Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Wednesday. Read the complete transcript below.

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Summary

Elanco Animal Health reported a strong first quarter with 10% organic constant currency revenue growth, exceeding guidance for revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EPS.

The company raised its full-year guidance, projecting 5-7% organic growth, adjusted EBITDA of $975 million to $1.005 billion, and adjusted EPS of $1.03 to $1.09.

Key drivers include strong performances from innovation products like Zenrellia and Credelio Quattro, with international expansions contributing to growth.

Elanco continues to focus on strategic initiatives, including the Elanco Ascend program for operational efficiencies and expanding retail presence with new partners like Costco and Dollar General.

Management emphasized the robust performance of the US farm animal business and the strategic importance of innovation and market share gains across its portfolio.

Full Transcript

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Elanco Animal Health Q1 2026 earnings call. this time all participants are in listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question you will need to press star11 on your touchtone telephone. Please note this call is being recorded. I would like to turn the call over to Tiffany Kanaga, Vice President of Investor Relations and ESG. Please go ahead.

Tiffany Kanaga (Vice President of Investor Relations and ESG)

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for Elanco Animal Health's first quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm Tiffany Kanaga, Vice President of Investor Relations and ESG. Joining me on today's call are Jeff Simmons, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Bob Vanhimbergen, our Chief Financial Officer and Beth Haney from Investor Relations. The slides referenced during this call are available on the Investor relations section of elanco.com Today's discussion will include forward looking statements. These statements are based on our current assumptions and expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our forecast. For more information, see the risk factors discussed in today's earnings press release as well as in Our latest Form 10-K and 10-Q filed with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward looking statements. Our remarks today will focus on our non GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non GAAP measures are included in the appendix of today's slides and in the earnings press release. References to organic performance exclude certain royalty and milestone rights that were sold to a third party in May 2025. After our prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. I will now turn the call over to Jeff.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks Tiffany. Good morning everyone. Elanco's first quarter represents growing strength, momentum and value. The company's solid first quarter results and raised full year guidance demonstrate continued progress on our priorities of growth, innovation and cash. As Highlighted on slide 4, we delivered 10% organic constant currency revenue growth in the quarter outperforming the high end of guidance for revenue, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS. This high quality performance was driven by both price and volume with growth across all major geographies and all species. Thank you to the entire Elanco team for the execution for high levels of engagement and unified approach that have created this sustained consistent delivery across the company. Elanco is in a position of strength with a base business that grew in Q1 and a basket of significant innovation all within a durable animal health industry. Our momentum in each of our four businesses is evident in market Share Gains across our Global Portfolio we drove share gains across all of our US Pet health major categories parasiticides, osteoarthritis, pain, Dermatology and vaccines. Elanco is leading share growth in the largest categories para and Derm with accelerating gains for Zenrella and Credelio Quattro. Internationally, both Zenrella and Adtab continued their growth trajectories and captured market share. We also bolster our leadership in US Farm animal and achieved strong growth in international farm animal, particularly in and poultry and ruminants. Our diverse basket of significant innovation is a key driver for this global momentum. After delivering $287 million of first quarter revenue from our innovation products, we are raising our full year innovation target to $1.2 billion. Our big six products are performing extremely well and they are providing portfolio benefits that supported our base business growth in Q1, robust top line and adjusted EBITDA growth combined to enable continued deleveraging in the quarter. We are improving our net leverage target for year end to 3.0 to 3.2 times from the previous guidance of 3.1 to 3.3x. With our solid start to the year and accelerating trends into March and April, we are well positioned to raise our top and bottom line outlook for the full year. We now expect organic constant currency growth of 5 to 7%, adjusted EBITDA of 975 million to $1.005 billion representing 10% at the midpoint and adjusted EPS of $1.03 to $1.09 representing 13% growth at the midpoint. This guidance continues our prudent, balanced approach in a dynamic macro environment. Our confidence comes from the consistent outperformance of our diverse basket of innovation, a growing base business in Q1 and the megatrends supporting durable growth in today's global animal health industry. Looking more closely at the first quarter revenue performance on slide 5, we break down the 10% underlying organic constant currency revenue growth. US pet health achieved 6% growth despite winter storms impacting January and February. In the vet clinic, we saw a sharp recovery in March to 8% growth with April Even better, both months were ahead of expectations and demonstrate our underlying strength. Zenrella posted its best quarter yet, leading our Q1 growth in the clinic and far exceeding our plans. Also, robust Credelio Quattro demand with accelerating market share gains more than offset the anticipated headwind from last year's typical launch dynamics of initial stocking. Both brands exited the quarter with strong momentum in March and extending into April. We are well positioned for active Durham and parasiticide seasons with tick bites sending Americans to the emergency room at the highest rate in nearly a decade, according to April CDC data. We expect one of the most robust parasiticide seasons in a long time. In our US retail OTC business, Q1 saw high single digit consumption growth in a low growth market, reflecting strong trends for our products and Costco and Dollar General as new customers. These two new retailers were meaningful additions to our business as flagged at the December Investor Day and should also contribute to growth in upcoming quarters. After initial stocking, both Seresto and the Advantage Family saw double digit dispensing growth at our top retailers. Additionally, Zenrella and Quattro are growing nicely at retail. We continue to expand our retail market leadership and competitive advantage with what we believe is the broadest access to pet owners in the industry. Overall, our US Pet health business is demonstrating solid fundamentals with our basket of innovation driving industry leading growth. We are confident in an expected acceleration for the business to high single digit to low double digit growth in the back half of the year as our new products continue to gain share. Moving to International Pet health, we delivered 9% organic constant currency revenue growth driven by Zenrella, Adtab and Credelio. Cinrellia is rapidly capturing share in the $800 million international derm market with accelerating gains in key markets. US farm animal was up 15% with good growth across all species and product categories. Our results demonstrate the power of innovation and a diverse portfolio in a favorable macroeconomic backdrop. Finally, International Farm Animal is up 13% in organic constant currency, also achieving growth across all species. The quarter benefited from customer driven accelerated shipments primarily to the Middle east, contributing 1 percentage point of growth for the total company. Turning now to Slide 6, we delivered $287 million of innovation revenue in the first quarter with a strong sales trajectory of the Big Six driven by our no Regrets launch approach. We are again raising our innovation guidance for 2026 by $50 million to $1.2 billion. The big six are well positioned to drive sustainable growth over the coming years as we continue to expect this group to double in revenue from 2025 to 2028 on top of a stable base. Let's further discuss the progress