Over a Coffee with Jamie Brannan, President of International Operations at Zoetis

Great to be here, Brian. Yes, I do have a pet. We have a family dog, so we have an 11-year-old, 36-kilo Rottweiler-Labrador cross called Rocco.

It's a really good question. I think there is maintenance, and I think it's a much bigger decision than a lot of people think. I would always urge people to really research and think about the commitments of owning a pet, not just a dog. You've got to think about a number of considerations: do you have a space, are you able to exercise, the nutritional perspective as well, and that's before you even think about healthcare, medicalization. I would really urge people to research, even talk to a vet, and to make sure it's right for your family before you take on the commitment. That said, when you do, not wanting to convince you, Brian, for you and your family, but it's hugely rewarding.

Yeah, so the market is very positive in terms of pet ownership. Companionship is globally on the increase, and we've seen a significant uptick during COVID-19 as people have spent more time at home and have that need for companionship. But even if you look at the global population, we're aging, and that companionship for the elderly is also incredibly important. That said, when you look at the demographics of ownership, millennials and Gen Z now lead the way in terms of pet ownership, and with that we're seeing a greater level of humanization of pets.

So humanization: they're becoming more and more part of the family. One way I would explain it: if you look at dog ownership through the decades, the dog sort of went from the yard to the kitchen, to the living room, onto the sofa, and now into the bed. They're more and more being part of that family environment. With that, people are looking at standards of care, they're looking at medicalization, they're noticing more, they're researching more. I think that research is leading to a better bond with veterinarians about how they want to care for their animals. With that, you're starting to see growth in different parts of the sector. Medicalization and the right preventive medicine, the right treatments, are of course important. Diagnosis is growing, but then if you look at more new spaces around remote monitoring, or as we would call them, Fitbits for pets.

So if you look at Zoetis as a business, global reach but very balanced in our focus between both the pet care business and also the livestock industry. We are now slightly bigger in pet care, but it's also very much geographically focused on what's important. Obviously the need for animal protein is as important as it was.

Yes, definitely. If you think at a macro level, farmers need to do more with less and they need to be more sustainable in their approach. With that, they need to think differently. As we think about the need for antibiotics, we need antibiotics to treat sick animals, and we need to make sure we're looking after the welfare of animals. But we also need to understand that in terms of antibiotic-free or the need to keep hold of antibiotics and prevent antibiotic resistance, farmers need to think differently and vets need to support them differently to enable us to produce in a sustainable manner. With that, there's a much bigger focus on preventative medicine. Prevention is always better than cure, so making sure we have the right management of livestock to reduce the need for therapeutic treatment.

It's a great question. I think it goes back to what we were just talking about, Brian, in terms of how is the best way to manage both livestock and, to a certain extent, pet care. It's looking across a four-part connected program: prediction, prevention, detection, and then treat. So at a very early stage, if you're able to predict disease prevalence and manage it through prediction and through genomic modeling, that's a good start. You would then move on to prevention: how do you use interventions or products to prevent disease? Vaccines are a great example. Alongside that, looking at the diagnostic pathway: how are you using traditional diagnostics or data in terms of surveillance data to understand if there's going to be a disease or disease prevalence? And then, if needed, the use of therapeutics to treat disease when necessary, which may be antibiotics or other products. I think it's using that continuum of care that enables much better management of livestock predominantly, but when you talk about pet care, you're also thinking about that preventative medicine, a lot of diagnostics involved, and treatment when necessary.

We're pretty much involved in all of it. I would say innovation is key to us. We disproportionately invest in innovating, but that would be innovating across the continuum of care. If you took an example in prediction, we have a genomics testing option called Clarified and Clarified Plus, which is nothing to do with genetic modification. It's really about diagnosis, using DNA marker technology. Taking samples from dairy cows to look for prevalence of disease, things like mastitis or metritis, and also to look into productivity. By looking at the genomic makeup of replacement cows to go into a dairy herd, you can start to look at those which would have the best profile for productivity in terms of milk yield or prevalence of disease. Through working through that, you can support the farmer to make sure they're replacing the herd to have the most resilient herd possible. That's a good example where we invest in less traditional areas. We're continually looking to invest in new vaccines, new therapeutics, but we also invest heavily in areas such as digital diagnostics and how we can best use data.

I'd probably pick up on two areas from the Green Deal. One would be around the drive to reduce global greenhouse gases. I don't want to make it sound too basic, but healthier animals are going to support that driving initiative. You're going to be able to be more efficient with those animals, you're going to have less disease incidents, and better animals treated well, cared for, are going to be more productive. So very simply, that supports the reduction of emissions. The other area we talked about antibiotics, and I'd link back to this piece in terms of the drive to reduce antibiotic sales by 50% by the year 2030. Again, that focus on a continuum of care, particularly with preventative medicine, so getting the right vaccine programs in place will ensure that you're reducing disease incidence. We talked about the genomics testing as well, again can reduce disease incidence, and this prevents the need for overuse of antibiotics, making sure that we can keep antibiotics for when we need them to treat sick animals, but also to reduce or try to limit the amount of antibiotic resistance we see.

It's an exciting time for our industry. If we talk about pets first, we've seen a bit of a pet boom at the moment. Some of that's come from COVID, but some of that has come from just the globalization of the pet market. I think it's going to be exciting times ahead as people continue to focus on the health management of their pets. How do we continue to innovate in that space, whether that's through therapeutics, through digital options for pet owners, and also for the vets to better manage their caseload and to help the vets manage their pet owners? So I think there are huge opportunities for us, whether in that digital space, the therapeutic space, or from a diagnostics perspective. As the demands from pet owners become deeper, how do we support them, but how do we support the vet to answer their questions in the quickest time possible to build that bond between the pet owner and the vet? From a livestock perspective, there's going to be a need for more animal protein as we have a growing population and as we see more westernization. The want for animal protein is there. I think we need to look at how we are able to manage the different types of proteins. There are a lot of challenges in the livestock space at the moment if we look at what's happening with climate, with disease prevalence in things such as African swine fever or avian flu. How do we support farmers and processors through these times? I think it's about us continuing to innovate, but also thinking about how we can support in diagnostics and bigger data solutions, and how we can support farmers to better use data to work on outcomes and to drive productivity.

I think there's always been a good relationship with governments. I think we could work closer together as we look to specifically support farmers in terms of political initiatives around climate change and what we need to do. I think we could work closer to support farmers with grants or investment and how we can work through those channels. In terms of the innovation pathway and how we bring products to market, I think that works incredibly well, but we can always look at how do we keep close and how do we make it more efficient, and how are we able to get new innovation to the market as safely as possible but in as quickly as possible. If you look at human health and the COVID-19 vaccines and the speed to market to get us out of this situation, I think that was a great case study for us all to think about how we go through these pathways in the future. But for me, it's about dialogue, it's about making sure that we've got the innovation right, we've got the right conversations with government, and we're also able to look at how we move these things globally. As we say, diseases don't know borders, so how do we make sure that we can get the right products into the right markets at the right time? I think good conversations with government really help that.