Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (ELAN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

June 11, 2024

New York Stock Exchange US Health Care Pharmaceuticals conference_presentation 35 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Nathan Rich

analyst
#1

All right. Great. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining us this afternoon. My name is Nathan Rich, I cover the animal health space here for Goldman Sachs. I'm very happy to have Elanco with us today. Jeff Simmons, President and CEO. Thanks so much for joining us. I appreciate the time. Jeff, do you want to maybe start with some opening comments, obviously, coming off of a good quarter kind of raised the outlook for the year. Maybe talk about what's kind of gone better than planned so far this year from a top line standpoint and kind of what you see as the key priorities are for the rest of the year?

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#2

Sure. Thank you, Nathan. Thanks I came down here for some sunshine. Hopefully, the heat...

Nathan Rich

analyst
#3

Yes. Hopefully we will get some before you leave.

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#4

We like rain followed by heat. It's good tick, flea. [indiscernible] Yes, so listen, yes, we've got a lot of good things going on in Elanco right now. It's a time we've been preparing for, for a long time. And we keep coming back to -- we talked a lot about our IPP strategy, innovation portfolio and productivity really that delivers 3 outcomes that we've been talking pretty consistently internally and externally for the last year, which is growth, innovation, cash. If you think about value proposition right now, we have grown consistently in that mid-single-digit range for 3 quarters in a row. We see a stabilizing core business. We see innovation being a key driver and really a good mix between international, U.S., Farm Animal and Pet, that was kind of those 4 segments. We've seen some pushes and pulls, but as a whole, probably the most durable, stable business overall. So growth is -- and led by innovation, which leads to innovation. Innovation is really, we've got this mantra of headed towards $600 million to $700 million of innovation since 2021 by the end of 2025. We had $100 million quarter in Q1, which really puts us on a trajectory and we raised our innovation guidance a little bit, and that will be a key driver of our growth. And that's right now being led by what we kind of call the first 3 major innovations, Parvo, Experior and Adtab. And then, of course, we've got the next 3, which we got Bovaer, and the okay from the FDA on Bovaer, and we've got Zenrelia and Quattro coming. And then the next one, which is IL-31 next year. So those 7 assets and innovation driving us to that $60 million to $70 million. And then, of course, the cash, the other key milestone coming up is our existing business generating more cash. We're looking at over $300 million generated this year that will go to debt pay down, and then we'll have about $1.1 billion from the Aqua deal that we expect midyear. We're going to sell our Aqua business to Merck. So we will move from a mid-5s to a mid-4 levered business, debt-to-EBITDA, and then we will move to that low 4, high 3. So that's growth, innovation, cash. We've seen nice consistent growth guiding to that, raised our guidance a little bit, 2% to 3% growth. The innovation will be our driver of value, and our balance sheet strengthens a lot this year, next year as we go forward. So that's the high level and just about any question kind of comes back to that focus.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#5

Yes. I guess as we think about the opportunity going forward, when you look at that vet channel, how do you feel like the vet community kind of views the product portfolio that's coming from Elanco, and it seems like you've made a lot of progress on that front in terms of talking about the value kind of proposition across the portfolio that you're going to bring to market. Can you talk about kind of what benefit that's had so far with the base business? And then how that maybe accelerates when you bring that new innovation to the market.

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#6

Right. Yes. So look, I always say, it starts and ends in animal health with a veterinarian. The veterinarian influence continues to grow and the most credible voice to the pet owner that we're trying to reach. So that's critical. But look, Elanco has been innovating pretty consistently inside the vet. Maybe they haven't been blockbuster products, but we brought the first SGLT2 for diabetes in the feline market last year. We brought a couple of pain products, postsurgical pain and other pain products. we brought parvovirus. And what this has done, Nathan, is it's given us a chance to get into more clinics. Typically, when you have a parasiticide, you might be in 1/3. You might be in 11,000 of the 30,000 clinics. What we've done with some of these new innovations is now they have a real interest in that. So one is, I think new innovation has helped us. Second is we've said, "Hey, we got to increase our share of voice and preparation for these new launches." So we've taken a sales force of about 230, up over 300. We've added 75 experienced reps. Our share of voice data is as strong as it's ever been. That's a lead indicator. And then we've used kind of what we're kind of calling next-generation sales efforts from digital to telesales to a lot of other efforts to increase more touch points inside the clinic to increase the awareness of these products. So these are the things that we've done, I think, building a muscle in preparation. We've also gone out and hired some of the best people in the industry that are a cultural fit from some of the people that have already done some of the things that we're about to do. So we've increased our know-how. And we're looking at our channel. We've had the longest probably standing relationships with the major distributors and we're continuing to strengthen and assess our options with that. So I think the vet is seeing Elanco as an innovator, higher presence, stronger portfolio and all these things set up. I do think the dynamic that's about to change as we are going to be the second company that's going to have all 4 dimensions of our portfolio. When a veterinarian sees a company come in, do you have vaccines? Are you in my refrigerator? Do you have the therapeutic classes of pain and diabetes? Do you have a parasiticide portfolio? And do you have a derm? And that derm is what's kind of that new fourth dimension that, especially corporate clinics like to have multiple options and they haven't had. And we're going to be able to bring that here starting this year.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#7

