Simcro reaches finals in top Design Award

MEDIA RELEASE
March 29, 2010

Simcro reaches finals in top Australian International Design Award

HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND: Simcro has secured a place in the finals of the 2010 Australian International Design Awards.

The Hamilton-based design manufacturing company is one of 10 finalists in the Medical and Scientific category for its revolutionary Optiline TM Drencher which was developed for the new sheep drench ZOLVIX® (monepantel) from Novartis Animal Health.

Presented by Standards Australia, the Australian International Design Awards are held annually and is Australia’s premier design assessment programme, recognising Australian and international design and innovation excellence.

Six panels of judges spent 10 days assessing more than 200 products on their design merits this year. They selected 111 products ranging from agricultural and medical equipment to consumer appliances and sporting goods as finalists.

The winners of the 2010 Australian International Design Awards will be announced on June 4 in a gala ceremony in Sydney.

Simcro is in the running to receive an Australian Internation Design Mark for good design, or an Australian International Design Award for design excellence. The top prize, the Australian International Design Award of the Year is awarded to one product that the judges believe represents world class design.

“Being named a finalist in these awards is an honour for our company. It is further evidence that we are at the cutting edge of innovative design and it supports our continued faith in serious R&D investment. We are also grateful for the support of our clients in our joint drive for excellence,” comments Simcro managing director ill Rouse.

Simcro specialises in providing customised animal health delivery solutions to the pharmaceutical industry.

In 2006, Novartis Animal Health, Switzerland, challenged Simcro and several of their global competitors to supply a revolutionary new sheep drenching system to launch a new drench, ZOLVIX. Simcro rose to the challenge with the development of the Optiline sheep drench gun.

The company challenged the design of the traditional pistol-grip style drench gun, which had not changed from its basic form in 30 years.

The inherent design flaw of the pistol-grip gun is that the drench nozzle points away from the operator, requiring them to rotate their hand through 180 degrees to administer the drench into the sheep’s mouth.

The resulting incompatible bio-mechanics create significant operator fatigue and discomfort, and with sustained use, injury to the wrist, forearm and back.

The Optiline drench gun overcomes these problems by having the drench nozzle protruding from the base of the operator’s hand, allowing for a natural presentation of the drench gun with precise control, thus greatly minimising stress to the operator and animal.

Simcro currently has approximately 40 projects under development for the leading global animal health companies.

In June 2009, Simcro was a finalist in the New Zealand Agritech Innovation Awards with its Optiline drencher. In August, company director Rod Walker won the prestigious Bayer Innovators Award for design and engineering. And in September, the company was a finalist in three categories of the 2009 New Zealand Trade and Enterprise International Business Awards.

In October, Simcro won a bronze award in the 2009 NZ BEST design awards for Optiline.
In December 2009 the company won a coveted International Forum (IF) 2010 product design award from Germany for Optiline.

The Optiline drench gun is just one example of the Simcro range of animal health delivery products.

Simcro’s international partners include Novartis Animal Health Inc., Pfizer, Schering-Plough Intervet, Merial, Ancare, and Argenta.

The company currently exports over 90 percent of its products to more than 65 countries.

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