of our major innovation products on slide 7 starting with Zenrella, the single largest brand driving Elanco's 10% growth. Zenrella reached blockbuster status on a trailing four quarter basis with with a growth trajectory well exceeding our expectations even since the late February earnings call, we are in a stronger position with momentum accelerating in the US and in our international business and growing recognition of the strong efficacy profile. We see potential for Zenrella to be a blockbuster in both the US and international as we grow the $2.1 billion global dermatology market and continue to take share as we enter the derm season, we see Zenrella as the leading derm market share taker with demonstrated strong efficacy in the JAK1 category. March was Zenrella's largest month yet with US vet clinics sell in 30% larger than any other month to date. We're now at over 16,000 US vet clinics or over 50% of the total and the reorder rate is over 80%. We've added 4300 new purchasers since the September label improvement and veterinarians are moving it to first line treatment as they gain experience and see how this special product just works. We expect continued momentum entering the allergy season with those cases representing about a third of the patient population on the US label. We continue to have constructive dialogue with the FDA regarding our previously submitted data. The FDA has requested additional data and a new study is already underway. Given Zenrella's success to date, that is well beyond our plans. We now have greater expectations for the potential of this product with additional label improvement in the US representing only further possible upside. Our guidance has always conservatively assumed no incremental change to the US label. Building on this success outside the US Zenrella has posted an excellent quarter across key geographies. A great potential leading indicator example is the first market for Zenrella Brazil. Zenrella has reached over 50% JAK market share in Brazil, becoming the market leader after just one year and achieving this coming through the Southern hemisphere Durham season. In Japan it's over 35%. Traction continues to rapidly build also in Europe with jack market share in the high teens to over 30% in key European markets, again outperforming the competitive entrant. Our EU head to head study has resonated well with veterinarians and we're the only player providing this competitive data. With recent launches, Zenrella is now in 45 countries and our international labels are all without restrictions. Zenrella's efficacy is a clear differentiator and game changer, addressing the top reason dogs go to the vet and satisfying an unmet need for pet owners. Over 2 million dogs have now been treated with Zenrellia and we're just getting started. We are increasing manufacturing capacity and move production now to 247 to keep up with a sharply rising global demand and going into what we expect to be a robust derm season. Moving to our second derm product, Befrena, our phased launch approach is on track with product already shipped to early experience influencers and in use. We expect to officially launch Befrena this quarter and have orders in hand as vets are eager for this new solution. Remember that a phase launch is very typical for a monoclonal antibody or MAB products. As we scale our bioreactors with with anticipated manufacturing ramp up, we're excited for Befrena as a potential blockbuster with positive differentiation on convenience, value and efficacy. It's recommended at a dosing interval of 6 to 8 weeks post treatment versus 4 to 8 weeks for the current market competitor. When we shared a close proxy of the label to over 350 veterinarians, 83% responded. They're likely to use Profrena, especially in seasonal cases and importantly, Befriend is complementary to our broader portfolio, creating a more comprehensive offering to veterinarians. Last week we hosted over 300 veterinarians at our headquarters as part of the North American Veterinarian Dermatology Forum. Anecdotal feedback from early experience KOLS was positive on the efficacy of Befrena. Next on Cordelio Cuatro we are very pleased with by our accelerating pace of dollar share gains in broad spectrum dispensing sales from US clinics. Quattro's market share is up 3 points since Q4 and exceeding our expectations. Most importantly in the clinics that carry Quattro, which is now over 40% of the US clinic base today, our share increased 13 points in Q1, reaching 53%. Simply put, the clinics carrying Quattro are using it more than half the time for any broad spectrum application. These accelerating gains one year after launch demonstrate strong demand and growing interest from veterinarians and pet owners who increasingly agree that Quattro is best medicine with its four dimensions of differentiation. The product success also reflects our strategic DTC investments, enhanced sales team and distribution partnerships which combine to fuel a growth trajectory more like a first to market product. We will continue to fund our data driven high ROI investments in the brand. Like Zenrellia, sales for Quattro accelerated during the quarter. March has been the product's largest month ever, creating strong momentum into the parasiticide season. We've added over 2,500 new clinics year to date through April and counting, and yet there remains ample room for Quattro to continue to grow and take share in the $1.5 billion US broad spectrum parasiticide market. An important leading indicator is Kinetics Puppy Index where Quattro ranks highest versus other broad spectrum inductos and grew versus Q4. Outside the US Quattro has made its debut in the $750 million international market which is growing double digits in April. The product launched in Australia and gained approval in Canada. The eu, the UK and Japan are next. As we look to rapidly globalize sales, we expect the global Credelio family to eventually become the largest product family in Elanco's history. Finally, our OTC Parasiticide ADTAB has continued its robust growth trajectory with sales once again up more than 50%. ADTAB is the fastest growing brand in the $600 million OTC Ecto category in Europe, further strengthening its market leadership in Q1. Moving to farm animal 55% of US cattle on feed are now using Experior. Overall we expect Experior to continue to grow and drive meaningful portfolio portfolio benefits including Geo expansion as another long term growth driver with recent expansion into Mexico, but we expect a moderating trajectory for this blockbuster with more challenging comparisons ahead. Lastly on bovaire we continue to see demand from CPG companies supporting relatively consistent cow numbers. We're investing in long term initiatives to enhance the product value and demonstrate user flexibility more near term we expect growth at a measured pace as we build on Bovair's value proposition. Moving to Slide 8 we provide recent highlights across the three parts of our consistent IPP Innovation portfolio and productivity. Our innovation engine continues to make great progress with further globalization of our Big Six innovations resulting in recent approvals for Zenrellia and and Latam countries in Eastern Europe, Credelio Quattro in Canada and Australia and new submissions including Befrena Dossier in Canada. The next wave of Innovation portfolio further expanded and progressed in line with our plans and we are clearly tracking towards five to six blockbuster potential approvals expected through 2031. Finally, Ellen and her team have further strengthened the innovation pipeline with new additions to coming from our internal discovery teams while advancing key clinical programs enabling us to clearly see our vision of a consistent flow of high impact product innovations. Today the Big six are driving broad based growth across our portfolio and share gains across all quadrants. These launches are powering growth in US corporate accounts up 12% in Q1 versus the same quarter last year. They've enabled growth for our base business in the quarter and we are seeing gains from pricing up 2% in Q1 and on track for full year acceleration from 2025. We implemented our largest price increase in five years to US vet clinics reflecting our latest innovation and the value of our portfolio of customers. Finally, we continue to pay down debt and strengthen our balance sheet at 3.5 times net leverage in Q1, we have a clear path to the under 3 times landmark in 2027. Our December strategic restructuring has further streamlined our organization with expansion of R and D in our Indianapolis headquarters and as Bob will detail momentarily, our company wide productivity initiative, Elanco Ascend is on track to drive meaningful efficiencies and margin enhancement to starting in 2026. With that, I'll pass it to Bob to provide more on our first quarter results and financial guidance.