And I guess from a commercialization standpoint, how do you kind of leverage that to get that kind of like higher share of wallet or clinic penetration that you're talking about? Is it through kind of bundling? Like what's the mechanism in terms of going to market?

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#8

There's no question of why we're spending a lot of time as we hired even these reps. It all comes back to differentiation and value. You can't jump over that first step. I think it's critical. So these 75 reps, most of them were already in territory with many years of experience that knows the industry that already has the vet relationship. So what we've done is we've split up territories to increase, but we haven't really created -- bringing new people into the industry or new territories. So one is we want experienced people, well trained to be able to sell that value proposition. This is a value-based approach, not an economic-based approach. And so we'll start with that. And that's -- we've hit all those metrics. We're ready to go. We're going to launch with no regrets. I definitely think that as you look at multiple offer, the first thing is they want a second option, if you look at derm, a lot of the label claims are there's only a 65% response to the product. So we want to highlight that we got something new. Then yes, then you start to say, "Hey, if you've been a long-standing customer in these 2 or 3 areas, we've got a fourth dimension now, and we'll look at whether that's a total value-based portfolio approach." Corporates will be different than the smaller clinics. And probably Elanco in pet has probably never done more market research than we've done in the last 12 months to really understand the segments well. So those are the aspects that we're taking to add value for these 4 dimensions of the portfolio.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#9

Great. And when it comes to, I guess, innovation in that differentiation piece, you talked on the last call about sort of prioritizing kind of optimization of the label. Could you maybe just kind of like talk about what that means and maybe as you kind of gotten some of the different technical sections approved kind of level of confidence in the differentiation that you're bringing to market.

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#10

Yes. So I think we've probably gone to another level of disclosure of the regulatory process in animal health, given where we are as a company, and we felt it was necessary. But what I would say is what we're going through is very common. The Animal Drug User Fee Act has been based off from PDUFA. It's the -- it's -- we're in PDUFA V. So we've done this for almost 30 years. So it's very common in the final stages to be in a rolling iterative back and forth discussion. And it's very common to say, hey, we will be always looking at how we can optimize the label, relative to the value and the differentiation and that will be a process that we will go through and are going through as we go through these final steps in our approval process. And that will be key to overall. And we'll look at those trade-offs back and forth. We're confident in our Quattro as well as with Zenrelia, Credelio Quattro and Zenrelia. And we're confident in the package that's based on the science and the data that's in the package, and we'll look forward to communicating the outcomes as they come forward.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#11

And I guess as you kind of think about bringing these products to market, do you kind of feel like they'll follow the traditional like launch curve that you see where you kind of reach maybe more of a run rate or kind of steady-state growth 3 or 4 years into the future? Or is there any reason to believe that like these drugs could be different. These are obviously like established markets that you're going into? Could it be a faster uptake?

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#12

Yes. So I think the good news and why I think people are excited about animal health is these markets continue to grow, even parasiticide, $6.5 billion market between the globalization, pet ownership, innovation, the markets are growing. So I think that's -- derm has gone from $1 billion headed to $1.5 billion, headed to $2 billion to $3 billion. So I think the big thing here is, one is innovation usually stimulates market growth. So we want to take part in the growing market. Pains, pains is the third market doing the same thing. So I think one is we're going to come in, we're going to be focused heavily on the differentiation of the product offering. And then we build off from the share of voice to clinic penetration to activating pet owners to get into the clinic and ask. And then using our omnichannel approach to make it convenient for the pet owner as well. Those are all the aspects that we will bring forward. But these are major markets, and we've got differentiated, we believe, in some cases, best-in-class type products. So we've said, we're going to resource and invest behind these launches like probably never before in Elanco's history. We brought in know-how, so there'll be no regrets. We'll make the right decisions with the best experience we have, and we've been really practicing a lot of these capabilities over the last 2 years with some of the launches we've had. So I do see a typical kind of archetype and an adoption from historical standards.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#13

And I guess with Zenrelia, you talked about kind of doing the market research, potentially a $2 billion market kind of over time. I guess what drives it there? Because still, obviously, like would imply significant growth from where we are today? And then how do you think about kind of the factors that would influence the veterinarian adoption of a product like Zenrelia and what would influence kind of the consumer's decision to use that product or switch from the products they're currently using.

