Animal Healthcare: Internationalization in a Growing Market

welocalize July 11, 2022

Animal healthcare involves taking care of animals by giving them appropriate drugs, vaccines, diagnostic products, and medicated feed to treat medical conditions. Animals play an important role in human lives. They provide food and companionship. Making their lives better also improves our quality of life. This has led to a growing awareness of animal diseases. Increasingly stringent regulations and a developing focus on the prevention of diseases originating from animal epidemics have led to a rise in demand for animal healthcare products. The global animal healthcare market stood at US$34.9 billion in 2021. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.6% from 2022 to 2027. The animal healthcare market includes pharmaceuticals, veterinary services, and animal nutrition products, among many others.

The focus on animal healthcare is increasing. Countries across the globe are establishing standards to regulate the use of veterinary drugs and antimicrobials. More recently, the European Union started regulating the use of antimicrobials in January 2022.

The growing market size and change in the regulatory environment present a huge opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to globalize and localize their businesses.

 

Evolution of the Global Animal Healthcare Market

The global animal healthcare sector is seeing growth because of population expansion, a growing middle class, and increasing urbanization.

Population Expansion

Animals are a course of nourishment for humans. An expansion in population is leading to an increase in demand for animal-based food products like milk, meat, and eggs. This has made the role of veterinary care important. Farmers can escalate productivity by reducing diseases, and thus are investing more in professional animal healthcare.

Growing Middle Class

The middle class has more money and the population falling under the middle class is growing. It can now afford diets that are rich in protein. This means the population is consuming more meat and poultry. Meaning, that the increase in animal product consumption will increase animal farming. Additionally, cattle ranchers will try to optimize their output by using veterinary drugs to enhance milk and meat production.

The rise in income also means people can now afford pets. Your pets stay with you and thus have a higher chance of infecting you if they catch a disease or have an infection. Be it a pet or commercial animal, preserving their wellness is necessary. The reasons may vary, but it ultimately leads to increased spending on animal healthcare.

Increased Urbanization

People are moving to cities. The preference for settling in cities is changing the way animal products are produced. Animal products are perishable, so their production needs to take place in close proximity to their consumption center. This means many people reside near farm animals. This makes the health of farm animals important, as they have the potential to infect humans.

The trends above paint a hopeful picture for pharma companies manufacturing and selling animal healthcare products. Does this mean pharmaceutical companies have a guaranteed shot at success just because they’re producing animal healthcare products? The answer is a definite no. For pharma companies to succeed, they need to localize their communication for each country they plan to sell their products.

Animal Healthcare and Regulation

Europe and the United States are two of the biggest markets for veterinary pharmaceuticals and animal healthcare products. Healthcare is a delicate issue. Just like human healthcare products, animal healthcare products are also heavily regulated in both European and American markets. While the products are regulated, the requirements for Europe are vastly different from that of the U.S.

Animal healthcare players active in Europe and the U.S. must follow different sets of rules and procedures to get approval for their products.

Animal Healthcare and the U.S.

For the U.S. market, a pharma company must apply to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for veterinary drug approval. To get U.S. FDA approval, a pharma company must carry out the entire process in U.S. English. A non-American pharma company needs translation help from an experienced and certified translation service provider.

Animal Healthcare and the European Union

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is the approving authority for veterinary drugs in Europe. If a pharma company applies here, they’re eligible to sell their drugs in all 27 countries of the European Union. Selling in France, Germany, Italy, and more means the pharma company must get all its drug-related literature translated into the local language of its target audience. As medical translation is technical, organizations require a language service provider with experience in medical translation, but also a deep understanding of the regulatory framework to ensure compliance.

 

Turn to Welocalize for Your Animal Healthcare Localization Needs

Work with Welocalize Life Sciences to get expert help with all your localization needs. Our language professionals have extensive experience working with regulatory agencies around the globe, including the FDA, AEMPS, ANSM, PMDA, and EMA. We also cater for centralized and decentralized procedures, Quality Review of Documents working group, local authority templates, and the application of EDQM and MedDRA glossaries.

We can help your organization with the translation and localization of regulatory affairs documents such as – a summary of product characteristics and labeling for veterinary drugs. We can also localize your marketing communication, including email, websites, blogs, posters, marketing decks, brochures, and scientific articles.

If your organization is interested in partnering with a language service provider with ISO-certified processes and efficient communication practices, contact Welocalize Life Sciences.