Rade Injac receives Prešeren Award for research achievements
As part of the presentation of Prešeren Awards to undergraduate students at the Faculty of Pharmacy, five postgraduate students also received awards for the best research achievements in the past academic year. One of the awards for best Young Researcher went to Rade Injac, who works at Lek, a Sandoz company, as development projects leader at Development Center Slovenia.
The graduate students who were considered for the award had a certain number of publications and achievements, given a certain number of lectures abroad and participated in a certain number of conferences. On this basis they determined that there were quite a few such candidates at the Faculty of Pharmacy who could become Young Researchers for the 2007/2008 academic year. The award winners were selected on the basis of achievements published in journals with an influence factor higher than four. There were five who fulfilled these criteria.
Rade Injac received an award for a paper titled Protective effects of fullerenol C60(OH)24 on doxorubicin-induced hepatotoxicity, which was published in the international professional journal Biomaterials (Elsevier). “For me the award is a really big achievement, since my path to receiving my doctorate was not a normal one, I could even say it was a thorny one, since I had to prove myself over and over again. I completed my undergraduate work at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Belgrade, so my knowledge coming in was not at the level of the Slovene students, and the Slovene language was also a major obstacle,” said Rade Injac, who has worked at Lek for the last year and a half researching laboratory development of new formulations.
Lek, a Sandoz company, is one of the pillars of leading world generics company Sandoz. It operates as a global development center for products and technologies, as a global manufacturing center for active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines, as a competence center for the development of vertically integrated products, as a Sandoz competence center in the field of development and manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products and as a supply center for the markets of CEE, SEE and CIS, sales Slovenia and sales services for Sandoz’s global markets. Lek d.d. employs about 2,820 people and achieved total sales of USD 904 million in 2006. For further information please consult http://www.lek.si
Sandoz, a Division of the Novartis group, is a global leader in the field of generic pharmaceuticals, offering a wide array of high-quality, affordable products that are no longer protected by patents. Sandoz has a portfolio of more than 840 active substances in over 5 000 forms worldwide. Key product groups include antibiotics, treatments for central nervous system disorders, gastrointestinal medicines, cardiovascular treatments and hormone therapies. Sandoz develops, produces and markets these drugs along with pharmaceutical and biotechnological active substances and anti-infectives. In addition to the strong organic growth in recent years, Sandoz has made a series of acquisitions including Lek (Slovenia), Sabex (Canada), Hexal (Germany) and EonLabs (U.S.) and sells its products in more than 110 countries. In 2006, Sandoz employed around 21,000 people worldwide and posted sales of USD 6 billion.
Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) is a world leader in offering medicines to protect health, cure disease and improve well-being. Our goal is to discover, develop and successfully market innovative products to treat patients, ease suffering and enhance the quality of life. Novartis is the only company with leadership positions in both patented and generic pharmaceuticals. We are strengthening our medicine-based portfolio, which is focused on strategic growth platforms in innovation-driven pharmaceuticals, high-quality and low-cost generics and leading self-medication OTC brands. In 2006, the Group’s businesses achieved net sales of USD 37.0 billion and net income of USD 7.2 billion. Approximately USD 5.4 billion was invested in R&D. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis Group companies employ approximately 101,000 people and operate in over 140 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.
This press release contains statements and conclusions based on projections of Lek’s future business operations. These estimates are derived from the best information currently available. In case these forecasts prove unreliable, the actual results could prove different from those projected.
For further information contact:
Katarina Klemenc Dinjaški
Corporate Communications
Lek Pharmaceuticals d.d.
Phone: + 386 1 580 22 43
Fax: + 386 1 580 24 32
communications.lek@sandoz.com