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#14

Yes. So I think the biggest thing derms is an exciting, very different market. So if you think about derm, it is, one, it's probably the only way a dog can self-diagnose, right? And itching dog is the #1 reason that they go into the vet clinic. We believe, just as you look at the U.S. and our market research, there's another 6 million dogs that are untreated, that are out there. So I think more awareness, more treatments and a growing market is kind of the fundamentals. It's about 60% in the U.S., 40% international, and we see growth rates at or above the U.S. internationally. So we see globalization will be another factor that will drive us to $2 billion. I think the other is, it's a market that it's a chronic problem as an owner of 2 labs that have itching problems. And some products work, some don't work. There's different kind of stages of this problem. And all of these things lead to vets wanting more options. We've never seen a greater than $1 billion market with only 2 products really in it. So I think that's one options. They -- on most every other category, they want 2 or 3 options on their shelves. And most labels don't have a -- only 65% response. So it's set up very nicely for the next generation of innovation and alternative options. So Elanco is looking at derm as global, as a portfolio approach, and we've got multiple things in our pipeline not just Zenrelia, but many products to follow, starting with an IL-31 in 2025.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#15

Yes. And I guess the launch with no regrets philosophy, what does that mean in terms of maybe incremental spend that we could see post approval? And consequently, what that means for maybe margins initially as sales ramp up?

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#16

Right. We've invested already in the sales force. We've done a lot of the marketing capabilities like digital, which we talked a lot about last year, Sales force this year. Now Todd and I and the team are spending a lot of time and Bobby are looking at, okay, now it's about how we create brand awareness and pet owners to move into the vet clinic and ask these products. So these would be the investment that will be variable, they'll be probably more DTC-oriented. And there will be more of a substantial spend in year 1. So as we look in 2025, that is something that we do expect to see is a leaning on investment. We haven't given the guidance, we haven't given the numbers but it will be something that we will -- and we've got enough market research, so these would be data-driven, know-how-driven decisions. We won't be guessing. We'll have data that will be based on, but it will be pretty resource-heavy '25.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#17

Okay. You also talked about kind of faster approvals for some of the international markets for Zenrelia.

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#18

Yes.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#19

I guess maybe talk about what you kind of -- what markets do you expect to get approval in late this year or early next. And I guess from a capacity and ability to supply what could potentially be a global market in '25. How do you feel like the company is positioned from that standpoint?

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#20

Yes. So we feel good about supply. It's in a supply chain that actually comes through the same manufacturing facility that we make Credelio and others, and our other tablet products in. So it's not an unknown supply chain or manufacturing chain. We will prioritize the U.S., of course, that will be our primary market to start with, and we'll have sufficient supply. The next level of approvals will come in those big pet markets. Look for Canada, Japan, Europe, Australia, and then even Latin America, we've leaned in on markets like Brazil and others that will be coming as well. And we've -- this is the most coordinated fastest global regulatory approach we've ever taken, and the pipelines are moving nicely. The registrations are moving nicely in those international markets. So again, feel good about supply overall. The priority will be the U.S., the international markets we start to see late this year coming forward with approvals.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#21

Great. And one other question as it relates to Zenrelia launch, but also, I think, kind of Quattro would fit into this question as well. Like there's been a lot of focus on just how much prices have gone up for the consumer in the vet channel. And I guess, some concern is that, that is impacting demand. How does that change maybe how you're thinking about kind of commercial and go-to-market strategy? Kind of -- you do agree that there's a view that kind of the consumers may be stretched and kind of looking for additional value? And if so, how does that maybe change kind of the go-to-market?

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#22

Yes. I think there's some speculation there. But if you really look at even with visits down, spend is up, okay? So I think that if value is there and the veterinarians continue, I think, to see the resiliency of the spend. I would say there's no question, we're not seeing the ability to take price like we did during the inflationary years, but we do still see that if you've got a differentiated product in major areas of need for the pet owner, like derm, like pain, Parvo, the spend is definitely there. So it's all about -- that's why we're spending a lot more time on market research and making sure that our value proposition is strong, experienced reps, pricing models that are value-based and will take a very value-based, not market share base, but a value-based approach on pricing. And we see the data maybe a little bit more balanced and continue to see strong movement on the ability to get price and to be able to get growth with the right innovation and the right portfolio.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#23

I wanted to ask on Bovaer, a significant economic incentive for dairy farmers to use the product -- type of education needs to be done to kind of get them engaged in the carbon credit market and be in a place to kind of secure these incentives that are out there as they start to use this product. Can you just maybe talk us through that process and how you see that kind of playing out?

