling of anti-aircraft guns and the latter on Par-kinson’s disease, began to share and compare their models… with the help of sociologists, mathematicians and philosophers!

Without wishing to lay claim to a similar level of innovation, but certainly acting in the same spirit of interdisciplinary cooperation, in October 2009 Ceva took the initiative of or-ganizing a cardiology symposium, bringing together for the first time ten researchers working in the field of human cardiology and around sixty academics and experts in animal healthcare. These experts travelled from 12 different countries to join together in reflec-ting on the major role played by aldosterone in cardiac insufficiency.

One of the great advantages of this type of colla-boration is clearly the opportunity for cross-fer-tilization of ideas, and the pooling of experience which goes far beyond a simple exchange of models or information. When researchers bring together their methods, their successes and their failures, they give themselves a rare opportunity to see their work in a new light, to re-interpret and re-evaluate their own prac-tices against those of their peers.

This symposium can certainly be regarded as a major contribution to the development of ‘One Healthcare’ as a discipline combining human and animal medicine. Conference attendees were in agreement that the event produced results which will benefit both sectors, ele-ments borne out by the number of meetings arranged and partnerships established.

The main issues discussed at the October symposium were:

The role of aldosterone in heart disease, and in response the role of spironolactone in treating heart disease.

The role that biomarkers could play in the future of cardiology.

Aldosterone Symposium - Bordeaux 2009


Sylvie Bourrelier,Pet Care Product Manager

On this first topic, the fruits of hu-man cardiology research appear to explain and confirm the results observed by Ceva’s specialists in their experiments and clinical trials; that is to say the beneficial effects of spironolactone, which can increase the life expectancy of dogs with cardiac problems. The human cardiologists present were particularly interested in Ceva’s cli-nical trial, and commended its sta-tistical robustness. Moreover, they invited Ceva’s scientists to pre-sent their findings at the European Congress on Aldosterone (CESAC), as Ceva’s work seems to corrobo-rate the results of our counterparts in the field of human cardiology. The Ceva team was delighted to accept this invitation, and recently attended the CESAC congress.

For a long time, aldosterone was thought to be a hormone whose only role was to regulate salt ex-cretion in the epithelial tissue of the kidneys. But when researchers in human cardiology discovered aldosterone receptors outside the

kidneys, including in the heart, the hormone’s role in cardiac patholo-gies began to be revealed. This re-search also notably demonstrated that if aldosterone receptors were over-stimulated an increased le-vel of myocardial fibrosis resulted, a known factor in cases of severe cardiac insufficiency. This new perspective on the physio-patho-logical role of aldosterone gave rise to a series of studies which demonstrated the medical benefits of selectively blocking aldosterone receptors when treating heart de-ficiencies. As a result, spironolac-tone has assumed a new signifi-cance in the treatment of cardiac conditions, particularly since new biomarker research conducted on human patients has confirmed the correlation between taking spiro-nolactone and a reduction of fibro-sis, with a resultant increase in life expectancy.

Discussion of the aldosterone is-sue also provided an opportunity to showcase the great potential of biomarker technology.

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Biomarkers are molecules that are present in the blood, other bodily fluids, organic tissue etc. and can give an indication of the norma-lity or abnormality of a system. There are two types of biomarker:

Diagnostic’ biomarkers, which allow physi-cians to detect the presence of a disease, eva-luate its clinical development and assess the body’s reaction to the treatments employed.

‘Predictive’ biomarkers, present in the or-ganism before the appearance of disease, which allow doctors to predict its clinical de-velopment.

Biomarkers present the possibility of a new type of medicine. By assisting in the early de-tection of diseases, and facilitating precise diagnosis and a more accurate monitoring of the body’s response to treatment, biomarkers hold the promise of a more personalized ap-proach to medicine with treatment tailored to each individual case, with the potential for greater efficiency.

On the one hand treatments will be more ac-curately tailored to the specific conditions of the illness as manifested by the patient, and on the other hand drug and vaccine producers will be presented with new conditions condu-cive to the development of new, more effec-tive products. Because as it becomes easier to measure the effects of medicines, it will consequently become easier to administer them in appropriate ways.

Once again we see that focusing on products alone is no longer sufficient, but that products must be considered as elements of ‘integra-ted solutions’. It was undoubtedly this prin-ciple which made the October 2009 sympo-sium such a success.

Because the symposium had a dual signifi-cance: it highlighted not only the importance of the topics under discussion – the role of aldos-terone in cardiovascular disease, the growing importance of biomarkers – but in a broader sense it demonstrated the crucial importance of collaboration between researchers working in the parallel fields of human and animal me-dicine.

More than ever before, collaboration is the future of innovation. The great products and solutions of the future will be born of partnerships which effectively unite the individual advances made by a range of colla-borators.

That is why we at Ceva intend to strengthen our partnerships with researchers working in other fields. This is certainly true of our cardiology program, of which the October 2009 symposium laid the foundations.

By creating the conditions for more sustained, more effective partnerships, Ceva is demons-trating the reality and relevance of the ‘One World, One Health’ concept.

low-cost copies of other products. To succeed in this field, you must never forget the maxim “generic = competition and comparison”. Be-cause as soon as a patent expires, all laboratories become eligible to compete in the same race.

For this reason, launching a ge-neric medicine requires speed of action, as well as an ability to dif-ferentiate your product from its ri-vals. This simply goes to say that to gain a foothold in a market, a company must be able to appear innovative enough to stand out, while drawing on the entrepreneu-rial instincts and team spirit of its employees to get the product to market before its rivals. It is not hard to see how Ceva’s core values have contributed to our success in this field.

Generics reveal their newfound status In 2009 Ceva was granted 5 new marketing authorizations for ge-neric products – Cestem®, Me-loxidyl®, Florkem®, Marbokem® and Cevazuril®. An impressive achievement which demonstrates Ceva’s dynamism and expertise in a field whose importance is often under-appreciated.

Indeed, contrary to popular opi-nion, generic products are not sim-ply pale imitations of “innovative products” more deserving of praise and recognition.Generic medicines perform exactly the same function as the innovative product on which they are based, but cost on average 20% less. In a world where demand for food is constantly on the increase - often in domains such as milk production which are already suffering econo-mic pressures. In a world where so many people have limited means, the availability of generic medi-cines at lower prices plays a part in the broader effort to improve qua-lity of life for people everywhere.On the other hand, producing ge-neric medicines is not simply a matter of creating high-quality but


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‘Syringeability’ and the replacement of glass bottles with ‘Clas®’ bottles are both examples of the importance of innovation in galenic work. ‘Syringeability’ refers to the whole range of processes which aim to make the injection of a drug easier. Amongst these processes, the task of increasing the fluidity of the injected product is one which depends entirely on the knowledge and competence of the pharmaceu-tical compagny. This improvement to the drug is far from trivial, particularly to farmers or veterinarians who have whole herds to treat. It is a domain in which Ceva has developed great expertise: take for example Florkem®, released in 2009, which is 2.5 times less vis-cous than its parent product. This increased fluidity means a 10ml solution can be injected in 23 seconds at a temperature of 20°C, com-pared to the 56 seconds required by the ori-ginal. In the winter, at a temperature of 4°C, this becomes 38 seconds for Florkem®, while its rival takes 89 seconds – a whole minute and a half!

