Partnering for innovative pet therapeutics

Pet ownership is at an all-time high: now, more than one-third of households around the world include pets.¹ Accordingly, the need for new therapies is growing. Learn more about our research focus and our most recent partnerships in the field of pet therapeutics.

Pets are held in such affection that when they become ill, owners want their pets to receive a similar level of care as the rest of the family. But in many chronic and serious disease areas such as cancer and arthritis among others, treatment options are limited.

Female veterinarian wearing a white coat holding a cat, next to them sits a dog

This high unmet need in pet therapeutics is one of the key areas where we’re meeting the challenge to find innovative solutions in animal health, and our goal is to discover and develop breakthrough treatments for these debilitating diseases. We’re investing significantly in research and cutting-edge technologies to expand and accelerate our drug discovery efforts so we can offer owners more effective treatment options and enhance the health and well-being of pets.

We’re building a strong pipeline of novel small molecule and biotherapeutic treatments that will change the treatment paradigms in these challenging diseases. And we’re doing this through a combination of internal expertise, fostering synergies with our human health colleagues and leveraging the wealth of complementary expertise and skills across the global community of scientists to bring critical diversity to innovation.

Much of our research is focused on pursuing innovation in immunology, inflammation and oncology. We’re targeting key processes in the development of immune disorders and inflammatory diseases, and exploring mechanisms and common pathways, with a focus on fibrosis and chronic kidney disease. In oncology, we’re leading the way in the search for novel therapeutic concepts, biomarkers, drug candidates and treatment modalities. As cancer is a leading cause of death in cats and dogs, our approach is to fight cancer on two fronts – directly targeting the tumour with cancer cell-directed therapies and boosting the immune response with immune cell-directed approaches. We believe this dual approach offers the greatest potential.

Collaborations with some of the best minds in the areas of species-specific monoclonal antibody technology and stem cell therapeutics are also supporting our innovation in pet therapeutics. These approaches could hold the key to revealing new ways to tackle disease and provide the opportunity to unlock the next generation of breakthroughs.

Female veterinarian wearing a white coat checking on a dog, male owner standing next to them

Recognizing the potential of biotherapeutics to solve key challenges in animal health, we’re working together with monoclonal antibody experts PetMedix, Invetex and Mabgenesis Inc. to dig deeper into this area of science. We’re leveraging their pioneering approaches and combining this with the long experience and innovation of Boehringer Ingelheim in human antibody discovery and development to deliver breakthroughs in serious chronic diseases in animal health as quickly and effectively as possible.

But antibody treatments aren’t the only modality offering innovation in pet therapeutics. With significant unmet need in cancer, we’re working with CarthroniX to meet this challenge and pursue small molecule therapeutics in canine oncology. Approximately one in four dogs will, at some stage in their life, develop cancer, with the rate increasing to almost half of dogs over the age of ten. Current treatment options are often non-specific and may have significant side effects. Our goal is to provide veterinarians and dogs with more effective treatment options.

By harnessing expertise and building connections both internally with our human health colleagues and through strategic collaborations with our expert partners, we’re confident we can advance science and develop innovative solutions for the many diseases where there is significant unmet need and keep pets around the world healthy.