News Briefs

Summit VetPharm makes two appointments
Summit VetPharm announced two new appointments: Doug Drbal as director of marketing and Sebastien Gray as product manager. Drbal will be responsible for leading the company’s marketing efforts and supporting the sales initiatives. Gray will manage the marketing of all Vectra® ectoparasiticide products. Before joining Summit VetPharm, Drbal held the position of director of corporate accounts at Pfizer Animal Health, where he developed and coordinated the marketing and sales efforts for multi-million dollar accounts. Gray comes to Summit VetPharm from Ceva Animal Health, where he held the position of technical marketing manager for Companion Animals and Equine. At Ceva, Gray was responsible for global marketing strategies as well as the product launch of Senilife®.

Banfield names Klausner chief medical officer, hosts annual summit
Portland, Ore.-based Banfield, The Pet Hospital®, has appointed Jeffrey Klausner, DVM, MS, DACVIM, as senior vice president and chief medical officer. Klausner joined the practice in March 2009 as vice president of professional relations and government affairs, where he remains responsible for building and strengthening relationships with universities and national veterinary organizations. In his new role as chief medical officer, Klausner is primarily responsible for driving the medical direction of the practice and helping Banfield veterinarians deliver the highest quality of veterinary medicine. Prior to joining Banfield, Klausner was the president and chief executive officer for The Animal Medical Center in New York City, a nonprofit academic and clinical veterinary medical center. For more than nine years, he served as the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota, where he led a national effort to enhance the skills, knowledge and aptitudes of entering veterinary students. He was also responsible for implementing the nation’s largest veterinary public health program. In addition, Klausner served as chair for the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences and as an academic faculty member at the College of Veterinary Medicine, where he started the university’s first veterinary oncology teaching, research and clinical program. To date, Klausner has presented more than 50 continuing-education programs and published more than 80 research papers and 20 book chapters.

Portland, Ore.-based Banfield, The Pet Hospital® also recently hosted its eighth annual Pet Healthcare Industry Summit, at its main campus. This annual event provides a collaborative environment for leaders from academia, government, industry, national veterinary organizations, private practice and shelters to discuss issues facing the industry and profession. This year’s Summit focused on “Economic and Government Challenges in the Pet Healthcare Industry.” Key leaders and national organizations tackled current issues such as the economy and how it’s affecting the industry, the veterinary shortage and capacity limitations and the American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) latest initiatives.

“There’s no better forum for bringing veterinary leaders together than Industry Summit,” said John Payne, president and chief executive officer of Banfield, The Pet Hospital. “It provides a platform for these key industry leaders to collaborate and find common ground to affect change on current veterinary issues.”

Banfield presented awards to several valued vendor-partners that help the practice continue to provide high-quality care to pets. Award winners included:

• Best Service Level: MWI Veterinary Supply, Inc.
• Best Educational Program: DermaPet, Inc.
• Best Clinical Advancement: Abbott Animal Health
• Best New Product: IDEXX Laboratories, Inc.
• Best Partnership: Fort Dodge Animal Health
• Industry Leadership Award: James E. Nave, DVM
• In conjunction with the Summit, the Banfield Charitable Trust hosted its annual dinner and auction that raised funds for the newly launched Pet Peace of Mind program, a national initiative that helps keep hospice patients and their Pets together during end of life care. This year, the auction raised more than $285,000 and donations are still coming in.

Court denies emotional damage for pet loss
An appeal seeking damages for emotional distress and loss of companionship from the death of a dog while at a vet was denied by the California’s Fourth District Court of Appeals, according to DVM Newsmagazine. The appeal sought damages for the death of a 5-year old purebred Maltese show dog. According to the lawsuit, a necropsy showed the dog likely died from aspiration pneumonia, caused by aspirating food into the lungs, following a surgery, despite the vet’s claims that the pet was given only water after surgery. The superior court declined to grant damages for emotional and companionship loss, a ruling the appellate court upheld. “We recognize the love and loyalty a dog provides creates a strong emotional bond between an owner and his or her dog,” the appellate court wrote. “But, given California law does not allow parents to recover for the loss of companionship of their children, we are constrained not to allow a pet owner to recover for loss of the companionship of a pet.”