Behind this innovation lies a concern for the “client’s pain”, as innovative strategy specia-list Maximilien Brabec likes to call it. This pain is often hard to spot and is not always taken into account, but in fact represents a serious preoccupation for the user. Because the in-creased fluidity of the product allows not only for a reduction in injection time, but a conse-quent reduction in the effort required to treat each animal. However, to increase the syrin-geability of a suspension we need to overcome a crucial contradiction: while increased fluidity makes the task of the injector easier, it also aggravates a suspension’s tendency toward

When ‘generic’ stAnds for innovAtion

sedimentation. So in this case it was necessa-ry to find both a solvent that was less viscous than the commonly used oils, and a suspen-ding agent which would limit the risk of rapid sedimentation. And of course all this had to be achieved while simultaneously proving to the health authorities that the new solution meets all relevant standards of safety and bioequiva-lence.

The introduction of the new Clas® bottle is ano-ther example of a feat which goes far beyond expected standards. It is another example of an initiative which satisfies the criteria of :

Taking into account “the client’s pain”, redu-cing the risk of breakages,

A concern for sanitary efficacy, as unbrea-kable bottles allow for better “observance”,

Not least a contribution to the reduction of transport costs, particularly by plane : a ‘Clas®’ bottle weighs about 7 times less than its glass equivalent (14g instead of 90g for a 100ml unit).

Making this idea a reality required the mana-gement and collaboration of a whole chain of partners. Most importantly, we had to find an industrial manufacturer capable of producing a ‘multi-layered plastic skin’; not a simple task given that there are only 2 or 3 manufacturers in Europe with the requisite skills and tech-nology! Next came the need to find academic experts in the field of plastic permeability to develop relevant tests for the new product.

Ultimately, for every technolo-gical innovation which went into creating these competitive advan-tages, new combinations of par-tnerships had to be developed –all to ensure that “client pain” is ta-ken into account… In this respect, it is only right that we recognize the contribution of galenic work to innovation.

As regards entrepreneurial spi-rit, let us not underestimate the management skills required to ensure that we are first on the starting line with new generic products: materials need to be sourced and project teams co-or-dinated, working in many different areas at the same time.

The crucial factor in bringing a product to market quickly is the ability to procure a supply of the all-important active ingredient be-fore our competitors. In the majo-rity of cases, this means agreeing a deal with a chemical supplier for production of the active ingredient long before the patent on the pa-rent product has expired, prefe-rably under an exclusive produc-tion contract: Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Lost Molecule!

It then becomes necessary to set up a project team and to co-ordi-nate, in a very short time frame, the demands of the marketing team who will position the project

and the developers implicated in cases of innovation, not to mention dealing with any restraints affec-ting the industrial partners who will manufacture the new product.

The complexity of this operation becomes clear when you consider that the whole business must be executed as quickly as possible by a team of partners each facing dif-ferent restraints and challenges, but who are all inextricably linked; weakness in any one of the par-tners will be harmful to the project as a whole.

Bear in mind that the company will be working on several projects of this nature at any one time, and you can well understand this comment from one of our team members : “In 2009, we were really juggling projects. Generic medicines may be less prestigious than so-called innovative products, but you still need to be able to turn out seve-ral of them at short notice; and that takes some serious handling skills.”


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Ceva Project Team, Libourne

SolidArity And ethics

On top of the essential solidarity which binds together members of project teams, we should not forget the ethical commitment behind Ceva’s production of generic medicines. Indeed the majority of our generic products are in the anti-infective sector, and our range is part of a desire to offer farmers ‘sustainable antibiothe-rapy’. To live up to this ambition, we need to be able to renew and expand our product ranges to reflect the constant evolution of veterinary pathology.

When Ceva was founded 10 years ago we did not hesitate to act upon these principles, pu-blishing a set of guidelines for proper use of our products, and offering training to farmers.Today our contribution to the sustainable deve-lopment of our field is evident in our develop-ment of molecules more specifically tailored to the combat of particular diseases, and designed

to prevent the emergence of resistant popula-tions.

In conclusion then, how can we summarise the approach required to be successful in the manufacture of generic medicines: rapidly develop a product of high quality which meets all regulatory standards and offers farmers and veterinary surgeons an innovative solution to an everyday problem. Such a solution doesn’t come easily.

It was Saint-Exupéry who said that “In life there are no solutions; there are only forces at work. Create such forces and the solutions will follow.”

Make no mistake about it, to make successful generic medicines you have to get up early and work quickly!

Resources

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« In the animal health industry, IT has rarely been seen as a means to competitive advantage. In crisis times, innovation must come from all parts of the company. To produce more at lower cost. I’m convinced that bringing state of the art collaboration tools and techniques will impact our long term results in all our activities. The introduction of Google Apps was the opportunity to rethink how we share knowledge and information within Ceva. »

After decades of slow incremental improvements, sharing tools are now driving social revolution. Just think of how quickly we have come to depend on once unimaginable inventions like cell phones, the Internet, Blackberries, satellite navigation and iPhone applications. And this is just the start. Advances in technology are accelerating, and the social and economic pressure on businesses to increase efficiency is increasing every day. Successful companies encourage better communication and collaboration. With the introduction of its new collaborative platform in 2009, Ceva made digital communication and knowledge sharing much easier for its 2,275 employees worldwide. The plan focused on 3 key areas:

Rethinking the shape of everyday collaboration within Ceva

François Tricot,Chief Organisation

and Information Officer

resourc eS

The economic downturn had some positive effects in that it encou-raged more and more of us to dump physical meetings and travel, in favour of digital communication. E-mail, chat, voice and video com-munications are now available from any Internet connection, on both company or home computers and mobile phones. With the shift to Internet-based systems, Ceva has encouraged its employees to organise and run virtual meetings, wherever the participants may be in the world –within the office or on the move– and whether the parti-cipants are Ceva employees or our partners.

Our company has more than tri-pled its sales and number of em-ployees over the last few years, as we spread across the world. It is now more important than ever to give ready access to knowledge to those who need it, by posting it on our intranet or internet sites. Easy to use software also means this can be managed and maintained by any Ceva employee. Many new shared ways of working are now taking root as a result of introducing Google Apps shared sites, documents and videos. Every Ceva employee can be informed in real time of project changes or news about competitors.

A new Intranet system known as GALAXY was set up in early 2009 and in total more than 150 user managed intranet and extranets were created through the year. All these at multiple levels - mar-keting, scientific, regulatory and with external clients. In less than 6 months of the active project, 50 videos were uploaded - some of which this report encourages you to share.

DigitAl communicAtion

KnowledgeshAring

29

Access to knowledge: the end of the one-size-fits-All ApproAcH

The real benefit of all this is to cut waste and improve productivity. The change process is enormous and needs champions to show others the way. The IT team posts new articles in its IT BLOG and on CevApps sites.

As per the old saying, “Knowledge is power”. Being informed from as many news sources as possible about subjects essential to work has never been easier than today. Ceva em-ployees are encouraged to build their own fil-ters of information, subscribe to email alerts, source best practice from the intranet and share documents of interest.

Moreover, a dedicated multi-source search engine has been put in place. It already performs searches for R&D documentation, material published on Galaxy and for the em-ployee directory. It will eventually index all information sources within Ceva.

In the relatively near future many current wor-king practices will be seen as prehistoric -to the new generation of workers, at least. Taking a plane to participate in a meeting. Asking an assistant to arrange a meeting by phoning all the participants. Booking a video-conference room for a one-to-one meeting. Buying a spe-cialized press review. Sending a spreadsheet to 20 people and then consolidating the result.

Ceva is working hard to ensure that we do not miss the opportunity that these new techno-logies offer. To create a learning culture, a company based on real knowledge, a company providing the best tools to help individuals to succeed.

