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August 8, 2025 12 mins

On Thursday, Elanco Animal Health shares climbed by the most intraday since May, after the animal health firm boosted its adjusted profit and revenue guidance for the full year, following better-than-expected second-quarter results. Bloomberg Intelligence sees the launches of dog medications Credelio Quattro and Zenrelia bolstering Elanco's broader portfolio, with a big portion of new customers buying multiple products.

Jeff Simmons, Elanco's President and CEO, breaks down the firm's strategic framework and explains why he sees sustainable value creation continuing for years to come. Jeff speaks with Carol Massar and Norah Mulinda on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily. 

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. You're listening to Bloomberg
Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well out with earnings earlier this morning, the stock is soaring.
We're talking about Lanco Animal Health hitting a fifty two
week high today. It's up about thirty three percent year
to date.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
The gain.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
As I look at my Bloomberg it's up about sixteen
percent in today's session. Again, as we mentioned, reporting earnings
this morning, it boosted it to jested earnings per share
and revenue guidance for the full year. Following better than
expected second quarter results. We wanted to know more about
the business and here about the outlook. Delighted to have
with us. Jeff Simmons. He is president CEO of the
eight billion dollar market cap company Lanco Animal Health. He

(00:48):
joins us from Greenfield, Indiana. Jeff, good to have you here.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
How are you great?

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Thanks for the opportunity. Carol and Norik good to be
with you today.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, I want to talk to about the business. I
want to start though, when we've got a member of
the C suite, start big, macro, high and wide. When
you look at the market and business environment. It's been
an interesting year and there was a lot of volatility.
There was a lot of uncertainty. It feels like some
things have calmed down. We've certainly seen that in the
equity market. But I'm just curious how you see the

(01:20):
business environment today.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah, you know, I've pulled out the word volatile through
my lens, and I see it dynamic. I think there's
a mix of opportunity and challenge out there. But the
backdrop that I come from coming out of pharmaceuticals but
being in an animal health for thirty five years, I mean,
this is an industry that's been growing. I think in
the last three decades only one year, two thousand and eight,
we haven't grown. And we're seeing that resilience in the

(01:44):
first half of this year. The animal health industry is
probably one of the most resilient, and it's all around
protein and pets. And you've got trends here that we're seeing.
Even with the dynamics that you've just mentioned consumer spend
and the volatile environments, we're seeing resiliency because of these trends.
I mean, the pet owners of the future, they're adding
they're adding pets to their home pets numbers are up,

(02:05):
the globalization of pets, the willingness to spend on pets
is increasing as kids numbers and you know, children go down,
pets are going up, and we're seeing that in our results.
And then on the protein side, this conversion of you know,
whether it's the new protein diets is also converging with
our farmers in the dynamic. I mean, I don't know
if you tried to buy cottage cheese lately or meat sticks.

(02:27):
So those two trends are creating farmers, veterinarians, pet owners
to have a resilience like I haven't seen. And you know,
we've seen eight quarters of accelerating growth and we peaked
her you know, after those eight eight cores not peak,
but we've we've hit it high on adjusted basis of
eight percent. So where I come from, I see this
is one of the most resilient industries right now with

(02:49):
some of the consumer trends that are out there.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I'm a dog family. I've had tons of dogs, three
Dalmatians at one point. Right now, I've got out wine
runner and an Irish Terrier. So I totally I feel you,
I hear you. What I'm curious about is in terms
of growth at the company. What's growing top and bottom lines?
Is it existing products? Is it really what's coming in
the pipeline. And I'd love to have you talk a
little bit about what your pipeline is like, because I've

(03:13):
seen changes, certainly in that monthly pill we give the dog.
I used to give them two different pills. Now it's
one pill and it covers a lot of what ails
them and you have to watch out for. So give
us an idea of what's really driving growth at the company.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yes, I'll anchor to that.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
I mean, it's innovation and farmers and veterinarians reward innovation.
It's got to be valuable. This is a cash based business,
not a payer business. You've got to add value. Thatt's
make money off from this and pet owners respond to it.
And that's exactly what's driving Elanka. We have been focused
heavily on a pipeline a few years ago with blockbusters
in it. We brought it through approval, we're now well

