Innovation in animal health is accelerating, but the ideas that take hold will be those that solve the industry’s most fundamental challenges: making care easier to deliver, expanding access to that care, and helping animals live healthier for longer.
Those themes emerged across presentations and discussions at the 2026 Animal Health Summit, which brought together more than 675 animal health executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and other industry leaders in Kansas City this week. Here’s more:
Trend 1: Innovation that Simplifies
As veterinary teams contend with increasing workloads and an expanding array of technologies, industry leaders said innovation will increasingly be judged by whether it makes care easier to deliver.
“We have to look at it through the lens of, is this going to take work off of the team, or are we adding another step?” said Julia Loew, chief commercial officer for MWI Animal Health. She noted that disconnected technologies can create fragmented records and duplicative work, placing an additional mental load on already stretched veterinary teams. Automation and connected workflows, she said, can instead free up time for veterinary professionals to focus on patient care and team engagement.
In their talk on innovation, industry consultants Chad Terrell and Juerg Baggenstoss of Stonehaven Cozmix estimated that roughly two-thirds of industry growth in the past decade has come from new products and innovation, and they expect innovation to remain a primary engine of growth even as the overall market matures. But they noted that innovation runs the spectrum from blockbuster therapies to simple changes in formulation or delivery that can drive real value.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly part of that equation, but executives suggested a shift is happening. Rauf Gurbuz, US president and general manager of Hill’s Pet Nutrition, said AI differentiation will come from tools grounded in proprietary clinical and biological data and integrated into “the backbone of company operations.”
Scott Bormann, SVP, North America, at Merck Animal Health, agreed: “It’s not a matter of whether it’s going to be here. It’s a matter of how you choose to use it.”
Trend 2: Greater Focus on Access and Affordability
Of course, scientific advances don’t mean much if veterinarians, producers or pet owners cannot access them, panelists said. Loew characterized access to care as a “structural issue” across both companion and production animal health. Pet owners increasingly expect continuous, affordable care, she said, while the production sector faces persistent shortages of veterinarians and skilled labor needed to deliver new solutions at scale.
“You need to have the right infrastructure, the right economics and the right delivery mechanisms,” Loew said.
Those pressures may also impact competition. The Stonehaven Cozmix team estimated that approximately $15 billion in revenue among leading animal health brands is already off-patent or will lose patent protection in the coming years, while generics are being introduced more quickly than ever. This may help meet consumer demand for affordable medicines, Terrell and Baggenstoss said, while increasing pressure on both pioneer and generic manufacturers to differentiate through continued innovation.
Trend 3: A Shift Toward Longevity and ‘Health Span’
As pets live longer, there’s an increasing focus on extending their healthy years. Terrell and Baggenstoss identified longevity—or, as it’s increasingly being referred to, “health span”—as one area likely to attract investment and innovation, alongside oncology, chronic kidney disease and metabolic disease. Advances in treatment and diagnostics are also synergistic: better therapeutic options create greater reason to identify disease earlier, supporting a shift from episodic treatment toward earlier intervention and ongoing care.
That interest is mirrored by pet owners. In his consumer insights presentation, Michael Johnson of BSM Partners said heart health, kidney and urinary health, and longevity rank among the functional benefits pet owners most want in their nutrition products, even though consumers may struggle to evaluate the outcomes of products that improve these factors.
“If you can crack longevity in the pet space and prove it, that is the holy grail,” Johnson said.
Underpinning it all: Trust
Running through each of these trends was another priority emphasized by Summit speakers: trust. Johnson described pet care as operating increasingly within a “trust economy,” where consumers have access to more information than ever but often lack the scientific expertise to assess competing claims. That makes simple communication from trustworthy sources increasingly important.
Trust was also the focus of keynote speaker and Kansas City Royals broadcaster Joel Goldberg, who drew lessons from nearly two decades traveling with the team. “The business of people is the business of trust,” Goldberg told attendees.
His framework—build trust gradually, strengthen it by making life easier and anchor it by making interactions meaningful—also carried a message for an industry rapidly adopting AI and automation. “I’m a firm believer in embracing the technology, but we can’t let go of the personal relationships,” Goldberg said. “The relationship piece still is the heart of it all.”
Production animal draws new attention
Innovation may also be poised to accelerate in livestock and production animal health, where challenges around labor, disease detection, productivity and efficiency are creating opportunities for new approaches—and investment.
During the Summit’s investor Q&A panel, Eric Moore, managing director of DW Healthcare Partners, described production animal health as one of the most interesting areas for private equity today, citing a market that is not yet overcrowded with solutions, even as an increasing number of innovators turn their attention to its unmet needs.
In fact, a production animal startup drew the Summit’s Emerging Companies Innovation Award, presented to ProtonDx for Dragonfly, an on-farm molecular diagnostic platform being launched with an initial focus on PRRSV surveillance in swine. The company said its process takes approximately 40 minutes from sample preparation to result, using a simple field-based system that enables faster surveillance at the farm level. The same underlying technology could ultimately support additional livestock and food-safety applications.
The 2026 Summit also recognized industry achievement and community service:
- Iron Paw Award: Richard R. DeLuca Jr., executive vice president and president, Merck Animal Health
- Spirit of Service Award: War Horses for Veterans.
The Animal Health Summit, organized by the KC Animal Health Corridor, is held annually in Kansas City. Next year’s event is scheduled for August 30-31, 2027.
Source: KC Animal Health Corridor News Release