Team Ceva Brasil in a meeting

To share our progress in this area you can follow Francois, as the main sponsor on his internal blog at http://sites.google.com/a/ceva.com/francois-tricot.

gloomy background, Ceva has ma-naged to sustain a relatively stable rate of growth; this is due not only to economy measures, but also to the success of our policy of strategic concentration. Given the success of this strategy, and its likely future success, we had to be sure that our means matched our ambitions. This meant equipping the company with a production mechanism adapted to its circumstances; hence the marked increase in industrial in-vestment. But if questions of pro-

Jacques Decœur, Industrial

and Supply-Chain Director

2009, in spite of the crisis, Ceva continuesto invest massively in its factories

The crisis has certainly done no-thing to slow Ceva’s program of industrial investment; the value of this program has increased by 33% since 2008, reaching a record €16.5 million in 2009.

But this is not to say that the com-pany has been immune to the ef-fects of the crisis. While the Animal Healthcare market may not have suffered as deep a recession as some other sectors, it has still de-finitely contracted. But against this

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Ceva Lenexa, USA

Ceva Budapest, Hungary

duction capacity were a major motivation for this expansion, it is no less a reflection of Ce-va’s commitment to constantly improving the quality standards of our products. Behind every infrastructural project designed to deal with increasing production volumes lies a trinity of honourable motives: improving the quality of our products, increasing our productivity and giving freer rein to the expertise and skills of our employees.

Much of our structural investment has been in Biology, to keep pace with the spectacular growth of our ranges of vaccines: production had more than doubled in the past five years, and we expect this trend to continue…

Hence the program of major improvement works being undertaken in our factories.

And it was this program of expansion which gave rise to Ceva’s new bacterial centre of pro-duction at our Budapest campus, inaugurated in October 2009. This €8.5 million investment reflects our ambitions in the field of bacterial vaccines. On one level, this 1500m2 factory has been established in order to keep up with Ceva’s expansion in this domain. But in ad-dition to this, the new unit’s state-of-the-art production technology will ensure that the finished product is of highest quality, all the while offering the prospect of considerable reductions in production costs.

A smaller, but very significant, investment made in 2009 was the €1.7 million allocated to building a new centre for the production of our Coxevac® vaccine. This vaccine, deve-loped by Ceva to combat Q-fever, is the only truly effective product of its kind available on the market. Demand for Coxevac® has greatly increased, particularly in the Netherlands as a result of the government initiative to anti-cipate potential public health risks where Q fever was the cause of several human fata-lities in the first part of 2009. The develop-ment of the bacteria used in this vaccine, Coxiella burnetii, requires its own dedicated production site, in order to minimize the risk to people and the environment.

Work has begun on new production and quality control laboratories in the USA at our Lenexa, Kansas site. This €11.5 million pro-ject has two principal goals:

Increase culture capacity for the different strains of Marek vaccines, both conventio-nal and vectored. These innovative vaccines, designed to prevent Marek, Gumboro and Newcastle infections, as well as avian flu, are a part of Ceva’s portfolio of vaccines desig-ned to be administered in the incubator; sales of these vaccines are expected to increase five-fold between now and 2015.

Increase by 50% our capacity for strate-gic vaccines containing antigens designed to combat salmonella in the USA.

Biology tAkes on new forms...

Significant investments were also made in the other French pharmaceuti-cals plants.

Perfecting phArmAceuticAl production

But yet again, while the project may have been motivated by a need for increased capacity, it also plays a role in improving quality. The design of these new sites benefited from the expe-

rience gained in setting up our installation in Hungary, and they will offer a higher level of quality and productivity. The new labora-tories are scheduled to open at the beginning of 2011.

In Libourne, 2009 witnessed the inauguration of our new Quality Control Laboratory, representing an investment of €2.7 million. As part of our commitment to conti-nually improving our products, this 1250m2 centre expands our

capacities for physicochemical and bacteriological analysis, while offering our staff a technological resource which meets the highest standards of efficiency and effi-cacy in terms of both quality and security.

Ceva Libourne, France

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Loudéac too, during 2009 saw some signifi-cant development work. These projects re-flect the priorities of our industrial facilities policy : to increase the quality of our products to surpass GMP standards, and to increase our output capacity in line with the projec-tions of the new business plan.

A new, automated cleaning system inclu-ding new water loop, at a total cost of €550,000

A workshop extension including the instal-lation of new machinery in preparation for the manufacture of PRID® Delta.In the same vein, development commenced last year on the project to refurbish the gra-nulation compression workshop, with an eventual total cost of €2.5 million spread over 2 years. The updated workshop will help us cope with increased levels of tablet produc-tion.

Something more important than technical and economical optimisation: our workers.If our program of factory modernisation is motivated by increased demand, and the

desire to increase both quality and producti-vity, it also makes a great contribution to the improvement of working conditions.These new, more spacious premises feature workstations designed and laid out with refe-rence to the latest ergonomics; this new stan-dard should help to make work more comfor-table in our workshops, and further reduce the risk of accidents.

The founding of a new production unit pro-vides the perfect opportunity to introduce a Lean Manufacturing strategy, a program which proposes a more effective structuring of work in order to identify and remove obs-tacles to efficiency at all stages of the value chain.Finally, the introduction of new materials into the manufacturing process requires that re-levant employees acquire new technical com-petencies, with the result that their skill le-vel or profitable expertise is increased.

A very modern reformulation of the ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras’ aphorism that “Man is the most intelligent of the ani-mals because he has hands.”

Ceva Loudéac, France

Ceva Loudéac, France

Ceva Libourne, France

2 subsidiaries2 R&D centres

2 Manufacturing sites

Sales: 394.5 M€ R&D: 32,8 M€

R&D: 8.4% of salesCollaborators : 2 275

Growth: +7,8% vs. 2008

NORTH AMERICA

Ceva Santé Animale Headquarters

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35

17 subsidiaries & 6 representative offices4 R&D centres5 Manufacturing sites

18 subsidiaries & 1 representative office3 R&D centres 5 Manufacturing sites

InTernATIOnAL ZOne

EUROPE

geogrAphic

37

REViEW

Ceva’s success is due in no small part to our ability to combine a strong central management structure, whose strategic concentration we hope to further enhance, with operations in many different countries around the world. Our international operations are organized into 3 zones: Europe, International and North America. These operations are led by ‘entrepreneurs’, who have a great deal of autonomy and responsibility for their own results.

It is undoubtedly this synergy, this delicate balance struck between global thinking and local expertise, which gives Ceva its unique personality – that of a large company which has been able to maintain its agility and flexibility.

Global/local: a difficult, delicate balance

GeogrAphic review

In Europe: Ceva is coming through the economic crisis stronger than ever. The year 2009 will no doubt go down in the history books as a difficult one; our own director described it as ‘exhausting’. This crisis has demanded a great level of energy and inventiveness to compensate the dramatic drops witnessed on the traditional ‘mature’ markets, and to find the strength to continue pursuing our fixed objectives.

Indeed, overall demand for veteri-nary products declined sharply in the key markets of France, the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy. There were a number of reasons for this decline, and not all of them were linked to the economic crisis, but the combination of these factors at the same time had unfortunate re-sults for our market in 2009.

“The decisions we made in the last quarter of 2008 allowed us to continue to grow as a company in the difficult market conditions of 2009. This ability to res-pond rapidly to pressures is one of Ceva’s greatest qualities: we reduced costs as much as possible, while continuing to dedicate considerable resources to our key projects and pro-ducts.”

Philippe Bidegain, Europe Director

In the ‘Pet Care’ sector, the reduc-tion in purchasing power of many households, as a result of the eco-nomic crisis, led to a considerable contraction in demand.