Bob Vanhimbergen

Thank you Jeff. Good morning everyone. Today I will focus my comments on our first quarter adjusted measures, so please refer to today's earnings press release for a detailed description of the year over year changes in our reported results Starting on slide 10, we delivered $1.371 billion of revenue representing an increase of 15% on a reported basis. Organic constant currency growth was 10% compared to the first quarter of 2025 with 2% from price and 8% from volume. Slide 11 provides revenue by the four quadrants of our business. Total pet health revenue increased 7% in constant currency. In the US we achieved 6% growth with broad based strength across all channels. Key drivers were Zenrella, Credelio, Quattro and our over the counter retail parasiticides business. Outside the US our pet health business grew 9% in constant currency driven by sales momentum of our innovation portfolio including Zenrella, Adtab and Credelio family products. Globally, our farm animal business achieved 13% growth in organic constant currency growing across all species. The US farm animal business delivered 15% growth with contributions across all product categories driven by cattle and poultry. While we are extremely pleased with the outsized performance in the quarter, we do expect growth to normalize to levels consistent with our long term algorithm. Outside the US our farm animal business contributed 13% in organic constant currency growth with poultry and ruminants the major contributors. We estimate that the favorable timing of customer purchases in the Middle east this year contributed 1 percentage point of growth for the total company. Continuing down the income statement on slide 12, adjusted gross margin was 57%, a decrease of 40 basis points. As a reminder, we anticipated a year over year decline in the quarter due to pressures from inflation and the flow through of inventory costs. Gross margin performance was also impacted by product mix with strong farm animal growth partly offset by benefits from both price and volume. Looking ahead, we continue to expect meaningful gross margin expansion in the second half of the year as we move past inventory cost headwinds and with mixed benefits from expected acceleration in our U.S. pet health business. Operating expenses increased 6% year over year in constant currency driven by planned investments supporting our product launches, continued R and D investments and compensation expense. Interest expense for the quarter totaled $43 million in line with our expectations. On slide 13 you'll see an adjusted EBITDA year over year comparison. For the quarter, Adjusted EBITDA was $334 million, an increase of $58 million or 21%. Adjusted EPS was $0.40, an 8% increase year over year. As a reminder, adjusted EPS was impacted by lapping favorable one time tax benefits than the prior year. On slide 14 we provide an update on our cash and debt balances. We ended the quarter with net debt of $3.3 billion and a net leverage ratio of 3.5 times. Debt paydown remains our primary use of free cash flow with a long term target ratio of 2 to 2.5 times. We expect to reach below 3 times next year giving us greater capital allocation flexibility. In the meantime, we continue to evaluate disciplined bolt on M and A. I'd like to recognize the closing of our HV international acquisition on April 30th and welcome our new colleagues. AHV expands our share of voice and dairy and we are excited about this platform for farm animal innovation. Now let's move to our financial guidance starting on slide 16. Our first quarter over performance allows us to raise our full year expectations and continue to invest in our innovation products. We now expect to deliver organic constant currency revenue growth of 5 to 7% versus our previous outlook of 4 to 6%. We are increasing our expected reported revenue range to be between 5.01 billion and $5.085 billion. This includes an expected $60 million year over year tailwind from the favorable impact of foreign exchange rates, the majority of which was captured in our first quarter results. Slide 17 provides year over year bridges for 2026 adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS and Slide 24 in the appendix provides additional assumptions to help support your modeling efforts. We are raising adjusted EBITDA guidance by $20 million. The increase reflects our $34 million outperformance in Q1, partly offset by approximately $9 million of incremental investment in our innovative launches and and previously mentioned timing of international farm animal sales. For adjusted EPS, we are raising our guidance by $0.03, bringing the new range to $1.03 to $1.09. We have also updated our cash and balance sheet expectations for 2026 and now anticipate end of year net leverage of 3 to 3.2x. We continue to take a balanced and prudent approach to our guidance considering a number of potential scenarios. On slide 18, we list drivers that could influence our results within the guided ranges. We remain disciplined in monitoring external headwinds, specifically heightened competitive pressures including generics and consumer level economic shifts. These could move results toward the lower end of our expectations. We also continue to invest incremental dollars to support the launch of our innovation products driving our market share gains and sustainable growth. Alternatively, the continued acceleration in our innovation pipeline, underlying strength from a growing base business and our ability to leverage our diverse portfolio could drive results towards the high end of our expectations. A favorable macro environment and rapid progress on Elanco Ascend could provide important