The animal health industry is experiencing a fundamental change in the way it develops innovative new products and services, the Animal Health Distributor’s Association Conference in Birmingham was told.
Industry specialist George Gunn, founder and CEO of Stonehaven Consulting, said animal care was responding to a number of key drivers that were moving traditional animal health to broader animal care.
“Although the industry is spending more on R&D, the number of NCE approvals has dropped steadily over recent years,” he said. “As a result, R&D spend per new chemical entity has continued to rise and is now about $100m [£76m].”
Together with Animal Pharm, Stonehaven Consulting has identified 120 key start-ups globally. Almost half of those involve pets, which are driving animal health innovation.
“We are seeing more pets that are living longer and generating a greater spend per pet. New technologies are also driving the development of novel therapeutics, services and interaction with owners,” he said.
George added that animal care was currently worth about $60bn globally and was estimated to grow 5-7% each year until 2022, despite declining R&D productivity.