After bumper years in 2007 and 2008, the dairy sector saw a dra-matic slump. The price of milk fell by 30% in April alone in comparison

39

with the previous year, and the National Dairy Federation declared it a record low, with milk selling at a level far below the cost of produc-tion. Poultry production continued to shift to-wards Asia and Brazil, regions that aim to “feed the world,” and whose competitiveness results from the fortuitous combination of se-veral key factors, including the abundance of sunlight, water, soya and maize, as well as re-latively low labour costs. Finally, the concentration in pig farming –producing meat for export to Russia amongst other countries– has shifted from Western Europe towards the East, with Poland in par-ticular enjoying a sizeable increase in activity.But this redistribution of production has al-lowed Ceva to profit from its extensive geogra-phical coverage in europe. Let us not forget that we have offices in 30 countries, in cities from Lisbon to novosibirsk. Moreover, these figures are part of an isostatic system: losses in one area can be compensated by increases in another! In this way, while Spanish pig far-ming may have had a disappointing year due to the loss of the Russian export market, Poland won this market through quality farming and strong results. Ironically, the crisis also provi-ded a helping hand: the devaluation of the zloty made Polish production more attractive.

But however laborious 2009 may have been for the European zone, it will also be remem-bered as a year filled with great successes: One such success was the Cardiology Sym-posium, a highly fruitful event that is fully des-cribed in the article ‘The heart of innovation’. Another was the DTC (Direct to Consumers) campaign, launched in the UK, which saw Ceva implementing an integrated media strategy for the first time, to boost sales of one of our flagship products, Feliway®. Another notable success was the breakthrough of Transmune® in Spain, a pro-mising new poultry vaccine which protects each bird ‘individually’ thanks to ‘in ovo’ vacci-nation technology. Why did this breakthrough come in Spain, by way of compensation for the reduction in pig farming? Because Spain is a country keenly attuned to the risk posed by livestock diseases, and because all its large hatcheries are fitted with ‘in ovo’ equipment. And also because Ceva “mobilised an army” of dedicated personnel in order to promote our Europe Management Team

products to farmers, particularly with the of-fer of technical support and assistance in the correct administration of vaccines and after-care procedures (see the article on the CHICK Program).

Finally, to conclude this overview, we must not forget that 2009 continued to demonstrate the profound changes which are occurring in our industry, a process best summed up by one word: concentration. Concentration of the big veterinary phar-maceutical companies, the ‘big names’ of our profession, Concentration of clients: in the form of in-dustrial-scale farms or large distributors or-ganized as powerful purchasing centres.This evolution of the marketplace means it is crucial for Ceva to continue with our strategic concentration, and to increase our capacity for innovation and originality.

This evolution also demands that we be ever more rigorous in meeting the expectations of larger clients, particularly when we are dealing with partners who may control as much as a 1/3 of the market. Indeed clients of this size, subject to strict controls by the health autho-rities, translate this sense of rigour into their relationship with their suppliers. Clients are therefore becoming increasingly demanding not only in terms of quality, but also with re-gards to the whole supply chain; supply has taken on an entirely new level of importance.

This is another challenge for Ceva to face, and we must continue to combine innovation with rigour across all areas of our business, as we learn to integrate new partners into our gui-ding philosophy: ‘One World, One Health’.

Years of crisis are like voyages of discovery: they may be hard going, but they also give us the opportunity to grow!

Ceva’s International Zone includes all countries outside of Europe and North America: a real kaleidoscope of different peoples, with a huge variety of far-ming practices.

Pulling together such a wide variety of different businesses requires a ma-nagement team with broad experience and cultural sensitivity. In June 2009, Gabriel Rshaid, an Argentinean vet with many years of commercial expe-rience in the animal health industry, arrived and immediately began the task of assembling his team:

The operational result was exceptional in 2009 with growth of 25.8% across the zone. 4 regional managers look after the key regions/countries: Brazil, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Africa-Middle east-Turkey.

Gabriel Rshaid, International Zone Director

“When I arrived at Ceva, I found a group of highly committed managers who were already delivering excellent results. I believe that growing is a matter of dreaming, of management and of determination. Our plan is simple: begin with the people, and then focus on the countries capable of generating growth both now and in the future.”

GeogrAphic review

International Zone: A new director for a zone continuing to grow.

41

International Convention, Budapest 2010

Brazil, the world’s largest supplier of protein, suffered in the first half of 2009. The crisis prompted Ceva’s management to reassess its position in the country and re-organise itself with a structure focused more towards the realities of the market.

New specialised business units were crea-ted, with the manager of each unit taking full responsibility for its financial performance. In a second initiative, the triple M plan – “Much More Marketing” – was launched, and the com-pany also recruited a number of key executives with strong experience in specific areas. Ceva Brazil performed particularly strongly in the second half of 2009, posting a 40% increase in profits. Brazil is a crucial market for any ani-mal health company; Ceva has a strong posi-tion already, and will continue to build upon that foundation in the future.

The Latin American business (outside of Bra-zil) is focused around Ceva’s core competence in the poultry sector. The challenge for the fu-ture will be to develop a greater expertise and influence in other species and other areas of the poultry sector, as well as maintaining our current success.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for as much as 50% of the US$ 6 billion value of the ani-mal health market across the International

Zone. Ceva has a strong presence in several countries, which are managed from a regional office in Kuala Lumpur.

Newly appointed Regional Director Ruud Aerdts’ biggest task is to build the company’s presence in the major markets of China, Ja-pan, Australia and new Zealand, where the group is relatively under-represented. The process of building for the future is well un-derway and Ceva hopes to have some exciting news to announce in 2010.

Africa, the Middle East and Turkey are grou-ped together to form a truly unique region, including many markets where Ceva holds strong positions. Although not necessarily an area of focus for many competitors, Ceva has built a strong reputation in the region and has a highly skilled management team in place.

The ability to react quickly to constantly chan-ging market conditions is vital in this region, and both the central and the various local teams demonstrated their ability to do this in 2009, generating strong growth (22.7%) while simultaneously improving operating results.

There is strong evidence that this trend will continue through 2010, as the company moves to further optimise financial ratios and build its presence in the biological sector.

A return to the 3 ‘P’s

“To run a complex business across many different countries, you need to get back to basics”, says Gabriel Rshaid. “All businesses are built around the 3 ‘P’s – People, Products and Processes.”

Ceva’s people are typical of those in many similar SMEs, in that they are highly productive and results orientated. During 2009, new pro-grams were put into place en-couraging managers to “dream” more and develop the leadership skills that will be the key drivers of growth in the future.

Product offer is a key determinant of success in any zone. Regulatory requirements across Europe and the US are now centralised and as a result relatively easy to plan for. The International Zone is ob-viously much more complex and requires a different skill set to be able to react to the critical deter-minant of “time to market”. There is often very strong brand loyalty once products are established, and lifecycle management is the-refore equally important.

In this zone, Ceva will of course fo-cus on marketing the group’s stra-tegic products, but will also work on developing region-specific pro-ducts, confident that our strong brand capital will make a great contribution to their success.

As the results for TRANSMUNE®

demonstrate, Ceva’s investment in new vaccine technologies has led to particularly strong growth in virtually all markets.

GeogrAphic review

43

Meanwhile, our Latin America operations launched their first vector vaccine – VECTOR-MUNE® FP-LT - and capitalised on favourable market conditions to produce a tremendous contribution. Having innovative new products is always beneficial, but we should not let it distract our attention from other products and, more importantly, from the processes that give our products and services value.

Customer satisfaction is the ‘raison d’être’ of our sales and marketing teams. Supplying a product alone is no longer sufficient. The aim is to provide a comprehensive service inclu-ding expert teams of scientists, key account managers and technical service personnel.