tailwinds. In conclusion, we see a stronger set of opportunities and momentum in the business outweighing potential headwinds resulting in the balanced guidance raise. Now let me take a moment to offer an update on Elanco Ascend. We are seeing significant engagement across the organization as we execute initiatives to optimize our cost structure and drive operational efficiencies. We continue to expect the projected Ascend savings detailed during our December Investor Day. As a reminder, 75% of our benefit from Ascend will be in gross margin, but the near term benefits are more in GNA driven by our previously announced restructuring. With more than 5,000 projects logged to date, from large scale transformations to smaller localized improvements, Ascend is becoming deeply embedded in our operational discipline. Additionally, Elanco Ascend is integrating automation and AI across our entire value chain to accelerate our innovation pipeline, enhance manufacturing quality and drive sales through deeper data driven customer insights. Our comprehensive AI agenda also includes leveraging AI driven automation to transform legacy processes as part of Ascend. For example, we recently implemented an automated sales order tool that modernizes the order to cash process. This initiative enhances fulfillment accuracy and accelerates order cycles leading to improved cash flow visibility and lower operational costs. When you combine our focus on operational excellence and productivity with the continued scaling of our margin accretive innovation portfolio, we see a clear path for sustainable margin expansion over the long term. Now moving to our second quarter guidance presented on slide 19. On a reported basis we expect $1.3 billion to $1.325 billion in revenue representing organic constant currency revenue growth of 4 to 6%. Growth is impacted by lapping Q2 2025 pre tariff bond buying primarily in China, by accelerated shipments to the Middle east in Q1 of this year and by farm animal normalization against more challenging comparisons. The year over year increase in operating expenses, primarily related to launch investments is expected to be approximately 8% in constant currency. As a result, we anticipate adjusted EBITDA of 240 million to $260 million, an adjusted EPS of $0.25 to to $0.28. Finally, on slide 20 we outline our expectations for a meaningful acceleration in our US Pet health business in the second half of the year. As Jeff highlighted, we saw a sharp recovery in March to 8% growth and even better April, demonstrating our underlying strength. We are confident in our expectations for high single digit to low double digit growth in the back half of the year, reflecting continued momentum for Cinrellia and Cardelio Cuatron and contributions from our Befrenta launch. Additionally, our comprehensive portfolio is driving significant corporate account growth. I'd also highlight our assumptions are not contingent on improvement in vet visit volumes for the full year. We expect the US Pet health business to achieve at least high single digit revenue growth once again leading the industry now. I'll hand it back to Jeff for closing comments.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks Bob. As we accelerate into 2026, our innovation portfolio and productivity strategy is working. Elanco is a different company today, well positioned to lead growth in animal health through consistent execution of our strategic priorities growth, innovation and cash. The base business grew this quarter. While the launch of our Big six Innovation portfolio builds momentum, Elanco will stay disciplined and focused while anchored on the belief that we are about delivering not promising. We are now advancing our Next wave pipeline, targeting five to six new blockbusters by 2031 and unlocking more than $2 billion in unprobabilized peak sales potential. Through Elanco Ascend, we expect to drive meaningful margin expansion and operational efficiency beginning this year, aiming to deliver more than $1 billion in free cash flow through 2028 and reduce net leverage below three times by 2027. All of this on top of sustainable megatrends in pets and protein that make animal health a durable, resilient industry and one of the most compelling long term growth sectors. Elanco is confident in the animal health industry in both 2026 and into the longer term future. These tailwinds are expected to extend animal health's mid single digit growth, adding an estimated $20 billion in industry value over the next decade. Last quarter I highlighted the robust protein trends for our farm animal segment specific to pets. I would point to my recent shared table podcast episode with Jay Meselski from idexx and Jay Price from Mission Pet Health. The pet opportunity is significant Diagnostics are completed on just 20% of pets. Today we see only the surface of the true disease spectrum that exists. And as we expand what we detect, AI accelerates what we can learn and a generation of middle aged pandemic pets enter their highest care years. The pie is growing. The leaders who focus on delivering value to the pet, the owner and the veterinarian to meet this increasing expectation of care will be the ones who grow with it and beyond. I especially want to thank the Elanco team for their commitment to serving customers and continuing to push boundaries to exceed their expectations today. Strong results and raised outlook for 2026 were made possible through our team's dedication, building on more than 70 years of transforming animal health to create long term value for customers, communities and our shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Tiffany to moderate the Q and A.

