The opportunity of the equine market
In this week’s newsletter- BI announced the approval of a therapy for the treatment of insulin dysregulation in horses and ponies in Great Britain. A few weeks ago, we noted the publication of a peer-reviewed controlled trial in equine regenerative medicine for an allogenic equine umbilical cord connective tissue matrix. Could this be a sign of renewed interest in Equine product offerings? As a horse woman for 30+ years l sure hope so. Equine has long struggled finding a business unit home – should they be part of companion animal, reside with livestock or be a dedicated team of their own? From an R and D perspective the relatively low number of horse owning households (The American Pet Products Association 2025 survey lists it as 2 million households) and lack of recent and reliable number of horses make it extremely difficult to create financially justifiable market potential assumptions. So for a long time, the equine health market has been seen somewhat of the wild west- with little need for traditional FDA product approvals or investments in solutions. However there seems to be a bit of a shift, the American Horse Council’s 2023 Economic Impact of the Horse Industry gave us some insights – 6.6 million horses, segmenting them into sectors such as racing, recreation and competition and more recently the legitimizing of the regenerative medicine (PRP) and pain management modalities (Laser, Chiropractic, Massage) for humans. While it will always be dwarfed to the broader markets of cats and dogs and livestock, equine shouldn’t be overlooked. Don’t let their numbers define the whole story.
Dr. Christine Merle, Editor
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