Veterinary Market Overview

veterinary marketGlobal ex-manufacturer sales of animal health products has grown from approximately 14 billion to nearly 24 billion in just 10 years.

The Veterinary Market: The animal health market (which includes pet retail and veterinary market) can be generally categorized by species, product type, channels of distribution, and geographic regions.  Each of these veterinary market categorizations have varying economic factors to take into consideration when pursuing the animal health market.  Woods Consulting, LLC can assist clients in defining the appropriate species, target disease, and market to pursue.  Generally, the animal health market can be categorized based on species (companion animal market, food production animal market, exotic animals) and types of products (veterinary drugs, veterinary biologics, flea and tick products):

Species: Companion Animal (dog, cat and horse), Food Production Animal (cattle, poultry, etc.), Exotics (zoo animals, avian, etc.), or Aquatic (fish and aquaculture).

Veterinary Product Type: Veterinary Pharmaceuticals (drugs), Veterinary Biologics (vaccines, immune stimulants, diagnostics), Veterinary Ectoparasitics (topical flea and tick products), Veterinary Nutraceuticals (bioactives and natural products), Animal Feeds (animal food), or Biosecurity (premise control, disinfectants, etc.).

Approval Timeline for Veterinary Products: As a rule of thumb, most veterinary drugs and biologics for companion animal use can take 3-5 years to obtain veterinary market approval. For livestock, veterinary drugs may take even longer as approvals for food production animals also requires residue testing and other studies to evaluate the veterinary drugs potential effects in the food chain.

Major Companion Animal Veterinary Market Categories: In companion animal medicine, major veterinary markets consist of veterinary vaccines, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, deworming agents, flea and tick products, heartworm preventatives, etc.

Major Food Production Animal Veterinary Market Categories: In Food Production Animal medicine, such as poultry, beef production, dairy, and swine, the major veterinary market categories are designed to increase feed efficiency (feed additives) and reduce or prevent diseases (antibiotics, vaccines, etc.). Respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases are among the most common, including mastitis for dairy production.

The general categories of veterinary products are medicinal feed additives, biologics, parasiticies, anti-infectives, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Sales of Veterinary Products: In general, ex-manufacturer sales of veterinary products can be categorized as follows:
Veterinary Drugs - 62%       Veterinary Biologics - 26%       Feed Additives - 12%

Product Sales by Region: A general breakdown is below.
Americas - 47%     Europe - 31%      ROW - 22%

In the United States, the general breakdown of veterinarians can be categorized as follows:

  • Companion Animal ~ 50,000
  • Mixed Animal ~ 4,000
  • Food Animal ~4,500
  • Industry ~3,500

  Link to American Veterinary Medical Association’s Statistics Page

In the US, companion animal ownership is estimated to be:

  • ~80 million dogs
  • ~90 million cats
  • ~7 million horses

Bayer Animal Health
Boehringer Ingelheim
Ceva Sante Animale
Dechra Pharmaceuticals
ELANCO
Idexx Laboratories
Merial
Neogen
Vetoquinol
Virbac
Zoetis