Tiffany Kanaga (Vice President of Investor Relations and ESG)

Thanks, Jeff. We'd like to take questions from as many callers as possible. So we ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow up operator. Please provide the instructions for the Q and A session and then we'll take the first caller.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star 11. If your question has been answered and you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, please press star 11 again. Our first question comes from John Block with Stifel. Your line is open.

John Block (Equity Analyst at Stifel)

Great. Thanks guys. Good morning. I'll start. The US pet health result in the quarter was up 6%. I'm guessing it was probably a bit lower if we normalize for advantage sales, call it into the new door. So Jeff, can you talk about what held back the US Pet health in the earlier part of the quarter and more importantly the main drivers to the accelerating second half of 2026 assumption. I know there's some good color on slide 20, which I think is very helpful, but any additional feedback would be great. I think that is a focal point for investors here in the near term.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah. Thank you, John. Look, we had I think like the whole industry January and February that was cooler but we saw a really nice rebound and all the lead indicators on our new products were extremely strong. So an 8% jump back in March, even stronger in April. And as we look at the forecast with Bobby and his team for the rest of the year and as highlighted on that slide, we see Zenrellia. What a quarter for Zenrellia. I mean it was number one brand for our company and growth driver and we'll talk more about that. But Zenrella was a major contributor as well as Quattro and. And then we've got the Befrena launch, we've got a step up in price and all of this we believe on the existing kind of industry backdrop you mentioned on retail, retail had a extremely strong quarter and the strategy's working. If you look at retail, it was ad tab internationally, but in the US it's bringing an advantage collar adding distribution points with a value store in Dollar General all the way to a box store. And today we've got, you know, we're taking share, we're adding, you know, double digit growth to these major key retailers. So the omnichannel is working. We see a nice step up the rest of the year. That's why we wanted to be clear. And it comes with a lot of confidence with a March and an April trajectory change.

John Block (Equity Analyst at Stifel)

That's great color, thanks for that. And then the second question, it seems like you're talking more openly about these corporate accounts and it seems like that also has a role in the acceleration. So I'm just curious, are these commitments from corporates, call it for a first time, are they competitive wins and also when we think about these corporate deals, is it broad based? In other words, are we talking cq, Zenrellia, Befrena upon launch? Maybe you can provide some details there. Thanks guys.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, Corporate accounts, we were very under indexed a year ago. We shared in the last quarter how the number of corporate accounts were growing that weren't growing last year we saw a 12% step up. So double the growth rate in corporate accounts. It all comes back, John, you know this to a winning portfolio. When you start to see the uptake. When you got over half the clinics in the U.S. using Zenrella, you see, you know, 40% with Quattro and you look at best medicine with Quattro. With the demand for Zenrella. If you're a corporate account, you don't have this and you've got clients coming in asking. There is more of a pull than a push that's happening with corporate accounts. I think Bobby and his team, Chris Bottrelli and Matt HudsonPiller and the team has done a very nice job of making sure though it is value based, we are not going places where price would be impacted negatively with corporate accounts. We're taking very value based approach to these corporate accounts and it's working.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from Michael Riskin with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Michael Riskin (Equity Analyst at Bank of America)

Great, thanks for taking the question. I'll ask one big one on Zenrelli and then maybe a quick follow up. So on the one hand you're doing, I think much, much better than any of us had anticipated given the wagon restrictions. You know, you touched on blockbuster trailing 12 months. You know, we're kind of backing it within like 40 million for the quarter, so continues to ramp very, very nicely despite the label. On the other hand, the FDA label update I think is less than what people were expecting. So I just wonder if you could talk about why you're having such success despite the label restrictions and if you could give an update on, you know, you called out, you know, the additional trials, the data generation, just. Any thoughts on timing when we could get either more updates or see that label change? I've got a quick follow up. Yeah, Michael. I think I start with the derm market continuing to grow double digit. Truly an amazing quarter. We got a special product here in Zenrellaa. We've got future year demands coming into this year. So we see the potential of this product much greater than we saw it even last quarter. We've got just greater expectations and we're seeing it globally. And you know, we've talked about this. It's all back to efficacy and the product just simply works. Relative to the label, I would say, no, I think it's a little bit of a line relative to our strategy. We had constructive dialogue, as I mentioned with the FDA regarding the data. They've requested a little bit more research. I stepped back on this multi prong approach we took, which is, hey, first we submitted the PCR data, we got a positive improvement in the label. They requested the published booster data, that's what we submitted. And we knew this was a potential expectation. They requested this additional data and we've already started the trial trials. Along the way we got good concurrence on the study and we'll be submitting it by the end of the year. Michael. But you know, given Zenrella's success, that's well beyond our plans. We now have greater expectations for the potential of this product with additional label improvement in the US really representing just further possible upside. So our guidance has always been, as I said, conservatively assumed, with no incremental change to the label. With all of this, you know, I come back to the most important thing. We're taking share. We're in over 50% of the clinics in the U.S. our expectations are growing. We have moved to 24, 7 manufacturing because we see the future forecast for this product growing, especially as we head into derm season. And again, we got now 2 million dogs, 2 years of use, great PV data, 44 countries internationally now with all labels without restrictions. So we're in a really good place. Yeah. And Michael and Jeff, Jeff highlighted it. Right. But just as a reminder, our 2026 guidance and our investor day guidance we gave back in December assume that the label is as is. It did not assume a label change here in 2026. And, and so where we are today. Right. With the current status and timeline, you know, that provides potential upside to growth potentially starting in 2027 with the clean label.