Achieving growth in parts of the world where there are often volatile market conditions re-quires both dreams and gritty determination. But most importantly, it requires professional managers who know how to combine local knowledge with international expertise, to put our dreams into action. Rapidly growing demand for protein means that livestock far-ming in the International Zone must conti-nue to expand. Ceva is already well placed to take advantage of this trend, and the compa-ny’s clear strategy makes the task easier. It feels as though we are on the cusp of breaking more records!

Cevac Transmune IBD

International Convention, Budapest 2010

2007 2008 2009 2010 budget

0

100

200

300

400

+166,7%

+278,1%

+28,8%

North America: two feet on the groundThis year Ceva celebrates its ten years, and in the U.S. market we can look back with pride on our rapid evolution from humble beginnings to formidable presence. From its very first acquisition, through the addition of Biomune in 2005 and Butler Sales Associates in 2007, Ceva has worked hard to establish its U.S. presence and increase sales in a market filled with well-established competitors. The key to Ceva’s growth has been our focus on core competen-cies and strategic sectors within an already-thriving market.

Arnaud Bourgeois, Associate Director,

Biology and North America Director

As Arnaud Bourgeois, Vice-Presi-dent of the North American Divi-sion explains,

“Developing our position in the North American market has been challenging. The crucial issue is to reach the critical quantity and quali-ty of people needed to meet the service requirements of the customer.”

Ceva’s approach to the U.S. mir-rors global corporate strategy: making well-chosen acquisitions, and generating growth through the introduction of innovative pro-ducts. Ceva’s American efforts have now been fully integrated and organised into two key sectors of activity: companion animals and vaccines. Emphasis is placed on high-quality service and technical support.

“I’m very proud of the team, and particularly our technical group led by Dr. Kyle Creech. They simply went back to science to explain the benefits of our products to key opinion leaders”

GeogrAphic review

45

Fieldwork action “Lunch and Learn”, US

The companion animal business is centred on Ceva’s highly successful DAP® and Feliway® products, and the company is rapidly positio-ning itself as the industry leader in treating behavioural disorders.

Our pet products are sold through an esta-blished distribution network, in cooperation with major partners who have been working with Ceva for a number of years.

Our vaccine operations are concentrated on poultry, and further expansion is planned very soon into treatments for pigs and cattle.

While the companion animal sector has been a key driver of the global market in recent years, it was greatly affected by the worldwide eco-nomic crisis that began in 2008 and continued through the first half of 2009. Many veterinary practices saw their business decrease by as much as 25%. The performance of Feliway® (sales up 30%) is remarkable under such conditions, and serves to demonstrate the quality of this product and the strength of our network of contacts and partners in America.

Ceva continues to work on delivering its pu-blic health message, reminding owners of the importance of minimising stress for pets, par-ticularly through treatment and advice from veterinarians. However, the average American consumer is tending more and more towards using the Internet for self-diagnosis and infor-mation on treatment options.

Professional consultation and guidance remain the most effective methods for treating stress-related behavioural issues in compa-nion animals.

In biology, our continual investment in vector vaccines through Ceva Biomune is succeeding in generating higher revenues. Two products from the Vectormune® range performed par-ticularly well, and major industrial integra-tors began to acknowledge the benefits of the new technology: better safety and improved results.

Building successful partnerships in the poultry industry is not simply about selling new ‘block-buster’ products. Ceva also continues to sup-

ply both conventional vaccines, such as the Marek’s disease vaccine, and customized au-tovaccines for specific customers.

The net result of all this growth was the need for further investment in productive capacity. In September, Ceva laid the foundation stone of a new 20,000-square-foot facility designed specifically to manufacture future vector vac-cines. The decision to invest $15 million in the U.S. was an important one. It serves to de-monstrate Ceva’s commitment to the country, and to the Kansas City area in particular. The new ‘animal health corridor’ initiative in Kan-sas was a decisive factor in our decision. The project will be finalized by late 2010 and will create at least 80 new jobs to stimulate the lo-cal economy of Kansas City. Ceva is still very much a niche player in the U.S. market, and we are striving to maximize our potential by employing teams of highly specialised professionals, now fully integrated into one structure.

Registering double-digit growth through 2009, in a market estimated to have grown by a maximum of 2%, is evidence that Ceva’s de-velopment plans are beginning to bear fruit.

With two feet, or four paws, planted firmly on the ground, Ceva U.S.A is poised and ready for further growth.

one world,

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one heAlth®

The role of the animal healthcare industry in the world has significance that goes far beyond the simple veterinary field. Ceva recognizes this, and it is implicit in our mission: the three fundamen-tal principles of our approach reflect concern, which address broader social issues.

We are dedicated to combating zoonoses, diseases which are transmitted between animals and humans and which carry the threat of serious pandemics, particularly in a world of ever-increasing mobility.

The issue of ensuring food resources and security is a vital one; at the current time not everybody in the world has access to sufficient quantities of animal protein.

Finally, companion animals are an important part of our lives, and can contribute greatly to psy-chological and emotional well-being in our increasingly urbanized society.

One World, One Health, One Ceva

® "One World, One Health" is a trademark of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

one world, one heAlth

These three issues affect us all, because in their own way they all concern human well-being: none of us is safe from all viruses, we are all eager to see everybody in the world fed properly, and we are all aware that animals must have their place in the world –if we lose sight of the man/nature balance, our world will no longer make sense.

This threefold mission is an attai-nable ideal, but it nonetheless de-mands enormous means and moti-vation, beyond the limits of what one company can achieve alone. It is for this reason, in order to live up to these expectations, that we need to be ever more imaginative in our quest to establish a ‘new’ network of partnerships.

In order to offer more effective treatments, we need to better un-derstand the pathogens that we are dealing with. This requires closer collaboration with our customers who see these pathogens develop, and are actively engaged in applying our treatments. Improving animal health demands not only the deve-lopment of more effective products, which requires constant techno-logical progress, but also an in-creasingly sophisticated standard of

application. This means continually improving the equipment needed to apply the product solutions (e.g. vaccinating equipment) but also promoting better awareness of and respect for the protocols involved.

In short, to be more effective we must forge closer links with our clients at the front line of animal health, and with the wide range of partners who contribute to our in-dustry.

One world, one health, one Ceva committed to effective cooperation with our long chain of partners and clients…

As a testament to this new colla-borative conception, we will here give details of three of our engage-ments:

The first concerns the particularly complex issue of zoonoses

The second is related to Ceva’s engagements in the field of biology in South Africa

Finally, the third and very diffe-rent aspect to be explored is our commitment to reducing the stress of domestic pets.

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Ceva on the front line against ZoonosesWe use the term zoonosis to denote any infectious disease or parasite that can be passed from animals to humans. The range of these conditions is so broad that it is difficult to summarize them as one group: they certainly do not have similar clinical profiles or incidence rates, nor do they all present the same level of risk of contagion and/or severity. Some zoonoses can be fatal to humans; others have less severe effects but can be very costly to public health authorities. Ultimately, whatever the rate of animal to human transmission, such diseases can create severe financial losses for farmers. The combination of all these different parameters gives rise to a particularly broad typology.

But, aside from their broad range, the key factor, which causes all forms of zoonoses to appear as a major global health threat (to both humans and animals), is that in a world characterized by an extraordinary mobility of people and animal products, any localized zoonosis outbreak can rapidly become a more widespread problem, or even develop into a pandemic. Such a scenario is even more worrying since it gives viruses the opportunity to evolve through mutations. In this way, a virus that is currently merely contagious could meet a highly harmful but non-contagious virus; the crossing of the two could create a new strain of the virus, which is both virulent and highly contagious, thus posing a severe danger to human and animal populations.

