Nashville start-up to create new product category with petfood, medicine crossover

In the Bowl Animal Health aims to bring together the world of premium petfood and veterinary medicine to construct a brand new companion animal product segment. S&P Global’s head of animal health Joseph Harvey met the firm’s management at the recent Animal Health, Nutrition and Technology Innovation Europe conference in London to find out how this will be possible.

In the Bowl Animal Health (ITBAH) is using proprietary technology to deliver prescription medicines and over-the-counter feed ingredients via premium pet food. The firm’s chief executive Scott Holmstrom and chairman Rob Readnour shared one of the biggest issues with the medicalization of companion animals is compliance. Nashville, Tennessee-based ITBAH was created to address this particular problem with a convenient solution.

Dr Holmstrom told S&P Global Animal Health: “This new platform is all about convenience that leads to better compliance for pets. Getting pets to freely accept chronic medications can be a huge challenge for the pet, the pet owner and the veterinarian. If an animal isn’t receiving the required medicine, it will ultimately affect their health. The stress of administering the medicines can affect the bond that pet owners have with their pets as well. Lastly, if an animal isn’t compliant with taking the medication as prescribed by their veterinarian, that limits the veterinarian’s ability to make a difference.”

Dr Readnour said: “Having a veterinary medicine incorporated into the premium petfood offering is very convenient. It doesn’t require a separate action by the pet owner – of course, eating food is one of the most natural things a pet can do.”

Dr Readnour is managing director at Mountain Group Partners – a US venture business dedicated to supporting start-ups across human pharma and animal health. He joined the firm around six years ago and brought with him over three decades of experience from senior roles across R&D and business development at Elanco.

Mountain Group Partners is the founder and lead investor of ITBAH, which was established in 2019. Scott Holmstrom was brought in as the company’s chief executive in late 2022. Dr Holmstrom lends the business over 20 years of experience from Elanco and United Animal Health, where he headed up teams responsible for antiparasitic product development and regulatory approval.

ITBAH’s lead medicated food product candidate features a novel isooxazoline for canine flea and tick prevention. The firm’s market studies have shown pet owners would prefer to give a smaller amount of medicine daily instead of remembering to give a large monthly dose. Pet owners also suggested the prospect of never having to remember to give medicine again is particularly appealing. The firm’s approach enables vets to regain parasiticide sales that have been lost to recent growing competition from the over-the-counter channel, as well as secure new revenues from food sales and control pet owner foot traffic. ITBAH’s method also means there is no added inventory burden to veterinary clinics.

While ITBAH has not disclosed its pipeline, the company has revealed the general areas it is working in. The firm has additional parasiticide projects for heartworm and gastrointestinal nematodes, while it additionally plans to expand into endectocide combination products. It is also looking at developing products for cats, which can prove very problematic with drug compliance. Dr Holmstrom noted the ITBAH platform enables a broad applicability across oral medications, including therapeutics as well as parasiticides, and a wide variety of functional feeds and specialty diets.

ITBAH has not divulged the specifics of its drug delivery method, as they are related to several “trade secrets” held by the management team. Dr Readnour said the combination of pet food and veterinary medicine brings up several difficult technological and regulatory challenges – obstacles ITBAH believes it is close to overcoming.

He explained: “It all looks really simple but behind the scenes there’s been a lot of novel science going on. All the pet owner has to do is know the weight of their animal and be able to follow the feeding instructions on the packaging. A lot of work goes into that – formulating, setting the dose and knowing the correct nutritional requirements. We knew we would have to blaze some new trails from a regulatory standpoint and now we think we’ve done this. I truly do believe this is going to be transformational. We’ve got far enough along in the process that we’re confident we’ve solved all the issues. That gives us the confidence to think we’re creating a whole new category of products.”

ITBAH has been working with the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine for several years to figure out the regulatory pathway for its pending product candidates. Dr Readnour said the business has established a good working relationship with the agency, which has provided positive feedback and confirmed an FDA pathway for ITBAH’s pipeline.

Dr Holmstrom said ITBAH has developed a platform technology to put together its pipeline. He noted the team has spent time understanding how the platform works, so it can rapidly create and test new product candidates.

The start-up is currently finishing pivotal registration trials for its lead canine parasiticide this year and aims to submit all the data required for an FDA approval before the end of 2024.

ITBAH is being cost-effective by working with a lean team and utilizing a large number of experienced consultants to help progress its pipeline. Among its management team is more expertise with a background at Elanco. The firm has two co-chief operations officers – Joseph Winkle and Kevin Willard. Dr Winkle was a director and R&D leader at Elanco for more than a decade, while Mr Willard spent nearly 40 years in senior scientific roles at Elanco and Eli Lilly.