Sanofi-aventis to acquire Merck interest in Merial
Sanofi-aventis and Merck & Co., Inc., announced that the companies have signed a definitive agreement under which Merck will sell its 50-percent interest in the companies’ current animal health joint venture, Merial Limited (Merial), to sanofi-aventis for $4 billion (U.S.) in cash. Following the close of the transaction, sanofi-aventis will own 100 percent of Merial. In addition to the Merial agreement, Merck, sanofi-aventis and Schering-Plough announced the signing of a call option agreement. Under the terms of the call option agreement, following the closing of the Merck/Schering-Plough merger, sanofi-aventis would have an option to combine the Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health business with Merial to form an animal health joint venture that would be owned equally by the new Merck and sanofi-aventis. The sale of Merck’s interest in the Merial joint venture is subject to clearance by the European antitrust authorities. Merck said it anticipates completing the transaction before its planned merger with Schering-Plough is finalized, which is expected to occur during the fourth quarter of 2009. The companies said Merial and Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health will continue to operate independently until the closing of any potential combination of Merial and Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health.

“Pet Wellness Starts With a Plan” Campaign to kick off in October
The 2009 National Pet Wellness campaign (“Pet Wellness Starts With a Plan”) will kick off in clinics across the country in October, which is National Pet Wellness Month. Nearly 15,000 veterinary clinics participate in National Pet Wellness and National Pet Wellness Month, which was first launched in 2004 by founders the American Veterinary Medical Association and Fort Dodge Animal Health. For 2009, Veterinary Pet Insurance joins as a campaign sponsor. The value and importance of twice-a-year wellness examinations and disease prevention have been fundamental educational messages of National Pet Wellness since its inception. Educating clients about the value and importance of pet health insurance is new but equally important to the campaign’s mission. The “Pet Wellness Starts With a Plan” campaign will reach pet owners through a variety of educational materials specifically designed for in-clinic use, and through national public relations outreach encouraging pet owners to contact their local veterinarian and ask about wellness planning for their pet. Later this summer, clinics registered with National Pet Wellness will receive a free In-Clinic Education Kit containing checklists, an educational brochure and holder, a lobby poster and staff buttons. For more information, visit www.NPWM.com.

CATalyst list Top 10 cat-friendly cities
The CATalyst Council recently listed its 2009 Top 10 Cat-Friendly Cities. The CATalyst Council, a coalition of the veterinary community, academia, nonprofits, industry and animal welfare organizations, hopes to call attention to how much the cat is loved and cared for in these cities, and set the bar for other cities to follow in the annual rankings. The cities named include Tampa, Phoenix, San Francisco, Portland (Ore.), Denver, Boston, Seattle, San Diego, Atlanta and Minneapolis. The list was compiled after reviewing the top 25 standard metropolitan areas for such data as cat ownership per capita, level of veterinary care, microchipping and cat-friendly local ordinances.

Midmark announces retirement of Eiting, appoints Phillips as new chair
Versailles, Ohio-based Midmark Corporation announced the retirement of James A. Eiting, chair of Midmark’s Board of Directors and former chief executive officer. In addition, Midmark announced the appointment of board member David “Dave” C. Phillips as the new chair of Midmark’s Board of Directors effective Sept. 16, 2009.

Eiting, who will remain on the board as chair emeritus, was the third generation of his family to hold a leadership position since the company was founded in 1915 as The Cummings Machine Company. He joined Midmark in 1956 and served as secretary to the board in 1960. He was promoted to general manager of Midmark in 1967 and president in 1969 when his father, Carl Eiting, retired after 43 years. He recently completed a book, Focus for Success, and will be devoting his time to numerous book signings and university speaking engagements throughout 2009 and 2010.

Phillips has been an active director and board member at Midmark Corporation for the past 10 years, serving on the audit committee, the compensation committee and the strategic oversight committee. He currently holds director positions at nine private companies and two public companies and participates in six civic and community organizations. In 2008, Phillips was presented the Private Company Director of the Year award by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) at the 2008 NACD Annual Corporate Governance Conference in Washington, D.C. In 1994, Phillips became the first chief executive officer of Downtown Cincinnati Inc. (DCI), which is responsible for facilitating the economic revitalization of downtown Cincinnati. He retired from DCI in 1999 to devote full time to Cincinnati Works Inc. and his corporate interests. Phillips and his wife, Liane, founded Cincinnati Works in 1996, an organization dedicated to reducing the number of people living below the poverty level by assisting them to strive toward self-sufficiency through work.