When we consider the question in this light, it is clear that dealing with zoonoses is as much a question of immediate treatment as it is of prevention. But it is the diversity of zoonotic diseases that makes prevention so difficult.

“Putting Ceva at the centre of the ‘One World, One Health’ program is a key initiative. I feel that it’s impor-tant for people to understand that they’re not just working for money, that they’re not just working to sell veterinary products, but that with their work they are helping to build a better future -for people all over the world.” Marc Prikazsky, CEO Ceva.

Due to the vagueness of its symp-toms, Q Fever is a particularly ‘dis-creet’ disease, and can often pass unnoticed. It is one of the zoonoses which experts define as widely un-der-diagnosed that carries consi-derable risks.

The difficulty of diagnosing Q Fe-ver is largely due to the fact that its presence can only truly be confir-med by biological analysis, and for this to happen the clinician treating the case must consider the pos-sibility of Q Fever in every case of unexplained infection.

And yet the consequences of this disease can be very serious. It is an infection, which can affect all mam-mals, and thus all domesticated animals, and is most likely to affect ruminants. Q fever’s most serious effects are on the reproductive sys-tem: mastitis, uterine infections, and miscarriages are all potential symptoms. The financial cost to the farmer can be substantial.

The Coxiella Burnetii bacterium is found in animal secretions and bo-dily wastes, and the most common route of infection is the inhalation of infected particles.

As a result farmers are at risk, and in a wider sense so are members of

the public in general when in proxi-mity to farms. Epidemiological stu-dies, which are nonetheless very rare due to the low profile of this di-sease, show that the rate of infec-tion can be very high in the human population: a study conducted in the south of France found that 5% of people in Marseille were carrying the pathogen, and in some Alpine villages the rate of infection was as high as 30%. While the symptoms may be vague, the risk to pregnant women is considerable. A study of 12,716 pregnant women conduc-ted in 1996 in Provence found that 0.08% had Q Fever, while a similar study of 1,834 women in Martigues in 2000 revealed an infection rate of

Q fever


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The salmonella bacterium poses a radically different problem. Salmonella infection is one of the most common, widespread and costly forms of food poisoning.

While farmers may not be at great risk, the presence and effects of salmonella on humans are well identified. Salmonella poisoning, or salmonellosis, is contracted through consu-ming infected meat, poultry, eggs or milk. The most common symptom is gastro-enteritis, which usually does not have any lasting side effects or require medical treatment. But sal-monella poisoning can be fatal, particularly in young people, the elderly or patients with im-mune systems weakened by other illnesses.

Unlike Q Fever, salmonella carries huge eco-nomic costs. A rising number of cases, caused partly by the bacterium’s increased resistance to antibiotics, have made salmonella a serious financial issue for public health authorities.

There are an estimated 1.4 million annual in-cidents of salmonella infection in the USA, with 15,000 requiring hospital treatment and 580 resulting in death. The cost of dealing with these cases is estimated at $3 billion p.a. In Denmark, annual costs related to cases of salmonella food poisoning are estimated to amount to 0.009% of the country’s GDP.

sAlmonellA bActerium

The precise global impact of this disease is difficult to quantify, as many countries do not report on its incidence.

But one can well understand that in this case animal biology must rise to the challenge, be-cause of the great public interest. The proli-feration of drug-resistant strains, linked to a badly regulated use of antibiotic treatments, adds a new level of importance to the vacci-nation of animals at the source of the chain of infection. In this case the close links between animal and human health issues become clearer than ever.

Drawing on our experience in avian biology, Ceva recently added two new products to its range of salmonella vaccines; both are desi-gned for the vaccination of hens laying eggs for human consumption. These two new vac-cines are Cevac® Corymune 4 and Cevac® Corymune 7. Shaped by the requirements of a sector of farming which is often low on tech-nology, these new products are genuine “vac-cination solutions”: all components of the vac-cine are contained in one bottle, allowing for a single (all-in-one) injection. This innovation puts salmonella vaccination firmly within the reach of all egg producers.

0.13%. More than half of the women found to have Q Fever gave birth prematurely, or suffe-red miscarriages.

However the incident, which has recently fo-cused attention on Q Fever, and which gives a clear idea of the potential risk inherent in each zoonosis, is the epidemic witnessed in the Netherlands in 2008. This outbreak occurred in a region known for goat farming, and a si-milar rise in the incidence of Q Fever was re-corded in Denmark and Germany at the same time. By November 25th of 2009, authorities in the Netherlands had recorded 2,293 human cases of Q Fever, of which 6 proved fatal. On December 9th the Dutch Health and Agricul-

ture ministers announced the slaughter of between 15,000 and 20,000 goats and sheep deemed to be a health hazard, regardless of whether or not there was proof that these ani-mals were infected.

This case serves to illustrate the difficulties inherent to preventative policies, particularly given that this ‘discreet’ disease has not been the subject of much research. Ceva has de-veloped an efficacious phase I vaccine: Coxe-vac®, and sales of the product have exploded due to demand from the Dutch government. To fill this urgent order we had to postpone some sales and set up a new production unit in our Budapest factory.

AviAn flu, A ticking time bomb?

Avian flu, caused by the A strain of the flu virus, is an infectious disease affecting birds, domesti-cated poultry included. In poultry the virus can produce a range of symptoms, from a relatively benign illness, which may pass unnoticed, to an infection that is rapidly fatal and leads to mass deaths, wiping out poultry industries.

In theory, avian flu does not affect humans. But in certain cases of very close contact, highly infectious strains of the virus have provoked serious respiratory problems in hu-mans. In most such cases, the hu-man victims had had close contact with infected birds, or with objects contaminated with their droppings.The problem of avian flu is thus pri-marily an economic issue, which directly affects poultry farmers in a certain number of countries, inclu-ding among others Egypt, Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico.

For these reasons alone research into effective vaccines is justified. But given the ability of viruses to mutate and cross-breed, experts

are concerned that highly conta-gious viruses which pass easily between animals and humans could come to carry genes acquired from the highly virulent strains of avian flu.

It is this grim prospect that elevates vaccination against avian flu to a new level of importance.

Ceva has developed a vector vaccine which is particularly effective in pro-tecting poultry from avian influenza: Vectormune® HVT-AI.

This vaccine is currently undergoing further tests, with the support of the FAO and the OIE.


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Human Trypanosomiasis or Sleeping Sic-kness threatens millions of people across 36 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa; the WHO estimates that up to 70 million persons could be affected, but only a minuscule proportion of these will receive medical attention, either in the form of regular treatment at a health centre with the technology to screen for the disease, or by receiving protection from the sources of the disease.

During recent epidemics, tests conducted in certain villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and South Sudan revealed an infection rate of 50%. Trypanosomiasis was identified as either the largest or second largest cause of death in those communities affected, greater even than HIV/AIDS. This gives some indication of the work that remains to be done on this front, particularly through the medium of animal healthcare. Ceva has long advocated such a solution, most evidently in our SOS Uganda Plan.

The humAn cost of trypAnosomiAsis in Sub-SAhArAn AfricA.

However the adverse effects of this disease do not stop at its terrible mortality rate. Trypanosomiasis also deprives underdeve-loped rural regions of an important economic resource: cattle farming. Such is the power of this disease to impede cattle breeding that for a long time, before the introduction of trypanocide drugs, maps of species distribu-tion showed that areas with large populations of tsetse flies (carriers of the trypanosomes which cause the disease) contained virtually no cattle, and vice versa.

Even today, in infected zones, animal trypano-somiasis is responsible for a 50% reduction on livestock holdings, and thus meat and milk production. Some experts estimate that if the tsetse fly was removed, an extra 90 million cattle could be raised.

