This Week in Animal Health: Earnings Release Report Growth for Many

Differentiation Can Protect Market Share

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Earnings News

• Cencora shared its third quarter of fiscal year 2026 with revenue of $84.8B, a 5.1% increase over prior year. MWI Animal Healthwas noted to be the primary driver in the Other Segment’s increase in operating income. (company press release)
• Central Garden & Petannounced its third quarter of fiscal year 2026 with organic net sales of $862M, an increase of 2% and account for the exit of the pet distribution business at the beginning of the quarter. (company press release)
• Colgate-Palmoliveannounced its second quarter of 2026 results with a net sales increase of 4.9%. Hill’s Pet Nutrition division saw net sales growth of 3.4% with 2.1% in organic sales. (company press release)
• Elancoreleased its second quarter of 2026 results with an as reported 10% increase over the prior year to $1,368M in revenue (8% growth excluding exchange). It also announced Zenrelia achieved blockbuster status at the end of July 2026 by reaching $100M in net sales. (company press release)
• Freshpetannounced its first 6 months of 2026, results with net sales of $603.2M, an increase of 14.3% over the same period prior year. Results were driven by volume gains. (company press release)
• IDEXX Laboratoriesreleased its second quarter results with organic growth of 9% versus prior year. Its Companion Animal Group continues to be the driver of revenue, especially its consumables. (company press release)
• Merckshared its second quarter of 2026 result with total sales of $16.6B with Animal Health sales of $1.8B, an 8% geowth as reported, 5% grith excluding foreign exchange impact. (company press release)
• Pets at Home Group(UK) released its first quarter of fiscal year 2027 trading statement highlighting consumer revenue of £614M (US$826.69M) a growth of 3.9%. The Vet Group growth was driven by its Care Plan performance and sign-ups.  (company press release)
• Trupanionreported its first 6 months of 2026 with total revenue of $777 M an increase of 12% versus prior year. (company press release)
• Zoetis shared its second quarter of 2026 results with revenue of $2.5B essentially flat compared to prior year citing continued pressure of lower clinic visits and pet owner price sensitivity within the Companion Animal Market. On an organic basis, the US business decreased 7% overall (the US companion animal segment was down 11%, while the US livestock segment was up 11%) and the International business was up 6% (the Int’l companion animal segment was up 5%, while the Int’l livestock segment was up 6%) for the quarter. (company press release)
• Zomedicaannounced its second quarter 2026 results with year-to-date revenue of $18.3M, an increase of 36% over prior year time period driven by consumable sales from its diagnostic and therapeutic devices. (company press release)

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US Company News

• Zoetisappointed Jay Saccaro as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer succeeding current CFO, Wetteny Joseph, effective August 17, 2026. (company press release)
• MWI Animal Healthagreed to pay $100,000 to resolve allegations that it failed to identify suspicious orders of controlled substances made by a veterinarian in West Virginia. (gov)
• An Oregon veterinary hospital is suing Zoetis’ for fraud and deceptive business practices related to a misdiagnosis by its artificial intelligence diagnostic tool, Vetscan Imagyst system. (the-independent.com)
• Splash Beverage Grouphas partnered with Lupvindol Biosciences to advance CannEpil as a potential FDA- regulated veterinary pharmaceutical product for companion-animal oncology and chronic pain management. (com)
• Purinaannounced a partnership with the Senior Dog Veterinary Society to address the unique health and nutritional needs of older dogs. (company press release)
• Purina Pro Plan Veterinarylaunched FortiFlora Diarrhea Response Kit for dogs and cats. (com)
• American Regent issued a nationwide recall of Adequan Canine and Adequan im (for horses) due to the presence of glass fibers found during internal samples. (company press release)
• Zomedicalaunched the PulseVet Acoustic Muffler, an accessory designed to significantly reduce the noise associated with shock wave therapy treatment. (company press release)
• Trupanionannounced it has now integrated its Veterinary Portal directly with  (company press release)
• VetsCompared, a UK based company, has launched Vetrics, a cloud-based veterinary practice management platform in the US. (company press release)

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Industry Announcements

2026 Animal Health Summit
August 31-September 1, 2026

Location: Midland Theatre | Kansas City, MO

Registration is now open for the 2026 Animal Health Summit.
The Animal Health Summit features two days of networking, 1:1 business partnering, industry thought leaders, panel discussions, speakers and emerging company presentations. Click here to learn more.

