Metris - Moscow, Russia

June 3rd - 11th, 2006

Intro

As part of the Metris expansion into the upcoming markets or so called BRIC (Brasilia-Russia-India-China) countries, Ronald Bulthuis (CEO of Metris) and Levon Bachdasarian (Technical Manager of Metris) left on the 3rd of June for an 8-days visit to Moscow, the capital of the Russian Federation. Primary goal was to familiarize with the pharmaceutical industry in Moscow and the surrounding area and to start the initial promotion of Metris products at key institutes and companies.

Moscow

Like with every visit, we had the usual problems to get through customs and to explain them what kind of demonstration equipment we were bringing in. But after leaving some souvenirs we could enter Russia quickly and without any problems.
Our visit started with a quick introduction of Moscow on Saturday by our local contact person and sales agent Dima Simac. During the introduction we saw several famous places like the Red Square, the Kremlin and the St. Basil’s Cathedral or Pokrovsky Sobor (see photo) and the nowadays modern center of Moscow.

On Sunday some further site-seeing was done and the program for the week was discussed. Most of traveling was done using the Moscow subway, which is the most efficient way of transport in Moscow given the car traffic problems in and around the center of Moscow. From the photo it can be seen why people call it the most beautiful subway system (photo: subway station "Partizan").

From Monday until Friday several pharmacological institutes in Moscow were visited. During the visits, we spoke with several well-known Russian pharmacologists and also had a personal meeting with the cardiologist that did the open-heart surgery on former president Yeltsin. In general, interest in our products was very high and most of the researchers we met already heard about our product LABORAS. Most laboratories were clearly going through a developmental stage. A large part of the pharmaceuticals that are nowadays used in Russia are produced and developed in Europe and India. To change this situation, significant budgets for R&D, from the central government, are expected in 2007 and 2008 to put Russia back on the map as developer of pharmaceutics. In many cases cooperation or CRO-type of research contracts with Western Pharmaceutical companies exist or are being initiated.

On Friday, we went to Korolev, just outside Moscow, where we visited two factories producing electronics for the aerospace and defence industry. Ideas about possible cooperation in developing and / or producing advanced electronics for Metris were discussed.

To promote our products LABORAS and SonoTrack all brochures, price lists and LABORAS promotion video (ÑÐ¾Ð´ÐµÐ¹ÑÑ‚Ð²ÑƒÑŽÑ‰ÐµÐµ Ð²Ð¸Ð´ÐµÐ¾ LABORAS) are also available in russian language. Russian customers that like to call us for more information can speak with us in Russian.

Contact details of our international distributors and agents