Bob Vanhimbergen

Okay. Okay. And if I could squeeze in a quick follow up on price, I think you saw a 2% price in the quarter, but you also in your, in your prepared remarks talked about implementing, you know, a significant price increase as you'd mentioned in the past. Could you just talk about price to some, you know, how big that was, price, price assumptions for the rest of the year. Any specifics on that would be helpful. Thanks. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Thanks for the question. So price, price in the quarter is right aligned and right with our expectations for the quarter and for the year. So price in the quarter, as I highlighted was 2% across the board. That's both on the pet side and the farm side. I'd remind you that pricing can be influenced by customer and product mix from any quarter. But we do expect 2026 pricing to accelerate from where it was in 2025. And that quite honestly just reflects the enhanced value that our basket innovation is bringing and the comprehensive portfolio we're bringing to customers. And I'd remind you that in US pet health side we did bring the highest pricing to vet clinics this year. It's been the highest in five years as we continue to price to value. And listen, I think you'll see price accelerate as we see continued ramps and in Zenrella and Quattro throughout 2026.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

I think as Bob and I and Bobby, I think an observation we've made, Michael, is prices in the industry are holding up strong even in US pet, very nicely even in corporates. I think what the change has been is there's just an increased need to spend to hold and capture share. So and I think that's a positive as everyone is selling value and we don't see price impact. We see spend maybe impact and we got good measures on seeing the return on our spend and that's why we're leaning in on it.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from Uma Rafat with Evercore. Your line is open.

Uma Rafat

Hi guys. Thanks for taking my question. I thought I would focus a bit today on the non innovation side. For a second. And specifically, what I'm seeing is while there's all this focus on some of the new launches, your cattle business might have hit an all time high, if I'm not mistaken. And poultry is also at near the best numbers you've ever put up. So could you speak to the broader dynamic in farm business? I realize herd count is part of it, but I don't think that's all of it. And I'm just trying to understand what the underlying drivers are on both sides, but also how sustainable they are as herd, herd counts come back, et cetera, over time.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, very insightful question, Umar. And I agree with you. I don't think people realize that Last year in 2025, our industry grew 7% and farm animal, it grew 10%. Pet health 5%. Farm animal has got durable undertones. We spoke at the SEMA 4 conference, out with some of the major, major CEOs the last four months. And there is a protein revolution going on and it's playing through in the numbers. You see Tyson's results yesterday with the chicken business. What you've got here is you've got, you know, we're expecting a 5% growth in the U.S. on the protein side, we've seen meat sales up 100% the last five years and it's coming back to this shift back to protein. Now as you look at the different species, yes, there's a shortage in the beef market, but you're seeing the benefit carry over to international beef and, and in poultry. And actually producers are making a lot of money, packers are not so, and we serve producers. So that dynamic in beef is positive. Probably the quiet species nobody's talking about is dairy. And dairy could be second to poultry. And benefiting from this protein revolution, they just got more SKUs. When you look at the shakes and the yogurts and the things that are going on. So I think there's big investment in dairy. That's where HV acquisition plays nicely. And then yes, poultry, 3% growth the last three consecutive years and we don't see that slowing at all. So I think the carryover of protein, there's been a little bit of an over indexing on the cattle herd size and that may be a little longer. I actually think that benefits us and benefits producers. As the rebuild comes a little stronger, the prices will hold up. So farm animal business, we look like we're in a very strong position. We're in a leadership position. The medicated feed additives, vaccines and across all the other additives and we're adding to that portfolio with the HV acquisition. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Brandon Vasquez with William Blair. Your line is open.

Brandon Vasquez

Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. Congrats on a nice quarter here. There's not too much to pick on on a nice quarter. But I did want to go back to the question that John was asking just about the US Pet Health number. And I can appreciate there was a little bit of noise maybe in end markets, things like that. But I'm kind of curious, is there anything else we should be thinking about on a year over year basis as you think of that number? You know, trying to think of the ramp. Why would a business that, you know, if you think about Quattro was a pretty low base in Q1, 25. Why would the monthlies be changing so much? I think that's part of what a lot of us are trying to understand as we think about the ramp through the rest of the year.

Bob Vanhimbergen

Yeah. So maybe I'll give you some color, Brandon. Thanks for the question. So, you know, reminder, last year in Q1, you know, we did have the initial launch of Credelio Quattro and so we did have a tough compare. But even in light of that, we still outgrew Quattro versus last year. So that's kind of one point of interest. But we did highlight it. Jeff touched a bit about it and certainly on a slide I presented. But maybe just to give you a little bit more color on the second half, which gives us a high degree of confidence in the second half of the year. I mean, we continue to see strong momentum in Quattro and Zenrella. And you think about the clinics and the data we gave about new purchasers, that's going to continue to ramp throughout the year as we see order rates holding strong and we are investing more in DTC behind these brands. Befrena continues to be on pace with our launch expectations and there's a high degree of excitement from vets, particularly on our entire derm portfolio. Bobby did have a group of vets in last week and the buzz was about both Zenrella and Befrena. And then corporate accounts talked just a bit about this on the call. But listen, those contracts will continue to ramp throughout the year. And so again, we're confident in 2H26 here with us pet side. And again, our guidance does not assume an improvement in vet visits for the year here.

Brandon Vasquez

Okay, thanks. And then as a follow up here on the guidance, there was a comment about Generics in the investor deck and just in general competition. You guys have talked about this, that it's a competitive space. How do you guys think about competition when you're putting together guidance? I think you're in a unique position now where you have a lot of innovative products out there. So this is something to think about on a go forward basis. How do you bake that in? Are these transient headwinds? Are they price, are they volume? Any details you can give on what's baked into the guidance from competition and generics would be helpful. Thank you.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, we assess it market by market, Brandon, and do this in our quarterly forecasting. We got good read, good data from a competitive standpoint and a good competitive intel group. And I believe, as Bob has highlighted, we've taken a balanced approach. So no change. We're in our third year of growth and delivery and that same philosophy is carried forward as we look at the rest of the year for US Pet health or look at the rest of the year for any one of our businesses, generics included in competition. So feel very good about our assumptions as we look at the rest of this year.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Daniel Clark with Lyrink. Your line is open.

