Promoting student exchange and scientific cooperation between the United States and Austria – that’s the core mission of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation. Last year the Foundation installed a new interaction format to increase the networking between students and fellows, opinion leaders, decision-makers and leading companies as well: the so called High Performance Trips.

On June 13-14, the Foundation organized another trip for high potentials, this time the delegation went to Styria. Station two of the trip took the 18-strong delegation to the town of Lannach, about 16 kilometers south of Graz. This is where the company GL Pharma is based. GL Pharma was formed from the merger of the two pharmaceutical companies Gerot and Lannacher and can look back on a history spanning more than 75 years.

GL Pharma develops, produces and distributes both branded and generic products and is active as a provider in the Austrian and international healthcare sector. GL Pharma's partners are doctors, pharmacists and pharmaceutical wholesalers. Internationally, the company's products are represented by licence partners and its own subsidiaries in more than 50 countries. GL Pharma's core competences are focused on the following lines: Cardiovascular, Central Nervous System and Urology-Oncology Substitution.

Martin Barteinstein, former Austrian Minister of Economic Affairs, and his son Michael Bartenstein welcomed the delegation of the High Performnace Trip as owner and as COO of GL Pharma.
"GL Pharma is one of 9 companies that we have combined organisationally in Bartenstein Holding," reported Martin Barteinstein. "Together with Genericon, one in seven packs prescribed in Austria were supplied by GL Pharma or Genericon!" And the company continues to grow. By 2030, capacity will double from 10 billion tablets and 200 million packs.
Here we are: one out of seven, one out of nine…. Headline understood.

Production is booming and jobs at GL Pharma are in high demand. Three shifts work from Monday to Friday. The company is looking to the future with optimism and a zest for action. But Europe urgently needs to do its homework, says Martin Bartenstein. Significantly improved competitiveness is needed.

The subsequent tour of GL Pharma's production and logistics facilities and the discussion with one of the company's top managers were further highlights of the delegation's visit. Nomen est omen: High Performance Trip... Stay tuned. And curious about the next stations of the program…

Top image: GL Pharma

The Executive Director of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, Markus Schweiger, presents GL Pharma owner Martin Bartenstein with a book on the Marshall Plan.
Photo: Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation