Animal Health is Big Business

In this difficult economy, it is interesting to note that the pet pharmaceutical busines seems to be holding its own. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, Eli Lilly & Co.'s Chief Executive Officer, John Lechletier, said he was monitoring the sale of rival Pfizer, Inc. to Wyeth, to see whether or not they would sell the animal-health business as a separate entity.

"You can bet, with our interest in growing our animal health business, we've got our eye on that," he said last week. Analysts say drug manufacturers are diversifying into the animal health market with heartworm drugs, feed additives and parasiticides, among other products. Since animal health drugs lack the tight regulation of the human market, they are able to turn a profit for their manufacturers more quickly than human drugs which are subject to lengthy review.

Lilly has it's own very profitable animal health division, which posted sales of $326.4 million for the quarter last Thursday. That figure is down 1% from last year, which is pretty good in today's economy.

Wyeth's animal health division had $1.09 billion in revenue in 2008, a 4% increase over the previous year. The only reason Pfizer might sell this profitable division in the takeover would be because of anti-trust issues.

The buzz seems to be that Lilly won't be able to afford the price tag for the entire division if it does come up for sale, but might be able to buy certain products, if Wyeth were to sell them off.

Evidence that animals continue to be big business in the U. S. and elsewhere.