In 2022, Comac Medical celebrates its 25th anniversary. Established way back in 1997 by Dr. Milen Vrabevski in a small office in the city of Varna and having only a couple of employees, in the next 3-4 years the company has been able to turn into the largest research organization in South-Eastern Europe with over 400 employees and its own structures in over 30 countries.
Comac Medical in the beginning
Small part of Comac Medical now
Comac Medical has seriously expanded its activities for these 25 years with spinoffs and parallel businesses, and our team has earned more than 360 certificates for quality, participation, distinction and training.
The company reinvested 88% of its net sales revenue into R&D costs.
This was also stated by the Ministry of Education and Science: for the second time – in 2021, Comac Medical was awarded a Pythagoras Award in the category “A company invested the most in scientific research and development” for the period 2017-2019. According to the jury, after a tough competition, the company stepped ahead of the competition and responded decisively of the high criteria for a prize in this field. The Pythagoras Award went to Comac Medical for the second time – the company had won the award in the same category in 2016 as well. Compared to the results that led to the first Pythagoras Award, the investments on the basis of which the company was awarded for the second time more than doubled.
“I would like especially to thank my colleagues who carried this entire process of continuous investment and reinvestment in Bulgarian science on their shoulders. It is very important to emphasize the following: “Dear colleagues, this award is yours”, said Dr. Milen Vrabevski, owner of Comac Medical, at the award ceremony in 2021.
Awards and achievements
Comac Medical is the company that in 2016 put Bulgaria on the Horizon 2020 map (EU’s research and innovation funding programme) thanks to an innovative project for early diagnosis of inflammatory and degenerative processes in the lungs. The project received the Seal of Excellence from the European Commission, ranking the company also among the Growth Champions in Europe. The project director of the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises established by the European Commission (EASME), Marco Rubinato, addressed Comac Medical with the following words:
“You are among the companies with the most innovative ideas in the world.”
For 25 years, Comac Medical has been facing significant changes in the regulatory environment as ICH GCP (R2), EMA Bioequivalence Guidance (2012), FDA Bioanalytical Method Validation Guideline (2018) and successfully implement them. We are again on the wave of significant updates (ICH M10, M11, M12, M13, EU legislation), but we believe that the “less is more” culture of our Managers will continue the successful implementation journey and the company mission to be a partner to our clients in the regulatory field.
For 25 years we have encountered many difficulties and dealt successfully therewith, but the last two years have been a real challenge for every single sphere of life. The emergence of Covid-19 imposed a new world order, we also had to comply with. In addition to being part of the team creating one of the world’s most recognized vaccines, Comac Medical found another way to be useful, relying on its strict and nationally known corporate social responsibility policy. The company turned one of its medical centers into a vaccination center and opened two additional mobile vaccination points at the border checkpoints with the Republic of North Macedonia – Zlatarevo and Stanke Lisichkovo. The points opened doors for vaccination of the Macedonian population at a time when this neighboring country still did not have the most desired and popular vaccines for its population. Over 5,000 vaccines have been administered there.
Vaccination centers
For 25 years, Comac Medical has become an integral part of the progress of our society not only through investments in people’s health, but also through its corporate social responsibility program. We are proud to effectively add value to the development of society and the fact that we are a factor in its growth.
The Bulgarian Memory Foundation, created by us, is an integral part of Comac Medical’s corporate social responsibility policy. Believing that there is still unrealized innovative potential in our country, for more than 16 years we have been investing in young people to believe in themselves and to find their way to a prosperous future.
The owner of Comac Medical and founder of the Bulgarian Memory Foundation, Dr. Milen Vrabevski, has been actively standing behind the cause of helping families with reproductive problems for years. Thanks to the financial support of Dr. Vrabevski, 41 children were born. The Bulgarian Memory Foundation is actively providing financial support to large families, to socially deprived and disadvantaged people; it also invests considerable funds in the Bulgarian historical diaspora in North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova by organizing educational initiatives for integration, socialization and European perspective of young people by creating computer labs, purchase of ambulances, fire trucks, providing funds for important repairs, including construction of churches, as well as financial support for Bulgarian cultural centers in the countries where there is a Bulgarian diaspora. During the Covid-19 pandemic, protective equipment was provided for front line doctors from the Republic of North Macedonia.
Small part of the foundation’s donations
One of the main priorities of Dr. Vrabevski and the foundation is the education of young people, therefore every year they organize numerous educational seminars, where young people from Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine learn key competencies, meet successful entrepreneurs and university professors, create, have fun and make enduring friendships.
Through the “Path to the University” project of the Bulgarian Memory Foundation, entrance exam courses and career orientation meetings for young people from remote areas of Bulgaria have been financed on annual basis] in the private educational complex of Dr. Vrabevski – “Tsar Simeon the Great”, free admission for students from South-West Bulgaria and North Macedonia is also provided.
With regard to history, roots and homeland, Dr. Milen Vrabevski is the driving force and main ideologist of the successful implementation of the history school manual “My Bulgaria”. As from April this year, the second, expanded edition of the manual, implemented jointly between the Bulgarian Memory Foundation and the publishing group “Prosveta”, is a fact.
For his overall patriotic activity over the years, the owner of Comac Medical has received numerous important awards, some of them are “European Citizen’s Prize 2013”, “Enlightener of the Year 2014” and “Man of the Year 2019”.
This is just a small part of our 25-year history. A story that, thanks to all of you, we keep writing. We are proud of what we have achieved, we thank each and every employee for their contribution, and we believe that the best is yet to come!
