Labena, d. o. o.

The route to the most innovative pharmaceutical and healthcare solutions 

But first things first. The family of Irena’s parents ran a restaurant in the Ajdovščina area which burnt down and so they moved to the coast to start again. “I think that I have some entrepreneurial spirit in my roots and my parents taught us to manage on our own.” Together with her two siblings they sold fruit and quickly discovered that location is key to earning money. “This was not an insignificant realization; I benefited from it also with Labena. It is very important on which market you are present, but if you are good, the doors to new markets will open by themselves,” says the founder, while her son Borut, today the Director of the company, adds that working with his mother is a challenge and a reward at the same time. An interesting fact: Labena is the only Slovenian family company in which both mother and son have been awarded a prize from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia.

Labena - one of a kind in Europe

Labena first represented foreign producers of laboratory equipment, later adding repair services and development of its own calibration algorithms for high-tech equipment. In 2015, the company bought a laboratory from Bia Separations in Ajdovščina and upgraded it. “We added content to sales, cooperating in cutting-edge projects. Currently, there is no company in Europe that acts as a representative for equipment and also has its own service or research lab to search for unique solutions in the field of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare,” adds Borut, owner of 10% of the company, the remainder of which is part-owned by Irena (41%) and the company (49%).

Equipment operates day and night

Today, the company’s operations have two major pillars, the first of which includes selling high-tech equipment to the pharmaceutical, food, materials and life science industries. These are devices made outside Slovenia which are upgraded in Labena with their own “smart” solutions, thus making them applicable to specific analytical research. The second pillar involves their own laboratories conducting tests of medical products for domestic and global pharmaceutical giants. The high-end chemical laboratory is certified in accordance with international quality standards of good manufacturing practice (GMP certificate) which is essential for conducting serious analyses of pharmaceuticals at the global level. Processes and tasks conducted in the Labena lab are also reviewed and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration which enables Labena to test and sell medicinal products to the pharmaceutical industry, including the US market. “We have devices that operate day and night. Thus, for example, we get samples for a pill, dissolve them according to the instructions of a pharmacist, conduct tests, issue the analysis results and submit them to the pharmacist who then launches the medicinal product on the market. The process can also be the other way round: a pharmacist can produce a new medicinal product and ask us to carry out the whole procedure and develop a method,” explains the Director and driving force behind the company. Labena has permits, not only for testing of medicinal products, but also for their production. 

New leadership – new impetus

Borut joined the company in 2007 and has experienced development from the bottom up. He has been a warehouse man, salesman, product manager, program developer and representative in finding new partners. He assumed the role of Director in 2012, introducing his own vision for the company’s development. From the beginning, Labena has employed highly-educated personnel such as food and chemical technology engineers. Today, it recruits academically-gifted holders of MAs and PhDs, who after joining upgrade their theoretical knowledge with practical expertise. Staff are regularly assigned to training abroad and attend in-house workshops. “Our employees spend an average of two to four weeks on education and training courses annually. We also have employees with PhDs in our sales department, for this is a very complex and demanding field. We have our academy of students, who like working with us; this is an investment in the future for us all,” explains Borut. He also says that the company allows employees the freedom to spend a fifth of their working time concentrating on development, research and new ideas. “This is work for their soul, which in the long run brings necessary development and progression of their profession and the most innovative services and products,” continues Mr Čeh, adding that enthusiastic talents also come to the company from abroad. 

Detection of cancer and prevention of injuries of top athletes

What are the company’s most interesting projects? Their advanced processes enable them to analyze samples from Slovenia’s karst caves to determine whether the famous “Human Fish” salamander lives in the water, how many there are and from which species. Similar techniques have led to discoveries of mutated organisms resulting from the use of pesticides. 

Of particular interest are studies in the field of early cancer detection. In their laboratories they have conducted blood analysis procedures for colon cancer detection, together with the Golnik Clinic, developing markers that can identify its presence. In cooperation with Diagenomi, a spin-off company, they have marketed a test which shows whether breast cancer is aggressive in nature and whether a course of chemotherapy would be successful. In Slovenia this test will soon be generally applied as it should be financed by state insurance, also thanks to Labena and Diagenomi. “Yes, the progress is that advanced. The problem is not that something cannot be achieved, but that the system is so organized that doctors do not have access to innovation and they mainly operate and treat using 'curative’ approaches. Healthcare is still overly focused on treatment and not on prevention. For example, the waiting period for prostate cancer is between six and eight months, while the cancer can progress from the non-aggressive to the aggressive state in a few months, after which only chemotherapy or medicinal products with pronounced side effects are effective.” Another test the company successfully markets and intends to carry out in its laboratories is for prostate cancer, which indicates whether the cancer is aggressive. “Its results are 99% reliable, but the health insurance company does not cover it, at least for now,” explains Borut. 

A high-profile project involving cooperation between the company, Diagenomi, an orthopedic clinic in Santa Monica, CA and a clinic for top footballers in Italy concerns assessment of the risk of cruciate ligament injuries. The idea is to develop a test analyzing athletes’ saliva, on the basis of which types of training could be adjusted accordingly. They also cooperate with the renowned American clinic where world champions, including NBA basketball players and world-class skiers have undergone surgery. Top performers from major European football clubs come to the clinic in Italy to have precautionary examinations and screenings. These are the peaks of practical science application which have been scaled by Slovenians with Labena.