Dr. Petrasch

Dr. Petrasch is a small Austrian manufacturer of food supplements and skincare based in Dornbirn, in the state of Vorarlberg. Its roots lie in a local pharmacy run by the pharmacist Oswald Petrasch, and the company dates its own manufacture to 1945, when Oswald and his son Helmut began producing chemical and pharmaceutical goods during the medicine shortages that followed the Second World War [2]. An independent company directory gives the same founding year [10].

The company is known above all for Anthozym Petrasch, a drinkable preparation based on red beet and lactic acid, rather than for cosmetics. Its skincare line, RMS Kosmetik, is built around the dextrorotatory lactic acid that the company produces by its own process. In 2026 the business, which employs eight people, was relaunching both its corporate design and its cosmetics range.

Oswald Petrasch was born in 1892 in South Moravia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. According to the company's history, he acquired the Dornbirn pharmacy known today as the Salvator Apotheke and settled in the town with his family; the company's timeline places this move under the heading "1892 / 1932".

The step from dispensing medicines to making them came after the war. With medicines scarce in Austria, Oswald and Helmut started building a small manufacture for chemical-pharmaceutical products in 1945. A business-directory profile of the firm describes its early output as medicinal products, with penicillin ointments as the most important items of that period, and notes that some preparations were later reformulated as medical knowledge changed, for example by replacing penicillin with bacitracin [10].

Helmut Petrasch is credited by the company with bringing Anthozym to its finished form. Today the company is led by managing director Dr. Jörg Petrasch.

In 1952 the company opened its current site at Schlachthausstraße 3 in Dornbirn, where production still takes place. Four years later, according to its own timeline, it developed the first industrial process for producing dextrorotatory lactic acid [2]. This form of lactic acid, abbreviated by the company as RMS (from the German Rechtsdrehende Milchsäure), has run through its product range ever since.

The best-documented chapter of the company's history began in 1968. Working with the German cancer physician DDr. Paul Seeger, the company developed Anthozym Petrasch as a medicine intended to ease the side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy [2]. The company names two sources of inspiration: Eastern European folk medicine, in which lacto-fermented red beet was used as a tonic for people suffering from severe weight loss and weakness, and Seeger's research into how dextrorotatory lactic acid affects the metabolism of cancer cells. According to the company, several studies then showed the product to be effective, and it was approved as a medicinal product in 1972. The directory profile likewise describes Anthozym as the company's most important product and as an additional therapy used in cancer treatment to reduce the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy [10].

Cosmetics followed in 1974, when the company began using dextrorotatory lactic acid in skincare products. This marks the origin of the line now sold as RMS Kosmetik.

The most recent milestones date from 2026. That year the company began a relaunch of its corporate and product design in partnership with the artistic strategist Marco Spitzar, introduced three new Anthozym formulations named SPORT, IMMUNE and IRON, and announced that its cosmetics would be reissued. Anthozym itself is now marketed as a drinkable food supplement, and the company describes it as 50 years old.

The company's legal notice identifies the operating entity as Dr. Petrasch GmbH, registered at the regional court in Feldkirch, with the manufacture of food supplements and cosmetics as its stated business purpose [8]. The business-directory profile, whose English text is machine-translated from German, lists the firm under a different name, "Mr. Petrasch GmbH & Co." [10]. No change of name is documented, and the company's own legal notice uses Dr. Petrasch GmbH. No parent company or acquisition history is documented.

Dr. Petrasch presents itself as a manufacture that keeps research and production in one place. It sums up its identity in four points: a focus on red beet as an active ingredient, a tradition of some 80 years in the service of what it calls pharmacy culture, lactic acid made by its own process, and an in-house laboratory for development and quality control. The company's tagline is "Ihre Gesundheit unsere Mission" ("Your health, our mission").

The company stresses its size as much as its history. It describes its eight staff, who work across production, development, administration and sales, as long-serving generalists, and says it keeps a large share of the work in-house to remain independent and to control quality. According to the company, raw materials are checked on arrival and finished products are checked again before release, and production and filling are carried out by hand.

Its mission statement centres on supplements: the company says it wants to promote a healthy lifestyle with Anthozym and its other food supplements. Skincare is a secondary line within this picture.

The core of the range is Anthozym, which the company calls its showpiece product. It combines concentrated red beet with dextrorotatory lactic acid and minerals, and since 2026 has been offered in the SPORT, IMMUNE and IRON variants alongside the original. Around it sits a broader range of food supplements, from vitamin C to other nutrient preparations. The directory profile also names a line of preparations called Espritin, based on L(+) lactic acid, as accounting for a significant share of sales [10].

The RMS Kosmetik skincare line is built on the company's own lactic acid combined with moisturising components from red beet. During the 2026 relaunch the company said the range would grow over the following months, with three product types already available [9]:

- Elektrolyt Creme – 50 ml creams in several variants, with St John's wort oil, with propolis, with tea tree oil, with tea tree oil and propolis, and a version described as deep-acting. - Ampoule treatments – packs of seven ampoules in five versions: A for acne, CO with collagen, F for wrinkles, PE with plant-derived elastin, and V with vitamins. - Face Emulsion – a 75 ml facial emulsion.

On its website the company describes its products as vegan, not tested on animals, reduced in allergens and gluten-free, and made in Dornbirn [1]. These statements appear in a general product-quality section that also covers the supplements. No third-party certifications are documented.

Dr. Petrasch is active. It runs a factory shop at its Dornbirn site as well as an online shop, and its news page records regular activity through 2026. Regional Vorarlberg magazines, including Vorarlbergerin and Thema Vorarlberg, carried pieces about the company between May and September 2026. On 29 September 2026 the company presented its Anthozym range, including the new IRON, IMMUNE and SPORT variants, at what it described as the first longevity event in Vorarlberg [6]. The relaunch of the RMS Kosmetik line was still under way at that time.