316. Elanco’s Tim Bettington on the evolution of animal health, the barriers of bringing innovation to market

The animal health market – estimated by many sources to be $60 billion globally – spans everything from pet health to livestock and holds applications for innovations in feeds, vaccines, therapeutics and beyond. Joining us this week to talk about this evolving market is Tim Bettington, EVP of Corporate Strategy and Market Development at Elanco, to share his front row view on the evolution of animal health and the driving forces behind its growth.  Tim talks Elanco’s bifurcation between pet and livestock health, the dynamic challenge of bringing innovation to market in both categories and their unique individual challenges and opportunities. He also gets into investment dollars flowing heavily into the pet space – and how to balance that against innovation in livestock as potential to transform our food system and planet.  Innovation in livestock has been focused largely on methane reduction in cattle and Tim shares Elanco’s approach to creating products for the animal health space while also giving farmers a pathway to economic and environmental sustainability. Tim talks their partnership with Athian, the launch of Bovaer in the U.S. market and Elanco’s role in the future of the agricultural industry.  How does Elanco view their balance between internal R&D and external partnerships? Tim dives into the critical role of artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize solutions to problems more quickly and what emerging trends will create a bigger footprint moving forward. He also talks the OneHealth Innovation District coming to Indianapolis, innovating for overall health and what’s ahead.