(03:49):
into the launches and I shared today you know five
major products with blockbuster potential. That's more than one hundred
million dollars of potential in our business, but all of
them in big spaces. So let's just go down through
a few of them that you could relate to and
hopefully we can get your pets on them if they're not.
The first one's Credelio Quatro, a six billion dollar market

(04:11):
is parasiticized. That's the flea tick heartworm. This is the
first product the FDA has ever approved with four active ingredients.
We give the broad coverage, we give the speed to
tick kill that other products don't have. One month heartworm control.
And what we're seeing is we've captured fourteen percent share
in just a few months into the marketplace, and it's
a real opportunity. The market itself, this broad spectrum pill

(04:33):
is growing at forty percent, and we're bringing what we
believe best medicine into that. The second is, you know
the number one reason people go to the vet is
an itching dog. The dog can self diagnose here for
the pet owner. And we've got a portfolio coming the
first one into the market, and then we're globalizing it.
We're launching zenreally in Europe. We think we've got a

(04:54):
high efficacy product. We've now got over fifty percent of
users that are using the product, saying we're moving it
to first line, that's a big deal for US, and
sales more than doubled in the US from Q one
to Q two.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
And then you know, I move over to the cattle business.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
We've got a couple of products here that are actually
helping with productivity on low cattle numbers that.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Are out there. That's why beef prices are a little.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Higher, but also having an environmental impact, and CpG companies
are signing up to say, hey, this is important to
the next generation of protein consumers.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
All right, I have to ask just because one of
our producers is asking, and she's got a dog on
a dog level, she says, are these allergy meds for
itchy dogs are a skin thing? Can you help us
out there?

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (05:37):
So, you know atopic dermatitis. You know, we're right in
the heart of the biggest season, you know, kind of July, August, September.
You know, this comes from you know, just on the
same as the human side. But it's what we're doing
here is we're actually with the products we're bringing is
we're treating that problem. We're bringing that itch down and
putting that dog back into a comfort zone where it's

(05:59):
not itching. I've had I have two labradors, and I've
had a labrador that's been on many different medicines and
this product zenreally is actually working very well for those
trouble cases, but it's primarily for a topic dermatitis.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
All right, Well, Elizabeth and Pearl, thank you for that.
So a little bit of advice.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Jeff Nor here also a dog lover my family. We're
proud toy poodle owners here. But curious how you all
are navigating the tariff environment right now, especially as it
relates to the pharmaceutical space.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
So the first of all, we have been very clear
in the last quarter and this quarter that we have
you know, put our interventions in place. We've done everything
from you know, we've got the manufacturing we believe in
the right place, and we've really mitigated, quantified and actually
quantified today ten to fourteen million dollars. We've covered that
in our guidance and really tested that against any risk

(06:49):
scenario at all on tariffs. As you go to the
bigger kind of maybe two thirty two and some of
the discussions that are happening in a pharma we as
an industry, all of us have been their animal health
inside of Washington, we're being heard with a constructive dialogue
to say hey, we're really out of scope. Why we're
We're not a payer business, We're a cash business, which
creates a very competitively priced global environment which takes us

(07:12):
out of scope.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
But ultimately, this comes back to what I just talked about.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
This is about you know, we are about food, you know, security,
food affordability.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
We're about the American farmer.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
And that's what Animal Hope does for veterinarians and pet owners.
So at this point in time, we believe we're in
a good constructive dialogue, that we're being heard, and we will.
You know, we have a plan to be out of
scope relative to pharma because our industry is so different.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Well, it is a different industry, and I love that
you went there. What is it that maybe Bloomberg investors,
Bloomberg audience doesn't understand, maybe about your supply chain? Where
is your supply chain?