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International Company News

• ES – Medivet, a 46-clinic hospital group, has sold its Spanish operations to VetPartners,a UK-based veterinary group. (com)
• JP – Zpeer, operator of Vetpeeran online community in Japan, released a survey of companion-animal hospital workload and services. (company press release)
• SW – Vetoquinol announced the completion of its merger-absorption of its Swedish subsidiary Vetoquinol Scandinanvia AB. (ideal-investisseur.fr)
• UK – Animalcare Groupwas acquired by private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners. (co.uk)

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Animal Health Industry News

• US – A study funded by the USDA at Colorado State University, is focusing on why wounds and foul odors attract screwworms with the goal of developing effective detection lures. (com)
• US – USDA confirmed detection of classical scrapie in a slaughtered sheep at a facility in Oregon. This is the first case in more than 5 years but resets the World Organization for Animal Health 7-year benchmark for self-declared scrapie freedom. (government press release)
• US – The FDA issued its final version of Guidance for Industry (GFI) #152 Evaluating the Safety of Antimicrobial New Animal Drugs with Regard to their Microbiological Effects on Bacteria of Human Health Concern. (government press release)
• US – A studypublished in The CRISPR Journal detailed the engineering of a successful use of CRISPR-Cas9 editing to breed dogs lacking the primary protein responsible for human dog allergies. (com)
• US – The University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine announced a $72M expansion of its Small Animal Hospital due to growing demand for veterinary services. (com)
• UK – Despite support to ban sales of spot-on flea treatments for pets, the House of Lords environment committee said their sales should be restricted to only vets, pharmacists and other qualified professionals. (com)

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Brakke Consulting Viewpoint

As major segments in our industry get crowded and new players with analog molecules or generics enter the market, there is risk of price erosion and segment value reduction.

Prescription/purchase decisions based on lowest price carry no brand loyalty. Decisions based on unique product benefits generate brand loyalty, thus creating and promoting unique marketing claims really pays off. The parasiticide market is one example where those unique claims give a brand a competitive advantage. Zoetis has been differentiating the moxidectin-based products as the heartworm preventives that perform best in the face of resistant worms, leveraging work initiated when I was supporting Advantage® Multi (Bayer-Elanco). Finding out the unique features of the product/molecule, performing surveys or clinical studies to support this differentiating feature, and generating advocacy by customers and experts is critical. The marketing and sales teams can then leverage these claims and gain consistent market share.

I recently led the work on differentiating EASOTIC® (Virbac) as the otitis treatment that provides fast relief of otitis signs. When first launched EASOTIC® was positioned as “easy to dose”. Since then, Osurnia and Claro took that position from it. This repositioning allowed an older product to grow sales >20% for several years in a row.

Are you entering a competitive market, or have a mature product that is facing intense competition? Maybe price cuts aren’t the best option to gain/maintain share. You may want to consider a technical/market analysis to reveal alternative strategies to gain share at a profitable price.

Cristiano von Simson, Senior Consultant

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Your View

Last week, we asked which attribute of a salesperson is the most critical to achieving trust in a salesperson/veterinarian relationship. 64% ranked the ability to “exhibit consistency in what is promised and delivered” as the most critical. “Demonstrating integrity and ethics” (21%) was second.  While “focus on mutual success” (7%) and “providing ease of doing business” (3%) rounded out the responses.  No respondents chose “maintain confidential information”. We had few other responses all noting that all were important to achieving trust.

This week, we noted a veterinary practice filing a lawsuit due to the misdiagnosis of a patient by an artificial intelligence diagnostic tool.   We want to know how potential liability concerns with the use of AI affects your AI use at work. 

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Brakke Stock Table