Daniel Clark

Great, thank you. Just wanted to ask about how we should think about the progression of clinic penetration for both Zenrellia and Quattro and the share within those clinics as we go through the rest of 2026, especially just given the Rampi app for us.

Peter

Peter? Yeah, maybe because we haven't talked much about Quattro. I just point to a couple statistics we highlighted. It's off to a really great start and the momentum we have with this product. We do see everything relative to best medicine here. Bobby highlighted four key metrics that were critical at the investor day. More clinics, increased share within these clinics, puppy starts and growing market. I would keep anchoring back to these. Daniel. As we look going forward, we picked up 2,500 new purchasers year to date through April. We've got, I think the biggest metric that I would point to is we're in 40% of the US clinics with Quattro. That will continue to grow. But most importantly as we picked up 13 points of share, now we're at 53% of share within those clinics. So we are truly moving to first line treatment and we're the number one growth company in market share growth. So I think that's the statistic to watch as it's really demonstrating best medicine. And now this is the third quarter in a row that we're winning the Puppy index and Q1 was greater than Q4 and the market grew 27% last year. So I think when you put all that together, maybe a weather challenge in January, February, we see a lot of resiliency, tick bites being up. We see potentially one of the biggest parasiticide season. And then on Durham it's just continuing not only to get more clinics but we're seeing a major shift now to first line treatment and watch the international markets, especially with Zenrella. Given the market shares that we've seen, those would be the key areas to watch. And again it's all back to market share and market growth. We're getting market share growth and market growth while a base business in Q1 grew.

Daniel Clark

Got it. Super helpful. Actually wanted to ask on International dynamics for Zenrelli, what are you seeing in terms of you know, competitive or promotional intensity from you know, other manufacturers that have oral jack on the market? Any change there and then can you just size the market growth you're seeing in Durham?

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Ex u s. Thanks. Yeah, it's an $800 million market internationally and that's growing double digit growing even faster than the U.S. again remember 70% of puppy starts are actually outside the U.S. so a lot of positive trends and then yeah we again see that with the head to head study playing out in field and a lot of KOL support you're seeing these market shares, I mean taking over market leadership after one year in Brazil, coming through a southern hemisphere derm season I think is a great proof point of how strong this product is. And even with a new competitive market entrant, the head to head study is showing and we're winning share even there with high teens to 30% European markets so. And we'll continue to globalize but again we're in 44 international countries now. It's all about more share and moving to first line treatment.

Operator

Next question. Thank you. Our next question comes from Christopher Scott with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Christopher Scott

Great, thanks for the questions and congrats on the progress. Just first one for me is the no regrets launch approach has clearly paid off and I guess my question is if this outperformance continues, how should we think about Elanco thinking about reinvestment of potential upside back into the business? Should we think about this still as you got to keep putting money back in for promotions or do we reach a point where we think about more of the top line upside maybe falling to the bottom line? And then my second question was just on the type of pets Moving on to Zinrelia, given the share gains you've been seeing, can you just elaborate a little bit more of what you're seeing there in terms of new starts versus those who have maybe failed Apoquel in terms of just the type of animals going on the drug.

Bob Vanhimbergen

Thanks so much. Great. Hey Chris, I'll take the first one here. Thanks for the question. So as I sit here today, I'm really pleased with Take Q1, for instance. This is the exact profile that I'd love to have where we exceed our expectations and we continue to reinvest in these innovative products. And so we're using data to determine how much we invest and we see high ROI on these investments and we'll continue to use that data to keep the pressure on and keep the pedal of the metal, if you will, on growing these top line numbers with these brands. And so we're going to keep doing that. But Elanco Ascend is so important to this process because what it allows us to do is continue to beat expectations, drive value to the bottom line while also reinvesting in the business. And I would say that investment's really in two spots. It's not only in the near term dtc, if you will, for the brands, but it's also continued to fund more in R and D for that next wave and that next next wave.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

You know, I'd pick up Chris. We just hosted last week there was a major vet conference here in Indianapolis and dermatology experts had over 300 of them here at the headquarters. And you know, I would say the buzz is the Zenrella efficacy, the movement to first line treatment. And really, as you know, we started out with acute and seasonal cases and the shift going more to chronic, which is 2/3 actually of patients are acute and seasonal. But the volume of course is in the chronic side. I would just say that we're starting to see that shift and of course the global momentum of the product. I think I got to highlight also Befrena, here we come with this quarter we're launching, we've got the product in the hands of all the major influencers and KOLs. A lot of buzz at the conference about that product being differentiated too with a six to eight week claim. And I think it's going to do really well. Even as new innovations come with the 2/3 of derm patients being acute and seasonal, that plays really nicely with Befrena. And really Elanco now becomes a very competitive derm player with two differentiated assets with a lot of momentum in A marketplace that wants new products in a derm market that's growing double digits. So the news here in this quarter has to be pointed to Zenrella and the momentum and the increased momentum. And then here comes Befrena and our derm competitiveness. And Quattro will help Derm as well.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Steven Deckard with KeyBank. Your line is open.