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, the big companies are American based in our industry,
That's that's one. And we primarily got manufacturing between Europe
and the US. We have very small percent I think
is an industry two to three percent coming out of
China with active ingredients.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
So that that's one.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
But I think where the discussion goes is economics and pricing,
which gets you into this situation. And again, when we
don't have as much patent protection, we have a lower
margin industries and customers, and it just creates a global
competitive price base. Especially when you don't have payer you
really don't have an insurance base in pets or farmers.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
So, Jeff, does this mean you don't want to get
caught up in the bigger broader talk about the cost
of pharmaceuticals.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
That's absolutely right, because we're more probably food based and
farmer based type products and that's why we've got tremendous
broad based support from the veterinarian community, the farmer the
food community, because that's what we are. I mean, we
were direct to consumers. We're supplying products that impact their homes,
whether that's protein or whether that's their pets. And again,

(08:50):
the cash market versus a payer market is a big deal.
So the message is, yes, we are outside of that scope.
Another reason that brings the resiliency, I mean, this pattern
protein trend is creating a resiliency that I think for
your viewers is why this is such an attractive industry
and our last thirty years prove it. And I think

(09:10):
I Lanka, where we are relative to value, is a
great company inside of that industry.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
So what about the White House wanting new drugs to
be launched that price is equal to the ones in
Europe or elsewhere? Where do you all view on what's
your view on that?

Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah, I mean again I would say back to the
out of scope is you know, we're a regulated industry.
We bring products through, but we go right into the
marketplace where we're not looking to get on a formula area.
There's no insurance. I mean, this is where we have
to go right out on day one, like I'm doing
with these new products, and I need to prove a
value proposition to you the pet owner as well as

(09:45):
to the veterinary practice. Or I'm going to farmers and
need to say, you know, the only way something works
with farmers is it's got to be competitive. So I
don't bring an innovation to the market if it doesn't
add value immediately, and then I've got to be competitive.
Whether it's an American farmer versus a brazil farmer. I
mean that matters too. So to me, it's a very
different marketplace, which causes the reason why you know, we

(10:07):
believe strongly we're out of scope of those tariff situations.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Hey, before we wrap one thing, I'm curious about, Jeff,
because I love talking with anybody in the drug related space.
But I'm always curious about what drives innovation. What drives
innovation when it comes to pet pharmaceuticals, be it for
farm animals, be it for my dogs, are nors puppies?
What drives it? Is it cost?

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Efficiency?

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Like?

Speaker 1 (10:30):
What is it? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (10:32):
First of all, there has to be a need back
to the marketplace. We have to add value. There's a
lot of products that have been designed, a lot of
good ideas I say that never really become innovation because
they don't hit value.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
I have to as I bring. I'm going to use cordelioquatro.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
This product, you know, brings three to four points of
differentiation right out of the gate that I can come
to you. Hey, I can give you the broadest coverage
you know, I can give you some quicks you know,
tickkill right away. These things matter to a farmer. Hey,
I need to start talking dollars and cents right away
to the farmer. It's the only way, and innovation works.
So we do that, you know, seven eight years in advance,

(11:08):
as we as we move this thing through the pipeline,
saying hey, how will this be different? We don't bring
a product any length of to the market if it
isn't best in class or it's first in class and
it's got differentiated value, and we have to price it
that way right out of the gate as well, which
I think substantiates my point. And back to again, you
know the significance of what I think is a really

(11:30):
attractive industry right now with maybe some of the volatility
out there to your questions animal health, and again, our
history shown it, our last eight quarters have shown it,
We've raised our guidance, and we look forward to not
just twenty twenty five, but the rest of the decade.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Elanko's set up really well.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
I will do anything for my Scout and my other dog.
Yet you're just kind of think do you have a dog?
Most important question, final.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Question, absolutely two labradors. I think I've been through about
four generations of labradors. I'm sick, you know, like the water,
So absolutely Lilian.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Lincoln can love that.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Hey, Jeff, thanks for carving out some time for us.
Jeff Simmons he's the present and CEO of Alanco and
we'll help joining us on this Thursday. That's Dock by
the way, up sixteen percent in today's session, so talk
about some outperformance
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Tim Stenovec

Tim Stenovec

Carol Massar

Carol Massar

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