It is for this reason that Ceva has established partnerships with a number of African countries, supplying products and services as a way of contributing to the prevention of future trypanosomiasis epidemics.

SOS Uganda, a successful partnership –In the course of the past decade, sleeping sickness has taken root in two areas of Uganda: a northern pocket suffering from an outbreak of the chro-nic ‘Trypanosoma brucei gambiense’ strain, and a southern pocket afflicted with ‘Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense’, an acute form of sleeping sickness. Epidemiological studies conducted by the University of Edinburgh have demonstrated

Ceva plays a major role in the fight against animal trypanosomiasis: our teams research, develop and supply products and services to people as part of an ‘integrated’ approach to this battle.

This focus offers a brief insight into the diverse range of actions that Ceva has developed to combat zoo-noses: our commitment to the ‘SOS Uganda’ program, our educational campaigns in West Africa and our support for academic research.

CevA on the front line AgAinst Zoonoses: the fight AgAinst trypAnosomiAsis

that cows are unaffected carriers of ‘Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense’, the parasite responsible for one of the forms of human Sleeping Sickness. Cattle were maintaining the presence of the parasite in the southern pocket, and helping it to spread further north as a result of repopulation programs. A major consequence of these mi-grations is the risk that the northern and southern pockets might become connected, which would make dif-ferential diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of the different strains of Sleeping Sickness impossible. Ur-gent action was needed. In response to an appeal by the government of Uganda, the SOS Uganda project was launched as a collaboration between two universities (Makerere in Uganda and Edinburgh in Scotland), the local authorities (COCTU), Ceva Animal Health and IKARE.

Innovative, integrated approaches to fighting the disease were developed within the framework of this project, and as a result the project succee-ded both in curbing the epidemic and putting in place sustainable monito-ring procedures. The future impact of the gains made in this project is guaranteed by the veterinary stu-dents who were trained as part of the scheme. They will ensure the diffu-sion of information about methods for combating disease, increase access to veterinary medicines and mate-rials, and take responsibility for the education of farmers.

In his opening speech to the 30th ISCTRC conference (the Internatio-nal Scientific Council for Trypanoso-miasis Research and Control), held in Kampala from September 21st to 25th 2009, Ugandan President Muse-veni specifically referred to the SOS program, declaring that:

“Uganda has managed to prevent the merging of two discrete pockets of Sleeping Sickness, thanks to the ‘SOS Uganda’ eradication campaign, led by a public-private consortium.”

For the staff and partners of Ceva, these good results are a great source of satisfaction, and serve to demons-trate the new importance that animal healthcare has assumed: it is beco-ming increasingly more significant as a means of protecting the health of humans.

Follow their story at www.stampoutsleepingsickness.com

Martin Mitchell,Ceva Commu-nication Director


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CEVAC Transmune® IbD, A global solution that works to solve local problems

As day old chicks move from the hatchery to the farm, broilers need to be vaccinated against Gum-boro disease, each and every day.

Achieving adequate levels of protection through vaccination on the farm is very difficult. Vaccines are generally given in the drinking water. Field men know that it can’t be guaranteed that the vaccine solution will reach every single bird and that every single bird will drink the needed amount of vac-cine solution. As consequence, it can’t be guaranteed that every chick will be properly vaccinated.

The timing of the vaccination is a very complex decision for the farmer and veterinarian – what is the appropriate vaccination age for each flock is the critical question.

Training farmers… -In West Africa, Ceva has assembled a network of six professional ani-mal healthcare partners over the years, each of whom works with two or three assistants. Their role (in addition to selling our products) is to promote the improvement of animal health-care, and thus increase productivity. Every year they organise and run hundreds of training and information sessions to make sure that farmers are aware of the correct methods for using me-dicines, particularly trypanocides. The integra-ted control methods for trypanosomiasis are the main focus of these programmes. Ceva has developed educational tools for this purpose, and drawn up medical guides in collaboration with our scientific partners, such as CIRAD (the Centre for International Cooperation on Agro-nomic Research to Stimulate Development).

Supporting research –In terms of research, a major breakthrough was made in 2009 by Professor Theo Baltz and Doctor Virginie Coustou of the University of Bordeaux II. They developed the first satisfactory method for in vitro production of ‘T. Congolense’. This tool, developed with the support of Ceva, will allow researchers to gain a better understanding of the disease, and thus to devise means and methods of controlling it.In addition to these long-term projects, Ceva has established a number of short-term par-tnerships with local and international re-search institutions, in order to continue de-veloping innovative, sustainable methods of controlling disease vectors.

Maternally derived antibodies, passed from the hen to the chick via the egg yolk, can neutralise the Gumboro vaccine virus, preventing or reducing the vaccine take, and consequently the immune res-ponse. Choosing the proper time to administer the vaccine is a major and not easy task.

This is the foundation of enor-mous advantage of Ceva’s CEVAC® Transmune IBD vaccine with its innovative immune complex tech-nology. The vaccine can be admi-nistered at the hatchery, either ‘in ovo’ (in the egg) or by a single subcutaneous injection at day-old, as the only Gumboro vaccination in the life of the broiler. The vac-cine consists of the Gumboro vac-cine virus and, bound to it, specific Gumboro antibodies. This makes it possible for the vaccine to enter the body without being recognized by the circulating Gumboro antibodies as foreign. These vaccine-antibody bonds (the immune complex) start to deteriorate over time, and there is a “release” of Gumboro vaccine virus in the body of the broiler. As long as the circulating Gumboro antibodies are high, the vaccine vi-rus will just be neutralised. As soon as the circulating Gumboro antibo-

dies decline to a low enough level, the vaccine virus will infect the tar-get cells, start replicating and the necessary immune response will follow. The result is a mass vacci-nation in the hatchery with an indi-vidually timed immune response in each chick.

In this way, CEVAC® Transmune IBD technology brings much less stress to both the lives of produ-cers and their chicks by providing lifetime protection, straight from the hatchery.


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Beyond vAccines to Above-And-beyond service

CEVAC® Transmune IBD, with its innovative vaccine technology has been included in a com-plete program integrating the vaccine, automa-tic vaccination equipment (allowing hatcheries to vaccinate day old chicks safely), training and technical back up for hatchery staff. This Ser-vice is called the CHICK Program.

Ceva therefore puts into place a truly integra-ted platform of vaccination, with personalized follow-up. CEVAC® Transmune IBD is provided together with automatic vaccination equipment and serviced by a dedicated hatchery team to ensure that the vaccine is always correctly ad-ministered. The equipment is itself very inno-vative and flexible allowing both live and inacti-vated vaccines to be administered at the same time, by injection and spray, thus allowing pro-ducers to vaccinate against several diseases at the same time.

A built in counting system ensures that the

So what was the problem in South Africa you may ask?

In the first place there are several different forms of Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD), commonly know as Gumboro disease. The disease can be more or less virulent, given the type of strain present and when this ini-tiative began in 2007 no one in South Africa had a complete picture of what strains were present in this country.

Ceva conducted a number of national sur-veys, taking bursal samples from chickens in production and analysing them in their Euro-pean research centre based at Ceva Phylaxia in Hungary. This has helped to determine the exact presence and degree of virulence of the differing strains of Gumboro disease present.Once the company was sure of the scientific ground, the second challenge was to convince producers that the new vaccination strategy would work. For farmers who have been taught for years that vaccination on the farm was essential to protecting the life of their chicks, to suddenly persuade them to have

confidence in the fact that the day old chick would arrive “fully protected”, was a major change.