Steven Deckard

Hey guys, thanks for the questions. Just wanted to touch on your expectations for visit volumes. It sounded like March you saw a big improvement and then in April that continued, I guess just how are you thinking about the rest of the year with what might be a more constrained consumer budget? I understand you're not baking any of this into your guidance, but just want to get your outlook.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks. Yeah, thank you. You know, we believe that, you know, vet visits are something we keep our eyes on. Non wellness visits went up. I know people have pointed to that. We really look at, we think they're over indexed for Elanco. They will not play a factor and be a determinant of our success in 26. And we don't see this even as a short term or a long term factor. I think the ones we point to are expectations of care are driving a willingness to spend. So you got to have innovation in portfolios and we do convenience matters and we are the leader in omnichannel. We can reach more pets where they want to shop at the price points they want to shop at and you got to be globalized and I think that's under indexed as well. All of that run by a really good team and a great ground game. And one thing I would call out is our relationship with distribution is giving us a share of voice advantage. So all of these things matter so much more and the trends that we think are more important then vet visits. And it'll be something we monitor but we don't see it being a determinant of our success. Great, thanks. I just want to ask one more on the Frena. Just any key milestones we should be looking for over the next few quarters and just any more color you can provide on the feedback that you've received today. Thanks. Yeah, I'll remind everybody. It's a ramp launch that will come into H2 which is common with monoclonal antibodies. We'll be into the marketplace. We're in it now with KOLs and the key influencers will start to move into the marketplace here this quarter and then it'll ramp in a staged way into the second half and be a contributor to the US Pet health growth. We've also got a, you know, submission into to Canada as well. And then, you know, it'll be a, you know, a major player of growth as we go into 2020.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Navon Tai with BNP Paribus. Your line is open.

Navon Tai

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question one on Befrena, if you can maybe expand on your strategy, especially as competitors launching a long acting likely in early 2027. So interested to hear if you take a similar approach that you did with Zenrella and in farm animal you touched base on herd regrowth. Can you discuss Your outlook for MFAs in particular? Thank you.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, great question again. I would step back and say we've got our second derm product coming with a lot of momentum with Zenrella differentiation on efficacy, convenience and value across the board. With Befrena coming in. I would point to, you know, we start with a big market that we already have with two thirds of derm patients being acute and seasonal. And so that's, you know, that's less than three months of use, you know, window. So that plays very nicely. We're a very big market for Befrena. And yes, we've got in our pipeline, you know, next generation derm, including long acting as well. So we're well suited to grow our leadership in Durham the rest of the decade globally. And then on the MFA question, durable trends, MFAs continue to grow nicely. We point to our portfolio of experior Rumensin, even our anaphors and poultry. We are the MFA market leader and we continue to hold and grow share there across the globe.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you. And our last question comes from Daniel Grosslight with Citi. Your line is open, Daniel. If your telephone is muted, please unmute.

Daniel Grosslight

Oh, sorry about that. I was on mute. Thanks for taking the question. And congrats on the quarter here. I did want to ask about capital deployment priorities now that it seems like you're you're going to hit that leverage target earlier than anticipated. I'm curious how you're thinking about M and A. You obviously had a nice tuck in this quarter. But going forward, does this open up the aperture for larger MA deals and if so, what are some areas you'd be looking at there? And also I guess similar question on share repurchases, when would you feel comfortable turning on share repurchases as your leverage comes under that three times target?

Bob Vanhimbergen

Thanks. Right. Daniel. Hey, and thanks for the question. Good morning. Yeah, so as I think about capital Allocation really no change to the strategy that we've laid out here for a while here. So organically investing in the business and paying down debt is still going to be our number one priority. We will continue to look at M and A, but I would tell you these are going to be small tuck under opportunities. It's not going to derail us from our deleveraging timeline of getting into that now 3 to 3.2 times at the end of this year and getting below 3 in 2027. And you know what we said as we get below 3 in 2027, that certainly gives us some flexibility with capital deployment and shareholder return. And so we haven't, we haven't been explicit on what that looks like yet. We'll continue to obviously work with our board of directors on what that strategy is and we'll certainly be transparent with the street as we have more clarity around that.

Daniel Grosslight

And I'll maybe just. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah, I was going to ask another question on just the ramp up. Given the new deals with Costco and Dollar General on the retail side, how should we think about the revenue and margin impact of these new partnerships as they ramp in 26 and then kind of scale in 27 and beyond?

Bob Vanhimbergen

Yeah, maybe I'll give you some just color on what I would call normal buying patterns of these sort of customers and particularly with the Advantage brand is where we saw strength here and launches with Costco and Dollar General. But these are more seasonal buys here. And so what you'll see is really a first half of the year purchasing dynamic with reorder rates kind of throughout the first half. And then because this is seasonal, you'll actually see inventory deplete here over these customers here in the second half. But we'd expect reorders again in 2027. So think of this as a seasonal first half opportunity for us as we move forward.

Jeff Simmons (President and Chief Executive Officer)

I'll just maybe close. Thank you for your time everybody this morning and continued interest in Elanco, the best quarter that we probably had as an independent company since being an IPO. High quality growth, a base business that grew in Q1. The basket of significant innovation is building momentum, all on the backdrop of what I believe is a very durable animal health industry. And our momentum I hope is evident in the market share gains that we highlighted today across our portfolio. The IPP strategy is working. The level of engagement in Elanco is very high. We're a different company today, well positioned to really be a leader in the animal health business. We'll keep our focus on growth, innovation and cash. And we appreciate all of the interest in Elanco. We'll remain focused, I promise you, on delivering value for you customers and the greater society as well. Thank you for your time today. We look forward to engaging with you all through the quarter. Have a great day.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes the program.

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