Pierre-Richard Dick: The Creative Impulse

From his birth in Alsace in 1937, the only son of a small construction materials contractor, to his premature disappearance at sea in 1992, Pierre-Richard Dick would live an atypical life.

A character of hardened steel

Pierre-Richard Dick’s extraordinary strength of character was rooted in a childhood replete with hardships. In 1940, Pierre-Richard lost his father during World War II, and that same year, his mother was forced to surrender the family home to German troops in Saverne, Alsace. She would raise her son alone, first in Dijon, then in Africa. At 11 years old, in the family sawmill in Schirmeck, Pierre-Richard Dick’s ankle was crushed by a logging truck. Another severe blow from which he would once again recover, after nine months of forced immobilisation. Even going so far as to travel a thousand miles on foot across the Mauritanian Desert a decade later, during his military service with the Spahis! It was in the face of adversity that Pierre-Richard Dick built a foundation of values that would form a creed for his entire life.

Entrepreneur and builder

In 1961, fresh out of the Maisons-Alfort school, the young veterinary doctor Pierre-Richard Dick decided to take his training further by taking a course in microbiology at the Pasteur Institute. There he acquired the knowledge that would guide him on the path to our first vaccines. At 26 years old, he joined Ronchèse, the oldest biology laboratory in Nice. His diligence quickly earned him a promotion to research director. A brilliant career opened up for him at a laboratory with undisputed professionalism. But Dr. Dick’s ambitions were entirely different. An entrepreneur at heart, the young man saw further: what he dreamed of was to create his own laboratory and discover new medicines to combat animal diseases that were at the time hardly or poorly treated.

The origin of Virbac’s great adventure, a spark: the summer of 1965 meeting between Pierre-Richard Dick and Max Rombi, who would remain his associate until the beginning of the ’80s. Six years his elder, Max Rombi had a small veterinary clinic in Nice. The two future co-founders, who shared loads of ideas and extraordinary intuition, immediately formed a duo whose synergy was the miracle that brought Virbac to life. It was Pierre-Richard Dick who gave the decisive impetus: in the autumn of 1967, he left the comfort of his position at Ronchèse to create a research laboratory: Virbac was born. In parallel, he opened a veterinary clinic in the Cap 3000 shopping centre, a first in France! For two years, he would use the income from his practice to finance the first purchase of raw materials and development of the first medicines. In 1970, he sold the clinic to devote 100% of his time to Virbac.

Ambition and intuition: an explosive mix

Who could believe, in January 1968, that the modest laboratory created in a small three-room apartment in Nice would, more than 50 years later, rank among the ten largest veterinary laboratories in the world? When preparing antibiotic powders for local veterinarians, did young Pierre-Richard Dick have a hunch of the path he was going to take? His strategic choices were visionary from the start, in any case. As early as 1969, he intended, well before other laboratories, to help provide better care for companion animals, even when the food producing animals market ws still a dominant market. At the urging of its CEO, the laboratory set its sights internationally at an early stage. Third inspired choice: that of innovation driven by the tangible needs of veterinarians, far from the rationale of basic research that he had known up until then. The foundation for long-term success had been laid. A solid foundation on which our teams tirelessly capitalise to sustain a company steeped in human values, with a desire to harness innovation in order to address animal health issues. 

Pierre-Richard Dick was and would forever remain a workaholic. He slept very little: three to four hours a night. And demonstrated an insatiable curiosity. He never stopped reading, researching, travelling, and meeting frequently with people, documenting all his observations and ideas in the small notebook that he always had on him. How many times would his employees find a page of his notebook or a scientific article published in other regions on their desk, with a suggestion from him to delve into the subject! For the veterinary surgeon, knowledge and curiosity, which are at the root of innovation, as well as audacity and risk-taking, are the foundation of the greatest collective successes. These are the cardinal points of the Virbac spirit that our teams continue to espouse today.