Fort Dodge shows its ambition for Europe

By Fort Dodge Animal Health

It’s impossible to pick up a farming or veterinary magazine anywhere in Europe that isn’t focused on the potentially devastating consequences of Bluetongue disease on the continent’s farming industry. There have been a series of outbreaks of the disease, which is spread by midges, since August 2006 in countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France. Cases have also been reported in the UK. The disease is fatal in 70% of infected sheep, causing a painful, lingering death. It also affects cattle.

Perhaps it’s no surprise then that European governments and their farming industries have been united in their determination to control the spread of the disease and eradicate it if possible though effective preventative health regimes, including, of course, major vaccination programmes.

The rapid emergence and spread of Bluetongue has put significant pressure on major pharmaceutical companies to develop and licence a vaccine twice as quickly as normal. This is a challenge they have risen to with Fort Dodge Animal Health setting the pace and being first on German market. The attendance of the Hessian Minister for the Environment, Agrarian Regions and Consumer Protection, Mr Wilhelm Dietzel, at the vaccination of the first cow in Germany in May was widely publicized.

Fort Dodge, a division of Wyeth, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, has won tenders from several European governments and has also uniquely developed vaccines against all of the most commonly occurring serotypes of the disease: Serotype 8, which has now spread widely across northern Europe; Serotype 1, which is found across the south of France, Spain and Portugal and is spreading north, and Serotype 4. The company received a Silver Award for Agricultural Merit in December 2007 by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture in recognition of its work to develop a vaccine for Bluetongue Serotypes 1 and 4.

How was Fort Dodge able to move so efficiently and achieve such success with the development of Bluetongue vaccines? A key strength of the company is clearly its expertise and investment in research and development (R&D), which means the company was able to immediately concentrate significant resources on developing and manufacturing vaccines for a range of Bluetongue serotypes. The company’s flexibility was also vital as it enabled the organisation to respond to an evolving situation and, as a result, to be one of the first to market with a highly effective vaccine.

Ugo Cosentino, Vice President and Managing Director of Fort Dodge in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, is proud of the company’s achievements in protecting the continent’s bovines and sheep against Bluetongue and the significant business opportunity it has, in turn, created. “The emergence of Bluetongue is the largest market creation I’ve ever seen with hundreds of million doses of the vaccine likely to be given to livestock across Europe this year,” says Cosentino. “We identified the opportunity early and geared the organisation up to ensure we were able to provide the vaccine our customers needed.”

It is certainly true that, in the two years since Cosentino was appointed, the company has undergone a significant transformation. In 2006, Fort Dodge Animal Health was ninth in the European ranking of pharmaceutical companies. While successful, it wasn’t seen as a trailblazer in Europe.

The catalyst for change was the arrival of Cosentino, a dynamic new leader with the vision to see the significant growth potential of the European animal health market; the strength of purpose to drive change throughout the organisation and a passion to see the business achieve its full potential.

Fort Dodge appointed in May 2006 Ugo Cosentino, an Italian who’d previously run Fort Dodge’s Italian operation, to make the necessary changes to take the business forward with support from Fort Dodge’s global management team.

Within months he’d hand-picked a new senior management team, bringing in experience from the highest levels of other key European companies, and the team developed an ambitious Strategic Plan which aimed to double the size of the EMEA region’s revenue in five years. Achievement of the plan would take the company’s sales in Europe to $500 million and move it to number five in the European rankings putting it on a par with its status globally. No mean feat! Yet the company’s response to Bluetongue is an example of the enthusiasm with which it has embraced the challenge.

Geographical expansion within its established markets in Europe is an important priority for Fort Dodge. The focus, in particular, is on France and Germany where they believe the opportunity is greatest and the company’s presence is not yet strong enough. “We are looking at the markets where the gap between our current market penetration and the market potential is greatest,” says Cosentino. “We’re already taking steps to enhance our position in France and Germany and are evaluating our presence in a number of other markets.”

If Fort Dodge is keen to strengthen its presence in western Europe, it is eyeing the emerging markets of eastern Europe with even more anticipation: “These markets represent a colossal opportunity and one which we have hardly even begun to explore,” says Cosentino. “We are currently only represented by distributors in these markets and it’s an absolute priority for me to get our own people on the ground quickly.”

To equip the business to meet this expansion, Fort Dodge has scaled up its European workforce, increasing its headcount by about 20% in 18 months. It has also implemented a programme of subsidiaries reorganisation which Cosentino says is enabling it to ‘get closer to its customers.’

Key elements of the restructuring are a strengthened management team, including the appointment of Dr. Gabriel Varga to the newly established post of Director of Marketing for the EMEA region, and the appointment of Philippe Naber to another new role, Business Development Director. The company has also appointed additional European business managers for each of its key species to enable greater focus and specialisation in these market segments. Dedicated sales and marketing teams for each animal species have been established in the Fort Dodge affiliates. The company believes it is already starting to reap the results of this new approach in terms of increased sales and positive feedback from customers.

Innovation is another focus area for the company. “Fort Dodge has an unrivalled global reputation for the quality of its R&D. In fact, it was one of the aspects that attracted me to the company in the first place,” says Cosentino. “Our success with Bluetongue is just the latest in a long line of pioneering vaccine introductions and has brought the level of cooperation and collaboration between our four European manufacturing outlets, in the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain and Italy, to an all-time high.

Fort Dodge is also pleased about the 2007 introduction of ProMeris Duo and ProMeris, products launched to boost the company’s presence in the fast-growing flea and tick sector. “Our companion animal portfolio was small compared with the market potential so we made a strategic decision to focus more aggressively on this segment,” says Cosentino. “We decided to enter the market with something new, ProMeris Duo, metaflumizone and amitraz formulated as a spot-on for the first time,” explains Cosentino. “Metaflumizone, is an entirely new molecule for companion animals and amitraz is a well-known compound newly formulated. ProMeris, with metaflumizon only, has unique features for its use in cat population. We launched the products in record time and feedback from the field indicates people regard them as highly effective.”

Going forward, the company will focus on research even more strongly to ensure the needs of European markets are prioritised within the global organisation.

When he first took up his role as Managing Director of Fort Dodge in EMEA two years ago, Ugo Cosentino described the company as a ‘sleeping giant.’ Today with its revitalised management team, new structures and pioneering R&D, it is instead a driving force for animal health across Europe. “Our success is based on the fantastic teamwork we have in this company,” he says. “With this as a foundation, the opportunities for us are limitless.”