DUTCH GOVERNMENT ENVISAGES TO PROVIDE 500 THOUSAND-EURO SUBSIDY FOR EXPANSION OF METRIS COMPANY’S ACTIVITIES IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Oct 25 2006

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The Dutch government envisages
to provide a 500 thousand-euro subsidy to the Dutch medical and
pharmaceutical equipement manufacturing company Metris for expansion of
its activities in Armenia and staff training for this purpose. Levon
Baghdasarian, technical manager of the company, said this during
the October 25 press conference. According to him, such an agreement
was reached between the Dutch government and Metris so that the cost
of transportation and installation of the equipment (which will be
provided at its cost price to Armenia) will be subsidized by the Dutch
government. At the same time, it was noted that so far no Armenian
pharmaceutical company has made an offer to purchase this equipment
whose lowest price is 20 thousand USD. L. Baghdasarian said that in the
last two years, Metris’ equipment-related programming has been done
by Metris IT Solutions company that operates in Armenia and employs
4 programmers. It was noted that the program on expansion of Metris’
activities in Armenia had a problem with finding specialists (with
the initial minimal salary of 500 dollars), and an attemp was made to
solve this problems by making respective statements and cooperation
offers in higher educational institutions. As a result, it was decided
to launch a program on staff preparation at Metris from January 1,
2007. Over the last two years, Metris IT Solutions has prepared five
developments, which have been used in the equipment produced at the
request of Glexo-Smith-Klein company. In the words of L. Baghdasarian,
Metris’ equipment software serves the purpose of creation of "main
signal recognition, registration and analysis" automated systems used
in pre-clinical studies on drug effects. There are few institutions
engaged in this field that solve software programs ensuring high
precision. It was noted that in India the payment for such work is
three times as much as in Armenia. Metris has been operating on the
US and European markets for about 10 years. The company has branches
in Armenia, Japan, Russia, Hong Kong, with the total staff of 50. It
cooperates with such companies as Phillips Medical Systems, TNO
(Netherlands), Siemens (Germany), National Instruments (US). Among
the company’s customers are GM, Roche and others.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress