News from Brakke Consulting

Animal Health News and Notes · July 24, 2026
CVS Expands Into Pet Medications
Editora: Christine Merle DVM, MBA, CVPM

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Notícias sobre ganhos:

Nestlé Purina announced its half-year results for 2026 with sales of CHF43.109B (US$ 52.902B) representing organic growth of 3.6%. The Petcare category saw organic growth of 2.7% with strength in cat sales noted. (company press releases)
Virbac announced its second quarter results for 2026 with €768M (US $ 873.1M) for first half of 2026 representing a 7.4% increase over prior year at constant exchange rate and scope. Growth was driven by contributions from its “Supercharge” platform. (comunicado de imprensa da empresa)

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Notícias de empresas dos EUA

CVS Healthannounced the availability of commonly prescribed pet medication at their ~9,000 locations nationwide. (comunicado de imprensa da empresa)
Boerhringer Ingelheim has become a Human-Animal Bond Certified Company from the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) and NAVC. (finanças.yahoo.com)
Marteappointed Christina Ruggiero as North American Regional President for Pet Nutrition business. (comunicado de imprensa da empresa)
A US Court of Appeals for the 10^ºCircuit reversed a lower court’s 2024 dismissal of claims from KetoNatural Pet Foods contra Nutrição para animais de estimação da Hill's regarding false statements linking grain-free pet food to canine heart disease. (com)
Phillips Pet Foodhas named Nick Christensen current president as CEO succeeding Blaine Phillips who will become an executive chairman. (com)
Banfield Pet Hospitalannounced the expansion of its Optimum Wellness Plans to allow for customization including specialized services. (com)
VetEvolve, a community of 53 veterinary practices backed by Varsity Healthcare Partners, announced Dr. Laura Pletz as Chief Veterinary Officer. (comunicado de imprensa da empresa)
PetMed Express entered a definitive agreement with an institutional real estate investor for a $37M sale-leaseback of its headquarters and distribution center buildings. (líquido)
Buzz Healthe VetHubRx, a veterinary e-prescribing platform, announced a strategic partnership to integrate Buzz Health’s RxCompare pricing infrastructure into the prescribing workflow to allow discount pricing at the point of prescribing and fulfillment. (comunicado de imprensa da empresa)
aiannounced the launch of Sylvester Connect to Care, a client-acquisition program that engages local cat caregivers with ads inviting them to use Sylvester Cat Comfort Check and then book an appointment with a participating veterinary clinic. (comunicado de imprensa da empresa)
Aliado de inventárioannounced a new integration with NectarVet, a practice management platform (PIMS), allowing for an automation of ordering and managing of a practice’s inventory. (comunicado de imprensa da empresa)
Veterinary Angel Network for Entrepreneurs (VANE) announced its newest portfolio company, PawPay, which works with any pet insurance policy verifying coverage, collecting pet owners’ portion of the bill and paying the clinic immediately. (com)
sem medoappointed Dr. Rebeckah Zahedi as Chief Veterinary Officer. (co)

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Comunicados do setor
Cúpula de Saúde Animal de 2026
31 de agosto a 1 de setembro de 2026

Localização: Midland Theatre | Kansas City, MO

As inscrições para a Cúpula de Saúde Animal de 2026 já estão abertas.

O Animal Health Summit oferece dois dias de networking, parcerias comerciais individuais, líderes de opinião do setor, painéis de discussão, palestrantes e apresentações de empresas emergentes. Clique aqui aprender mais.

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Notícias de empresas internacionais

AU – The planned acquisition of Neogen Genomicspor Zoetis is undergoing further antitrust assessments in Australia. (antitrust-intelligence.com)
CA, UE – Zoetis has launched Portela (relfovetmab) a long -acting anti-nerve growth factor monoclonal antibody therapy for cats to alleviate pain associated with osteoarthritis for up to three months. (comunicado de imprensa da empresa)
GLOBAL – A global survey from dsm-firmenich Animal Nutrition & Healthrevealed that 85% of its over 10,000 samples contained more than one mycotoxin. (com)
IT – Nestlé Purinaannounced a US$ 640M investment into a new wet food facility in Mantova, Italy. (líquido)
UK –Elanco has launched Varenzin a treatment to manage feline chronic kidney disease anemia in the United Kingdom. (organização)

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Notícias do setor de saúde animal

US – A recent estudarin the Journal of Shelter Medicine and Community Animal Health found that veterinarians may positively influence human smoking habits if they discuss the impact of second-hand smoke on their pet’s health. (com)
US – FDA has launched a pilot program to encourage and strengthen the manufacturing of animal drug products and active ingredients in the United States (comunicado de imprensa do governo)
US – The Feline Veterinary Medical Association led the inaugural Feline Summit hosted by Butterfly Network and TriviumVet/PRN Pharmacal where industry leaders met to advance the future of feline healthcare. (comunicado de imprensa da associação)
UK – A recent study explored how dairy farmer and veterinarians perceive and manage tick borne disease risk and how they perceptions guide farm-level actions. (com)

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Mirante de Brakke

The veterinary clinic pharmacy has gained a new competitor with the announcement that CVS pharmacies are getting into the pet medication business. CVS stores will begin filling prescriptions for many pet products, including parasiticides, dermatology products, pain management, cardio-vascular and several other categories.

There are nearly 35,000 veterinary clinics and only 9,000 CVS stores, so why is this such a big deal? Traffic. A pet owner typically visits her veterinary practice once or a few times a year. She visits her drug store multiple times a month. Plus, at CVS, the pet medications are subject to the same auto-fill and home delivery services that customers get with their own prescriptions. One more thing. Many human drugs are prescribed for pets and those prescriptions are already being filled at the local pharmacy. So, it won’t be the first time many pet owners are picking up scripts at CVS. (I stopped at a large CVS in downtown Chicago this week. The pharmacist was aware of the program but had no training or information about a start date.)

Of course, not everyone shops at CVS. But it will be interesting to see how aggressively CVS pushes its pet medicine initiative. If it’s successful, you can bet real money that Walgreens will follow suit with its 8,000 stores.

No doubt CVS is searching for as many ways as possible to serve customers and bond them to the store. After all, their visits are down, too. Last year Walgreens closed 1,200 stores, CVS about 300. Are pet meds the business boost that will get them back on track?

John Volk, Senior Consultant, Chicago, IL

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Sua visão

Last week, we asked what you thought about the CMA rule requiring veterinary practices to disclose ownership via signage at the premises and online. An overwhelming 73% of respondents would support this rule, while 17% would not. Only 10% were not sure. Seems like there is an opportunity for practices to adopt this disclosure even if it isn’t a rule.

This week, a simple question: In three years’ time, do you think retail pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens will become meaningful competitors to veterinary practices for pet medications?

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