Ceva teams therefore targeted areas in which poultry producers had been the most badly affected by the virulent strains of gumboro, to prove to them that vaccination with Trans-mune® would work. Firstly they conducted extensive workshops together with day old chick suppliers and then carried out seve-ral field trials. Once trust was established, the programme could be extended to other areas.

Finally with this huge potential market of customers waiting for a better and safer so-lution, Ceva had to convince the day old chick producers themselves, that they should also move to adopt the new technology.

The 850 000 South african poultry producers who need to vaccinate their chicks each day, now have the peace of mind that with Trans-mune technology they have one less problem to worry about.

number of chicks treated is accurate, thereby ensuring that each one receives a dose of vac-cine.

Again this change may sound simple but in practice it meant a complete turnaround in the way Ceva conducted its business. The advan-tages of mechanisation can only be realised if well-trained staff properly operates the vacci-nation systems and if there is back up support to ensure that the machines are properly ser-viced, replacing certain disposables at regular intervals.

Ceva sets up several technical teams, who now spend their entire lives working “hand in glove” with their hatchery colleagues to ensure the quality of the chicks delivered to farm.

This integrated approach is welcomed by pro-ducers that can value the improved well-being and productivity of their flocks.

InnovAtion needs the support of hArd work

Innovation once again is required in every approach to the business. The technical breakthrough provi-ded by advanced immune complex technology would never have pro-vided the benefits that it is giving to poultry producers, without the Ceva teams, who often drive to hat-cheries at 4.00am each morning to provide the technical support re-quired.

Does it make a difference?Listen to what our customers had to say or click on line to see this story on video at www. Ceva.com/actuality

“There is certainly not another vaccine supplier to the poultry industry in this country that gives us the technical service and back up that Ceva does at the moment.”David Stock, Chief Ope-rating Officer, National Chicks, South Africa.

“I think the length to which Ceva has gone by doing what they are doing now… I don’t think there are other companies who are doing what they are doing, they are really a family and they are part of our business, which is good, positive”Wynand Schreiber, Hatche-ry Manager, Eagles Pride, South Africa.


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Well-being together

Dealing with behavioural disorders in com-panion animals has become one of the chal-lenges of society. Ceva is providing an original response within the more general task it has set itself of addressing each and every dimen-sion of a problem – by seeking to offer efficient products, of course, but also by fitting this of-fer into an integrated service involving each protagonist in the chain of partners.

In urbanised western societies, pets have be-come a powerful phenomenon: more than 68% of households in the USA, 47% in England and 52% in France have a companion animal, with cats and dogs leading the way.

For hundreds of thousands of years, Man has forged increasingly close links with nature in general and animals in particular. This rela-tionship first involved a mixture of myth, fear, fascination and affection, before domestica-tion finally gave animals a whole new dimen-sion –first that of the invaluable worker, then that of the day to day companion.

The longstanding nature of this relationship is what is probably responsible for the status that our societies continue to grant pets. In a world in which three-quarters of the popula-tion live in towns and cities –a figure that rises to 90% if suburban areas are included– pets

have prolonged the stabilizing link between Man and Nature. Our attachment to them is as strong as ever and they provide a reassuring, soothing presence, in particular for lonely or isolated people or those weakened by old age or disability.

But although the reasons for maintaining this link are worthy, pets do raise a number of dif-ficulties.

Because, if the world has become stressful for people, the same certainly goes for com-panion animals. They too suffer from stress; more than us in fact, as they have less control over the world that surrounds them and are less equipped to express their anxiety, to make themselves understood, and to gain our sup-port.

It is far from easy for a pet owner who has no training in ethology to decipher the behaviour of animals, and even harder for him to unders-tand the ways in which they communicate.The result is a reciprocal misunderstanding, which further raises the anxiety of the animal, which will eventually express this unhappiness in ways likely to annoy the owner and other people. These stress-related behavioural is-sues are one of the prime reasons behind pet abandonment or euthanasia.

All the players in the companion animals sector –from breeders to owners via vets and, of course, animal protection organisations– have been working hard to find solutions to these behavioural problems. Because along with the matter of ethics, a social issue also looms large –that of the cohabitation between companion animals and people in modern society.

Ceva has long since made the hu-man/animal relationship one of its key areas of work by taking a closer look at the fields that could provide harmony in this re-lationship: cardiology, pain and behaviour. Ceva has sought to de-velop effective products but also a service-based relationship in or-der to allow pet owners to prevent and control stress-linked and be-havioural problems.

In terms of products, Ceva de-velops and distributes a range of innovative pheromone-based drugs. Pheromones are highly ac-tive chemical substances that can

be detected at long distances and play a crucial role in intra-specific communication between animals. They make animals feel secure in a relationship, particularly that between mother and offspring. By developing the synthetic phero-mones Feliway® and DAP®, Ceva has given pet owners the ability to recreate a familiar, soothing en-vironment for their animals the-reby alleviating stress and limiting inappropriate behaviour.

By focusing its efforts on origi-nal dosage forms, the company has also managed to create easy-to-use products using diffusion methods and thus do away with the more complicated administra-tions.

In terms of service, in 2009 Ceva committed to owner education programs which increasingly in-volve a whole chain of partners, from the lab to the customer and including vets and specialised as-sociations.


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In the USA, Ceva has partnered the Leader Dog organisation. Leader Dog is a not-for-profit association which breeds and trains guide dogs and then gives them to visually impaired people, thereby helping them to im-prove their mobility, their independence and their quality of life. In this partnership Ceva provides the association with DAP® collars for dogs that are in the learning phase.

Addressing a wider public, in France Ceva supports and contributes to a new educatio-nal approach proposed by the Formaveto as-sociation, called Assisted Veterinary Conduct (Conduite Accompagnée Vétérinaire - CAV). CAV was born from the observation that dog owners are experiencing more and more dif-ficulties with their animals. To provide a res-ponse to this problem, the veterinary profes-sion decided to offer support to owners and their dogs with a twofold objective: help the owners educate their dogs in order to make them more “civic minded”, and detect their behavioural disorders as early as possible. By following a course of monthly visits, owners learn how to restore a bond of trust with their animal: this bond is indispensable if they are to live with the animal in an increasingly res-trictive urban environment. On the strength of its expertise in animal behaviour, Ceva has contributed to the production of the behaviou-ral development monitoring tables that are so crucial during the learning process.

In the UK, Ceva has worked alongside se-veral organisations to improve the welfare of dogs and cats in the boarding environ-ment. The Dog’s Trust, for example, now places a dog-appeasing pheromone collar on

every dog entering their re-homing centres. Partnerships were also established with The Cat’s Protection League, Hearing Dogs for the Deaf, The Retired Greyhound Trust and seve-ral RSPCA centres. The use of pheromones is quickly becoming an important component of improving the welfare of dogs and cats expe-riencing the stress of re-homing.

Meanwhile in Australia, Ceva’s newly for-med subsidiary also responded to an emer-gency request from Queensland RSPCA to provide DAP® collars to help alleviate stress in a number of dogs recovered from horrific backgrounds. Ceva is rightly proud of its concrete action previously in its pioneering role and now of-fering an integrated, responsible approach, with ethics to the fore as always.

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Executive committee

Marc PrikazskyChief Executive Officer

Pierre Revel-MourozAssociate Director,Finance & Administrative Director

Philippe BidegainEurope Director

Arnaud BourgeoisAssociate Director,Biology & North America Director

Jacques DecoeurIndustrial & Supply Chain Director

Bernard Emery Associate Director,Strategy & Business Development Director

François TricotChief Organisation & Information Officer

Valérie MazeaudLegal Counsel

Gabriel RshaidInternational Zone Director

R&D/Sales: 8,4% of Sales

2275 Collaborators

Sales : 394,5 € Million

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