How making pet care more affordable could make people healthier
Humans have a better understanding of their own health, and as we become closer to our pets, that understanding often translates to our furry friends. Better care for our pets can lead to efficiencies, but also new costs. Zoetis is the world’s leading animal health company. Its chief commercial officer, Jamie Brannan, sees a future where we help our pets live longer, and maybe they help us live longer, too.
Matt Carmichael: Where will growth come from in the pet health sector?
Jamie Brannan: The heart really is around the human-animal bond. If an animal's sleeping with you, you'll see different health conditions that you perhaps wouldn’t see if the animal was in the yard. That increased focus on pet health is increasing medicalization and changing what people are expecting in treatments. We’re also seeing that pets are living longer. That can lead to more chronic conditions and areas of unmet needs.
Carmichael: What innovation does that require?
Brannan: The animal health sector is still quite young so there are many areas that need innovation to address unmet needs, such as therapeutics for long-term, chronic diseases. We also think about preventative medicine. If we can prevent diseases, we can also improve healthcare. That can help manage costs around pet ownership as you're preventing problems before needing emergency treatment or big therapeutic agents. We'll see continued developments in diagnostics. There's a lot of work with AI, which can enable quicker diagnosis of different diseases. You don’t have to take a sample and send it off to a lab and wait for a diagnosis and then a therapeutic treatment. You can do it in the veterinary practice. And I think we'll see more genomics and more precision medicine targeting an individual pet based on the genomic profile.
Carmichael: How will the relationships between vets and clients shift with these changes?
Brannan: We’re going to see different channels and ways of connecting pets to vets. Vets will always be the heart of what we do and of the industry. But there will be a proliferation of channels with different ways of connecting with a vet. That will create efficiency and quicker diagnoses.
Carmichael: How are attitudes about health changing how humans think about pet health?
Brannan: It's a mutual relationship. The informed view on health and how we want to live and keep ourselves healthy as a human being is translating into pet care. But the flip to this is also understanding the positive impacts pets have on us and our physical and mental health.
Carmichael: Are there ways to encourage more of that?
Brannan: If people can have pets, it could help the reduction of their own healthcare spending, but we still have some barriers to pet ownership. In the U.S., for example, people who are looking for rental homes can struggle to find pet-friendly housing. There's also making public spaces more accessible for pets or the ability for people to take pets on vacation with them.
If people can have pets, it could help the reduction of their own healthcare spending, but we still have some barriers to pet ownership.”
Carmichael: Could workplace benefits for pets, like having them covered by traditional health insurers or work benefits that cover pet insurance, help with the cost of pet ownership?
Brannan: The People and Animal Wellbeing Act, which was introduced in Congress late last year, would allow the use of HSAs, or health savings accounts, for funding veterinary care. Pet insurance adoption is less than 5% in the U.S. In the Nordics, it's getting close to 50%. The U.K. is closer to 30%. So, we see a huge opportunity for insurance and wellness plans to play a much bigger part in affordable care. There needs to be more collaboration with the role we play, the veterinarians, policy makers, and insurers. We can all put our arms around this and collaborate.
Carmichael: Does the reverse work in our awareness of our pet’s health factors into our awareness of our own health?
Brannan: It can only be positive. If you’re thinking about your preventative care for a dog or a cat, humans don't have to be concerned with fleas and ticks, but the education around the importance of this preventative care and thinking about what we need to do in terms of our own health, I think that's always a very good prompt.
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