The Indiana-headquartered company announced late last month that it had completed a separation from its former parent company Eli Lilly and Company, a process that got underway in 2017. The move reportedly makes Elanco Animal Health Incorporated the second largest, “exclusively dedicated” animal health company globally.
The company pursued the separation because Elanco was well situated in “size, scale and strategy,” to operate as an independent, public company said Ramiro Cabral, executive vice president of Elanco International. “The support and investment Lilly has provided for the past six decades and the unwavering support our customers have shown us [and] position us to take this next important step in our history,” he added.
“We are positioned to capitalize on strong food and companion animal health growth drivers: Global demand for animal protein is growing, led by poultry and aqua and more people own pets and are taking better care of them,” he told us.
The dedicated focus on animal health following the separation provides Elanco the opportunity to concentrate on the “greatest challenges of keeping animals well cared for and healthy,” he said.
Elanco has a history of company transformation he added.
Alternatives to antibiotics
The next steps for Elanco include investing in selected animal health and welfare priorities, said Cabral. The company also has established a set of internal cultural pillars based on previous and new practices to guide development.
“We’ll have even greater flexibility and agility to meet dynamic market needs as an independent company dedicated to animal health,” he said regarding future expansion plans. “We believe our approach to innovation will enable us to create and maintain an attractive pipeline of novel products.”
The company will continue to address the needs and challenges facing producers working with ruminants and swine and generate its flagship brands, Cabral said. “Ruminants and swine remain the foundation of our business,” he added.
However, it has also identified three “growth categories” where the goal is to “lead and win,” he said. The areas picked for growth include companion animal disease prevention, companion animal therapeutics and food animal future protein and health.
“Food animal future protein and health accounts for the fast-growing proteins, poultry and fish, as well as the growing nutritional health portfolio – probiotics, prebiotics and enzymes – intended to address market demand for alternatives to medically important antibiotics,” Cabral said. “Within this category, we deliver products for some of the greatest challenges – coccidiosis and salmonella in poultry, pancreatic disease and sea lice in aqua and antibiotic alternatives through nutritional health.”
Animal and livestock well-being are gaining increasing attention, the company said.
The separation as an independent company followed efforts to expand Elanco’s global footprint and diversify the business, the company said. Moving from a largely US-focused company, it now splits revenue between US and international sales. The company currently maintains a presence in more than 90 countries and has 5,800 employees globally, according to company information.
