Animal Drugs Become Big Pet Project for Industry

The glossy two-page ad in this month’s Woman’s Day magazine promises arthritis pain relief from a new prescription drug. The patient is portrayed as pain-free, running unencumbered through a grassy field, blond hair buffeted by the wind.

But this drug is different from most arthritis medicines. And the patient is a golden retriever.

The pharmaceutical industry has unleashed--pun intended--a range of new prescription drugs not only for man, but also for man’s best friend.

Companies are especially interested in discovering and selling drugs for ailments in dogs and cats that, like their human equivalents, often strike in old age: arthritis, heart failure, anxiety disorder and cognitive dysfunction, the canine version of Alzheimer’s.

The profit potential for pet drugs is considerable.

Developing drugs for household pets has become the most rapidly growing segment of the $11-billion worldwide animal health industry. In the United States, the growth rate is about 15% overall, according to a Pfizer Inc. spokesman, who said pet pharmaceutical sales worldwide are about $2.8 billion.

Americans’ passion for their pets and a robust economy have combined to give the nation’s estimated 116 million cats and dogs the best medical care in history.

Some pet product producers and suppliers indicate a portion of the growth in sales may be a result of people buying products for themselves. Feed store owners, catalog suppliers and Internet retailers acknowledge that some of their customers believe the products are stronger, and often cheaper, than the equivalent products for humans.

Four years ago, Pfizer Inc. was devoting most of its animal health research to livestock--the chicken and cattle so important to the nation’s food supply. Then, medicine for pets was limited largely to vaccines and to drugs for fleas, ticks and heartworms.

Now, “we see senior dogs and cats as a real opportunity for us,” said Peter Lydon, president of Pfizer’s animal health group, which spends about $200 million annually researching new animal drugs.

None of this comes at the expense of humans. Drugs for people still consume most--$2.8 billion--of Pfizer’s research and development budget.

But in the animal health field, Lydon said, “companion animal drugs are really the growth engine of our overall animal health business.”

Pfizer, in fact, developed Rimadyl, the arthritis medication for dogs featured in the Woman’s Day spread and other mainstream magazines. Since it was licensed in 1997, the drug has been prescribed for more than 2.5 million canine patients.

Pet Drugs Become Major Money Maker

The Animal Health Institute, which represents most of the nation’s animal drug manufacturers, said that its members generated revenue of $592 million in pet drugs in 1994. By 1998, that number had more than doubled, to $1.3 billion.

The cost of drugs to consumers--many of whom think nothing of spending hundreds of dollars or more annually on their beloved pets--is as varied as human drugs. Rimadyl, for instance, costs $35 a month. Pet insurance plans, while costly, often reimburse for Fido’s prescription drugs.

“Pets have become a much more important part of people’s lives, and people are demanding better care for them,” Lydon said. “We’re trying to provide it.”

“Companion animals have now been recognized by the U.S. pharmaceutical companies as a source of income they never tapped into before,” said Dr. Bernadine Cruz, a Laguna Hills veterinarian. She is happy with the change because “it has really helped me extend a good quality of life for animals who otherwise would have been euthanized.”

Companies spend millions of dollars annually promoting their animal products. The campaign includes media advertising and educational materials--magazines, pamphlets, calendars and even CD-ROMS, supplied to both veterinarians and pet owners.

Researchers are borrowing lessons learned from human medicine--often tested on animals--to help pets. “You need only to look at the trends in human medicine to understand the trends occurring in animal health,” said Mike Prebenda, executive director of the small-animal business unit of Merial Ltd. of Iselin, N.J., a company created by a collaboration between Merck & Co. and the French firm Rhone-Poulenc S.A.

Prebenda is especially proud of Enacard, a canine heart failure drug developed by Merial that can almost double the life of dogs.

“We are taking much of the same technology [learned through research and development in human drugs] and transferring it to animals,” he said. “In some cases, we are even adapting existing human drugs for use in animals.”

Experts in human behavior modification therapy, for instance, have discovered in recent years that drugs enhance the process. Now the same is happening for pets.

Just this year, the Food and Drug Administration licensed the first two drugs for behavior modification in dogs: Clomicalm, made by Novartis Animal Health in Greensboro, N.C., a canine antidepressant to treat separation anxiety, and Pfizer’s Anipryl, designed to ease cognitive dysfunction in dogs.

Both are regarded as breakthroughs. The first helps alleviate the destructive behavior that can occur when dogs are left alone by their owners. The second is designed to diminish the confusion and disorientation that often accompany aging, such as sleep disorders, confusion in the yard or failure to recognize familiar faces.

“Dogs will get into a corner and start yowling because they can’t figure out how to get out of the corner,” veterinarian Cruz said. “With this drug, there still can be periods of confusion, but many people feel like they get their dogs back--that they are again more like part of the family.”

As with drugs for humans, there can be side effects. Ed Kanara, director of Pfizer Technical Service for North America, said the downsides to animal drugs include gastrointestinal and kidney-liver problems associated with Rimadyl and diarrhea and vomiting with Anipryl.

Dr. David Hustead, a veterinarian and director of professional services for Fort Dodge Animal Health in Overland Park, Kan., a subsidiary of American Home Products Corp., agreed that as humans live longer thanks to new drugs, so will their pets.

FDA Starts to Focus on Pet Medicines

Even officials at the FDA’s veterinary medicine center, which approves every new animal drug that enters the market, have noticed the change in the products coming under their scrutiny.

FDA drug reviewers are devoting more time than ever to pet medicines, especially those that go well beyond the scope of treating fleas, ticks and heartworms.

“Our primary emphasis has always been in the area of food animals, because that’s where a lot of the market was and still is,” said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s veterinary center. “But we see that some companies have also figured out that there’s another market out there.”

In the last two years, there have been nearly two dozen significant new animal drugs approved by the FDA for companion animals. In addition to the two behavior modification drugs, they include dog medicines for osteoarthritis (etoGesic, made by Fort Dodge Animal Health); Addison’s disease, an adrenal deficiency (percorten-v, made by Novartis); and for anemia (osyglobin, made by Biopure Corp.).

Pfizer commissioned a Gallup poll last year to determine how Americans feel about their pets, specifically dogs.

The telephone survey of 885 dog owners found that the majority not only regarded their pets as members of the family, but in many cases thought that they were even better companions than some relatives.

“As the human population ages, people begin to understand very well what their dogs are also going through,” said Dr. Melanie Berson of the FDA’s veterinary medicine center. “When humans get a certain level of care, they are now going to want the same for their animals.”

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Times staff writer Martha L. Willman in Los Angeles contributed to this story.