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#24

Sure. Yes. And I'll just say for people here. I mean, Bovaer was -- the FDA completed its review first time that the FDA has brought a product into the market for methane reduction in cattle. So this is for lactating dairy cattle. I will tell you on the day that we got the approval or got the okay and the clearance by the FDA. They -- we saw 1.3 billion media impressions. That's about 30% of what we saw all of last year. So the interest from the 3 constituents, the dairy farming industry, the dairy cooperatives and the CPG companies was extremely high beyond probably our expectations. Now it's a new market. But to answer your question specifically, the goal here is incentives are key to maybe start the market, but we've already proven an inset market that can be resilient over time without incentives. So just to kind of put this together, how this works for everybody real simply is, a dairy farm in California, has a package that we've got certified called UpLook that takes an analytics approach to how they bring emissions down on their farm. And that needs to be independently certified. We've got 700,000 cows on that data package now. So 9 million dairy cows, we get up to 1 million, we'll have a very significant part of the market. Then that date when they put in 1 table spoon a day and Bovaer, they reduce methane by 30%. They create 1 ton of carbon. They sell that carbon credit or put that carbon credit into Athian. Athian is an independent bank for carbon and a Nestle or a CPG company will buy that maybe at $0.02 to $0.03 a gallon of milk, 1% of cost. That translates to $20 a cow, a new value stream for the dairy farmer. So we're creating a what we believe a $1 billion to $2 billion market globally in cattle for enteric methane reduction. That's ultimately what we're doing here. And what we've already done is we've proven that inset market with Rumensin, one of our products already. So that's working. And I think what we saw in the first week after the FDA announcement was, dairy farmers saying, "I want that $20 a cow", Cooperative saying, "Hey, we would like the $89 million of incentives and be part of that, that came from the USDA to start the market." And probably the biggest surprise is the CPG interest from global CPG companies saying, "It's not just about reducing my Scope 3 emissions. It's about being tied directly to my dairy farms". And for 1%, the #1 reason people aren't consuming dairy products is the environmental impact, and we're on a path to climate-neutral dairy farms. And so this is what we see as a tremendous interest compared to an offset market where most dairy farms would have to gone out, gone into the gas market or bought a biodigester for hundreds of thousands of dollars, where this is a feed product.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#25

So does that mean, I guess, faster uptake potentially than what you saw with Experior.

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#26

I think there's a parallel to Experior that once a farm gets on a feed program like we've seen with Experior, Nathan, and you know this, it's a lot stickier. So one, our competition is created in a new market. it's non-use. It's not really a competitor. So that's the good thing. Once people get on, I believe farms get on, this will become something that will be pretty consistent, okay? I think that being able to get lined up and being able to be part of an inset market will be key. Probably the incentives will be needed to make some of the economics work initially and then we will continue to hopefully have lower-cost product over time as we build our manufacturing and bring on some of DSM's products. So initially, this will not be accretive to our gross margin. It will be dilutive as we've said from the beginning, but we do believe that the early interest is high, but making the inset market will be the critical success factor and quarter-to-quarter, we'll update you. What's next is state approvals look for Kansas, Pennsylvania, California, some of these key milk markets followed by us bringing it to the market. We've activated the marketplace, and we'll be putting it in the marketplace in Q3. Products in place. We're labeling now and we'll be taking it into the marketplace here in the next couple of -- in the next month.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#27

And I guess kind of pulling it all together, on the last quarter call, you kind of talked about $600 million to $700 million of revenue from the innovation products that you have next year. That would imply a pretty significant year-over-year contribution, 6, 7 type percent to growth. I think in the past, and I don't know if you've talked about this recently, but you kind of talked about sort of a low single-digit type erosion in the base business. But it seems like that would kind of put you on a trajectory for mid-single-digit growth in constant currency revenue next year. Is that like at a high level, the right moving pieces as we think about what this means for the business in '25?

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#28

Yes, we're not giving '25 guidance. I think there's going to be pushes and pulls, but we're confident in the $600 million to $700 million. So you're right, we're going to see a step up. We're going to see some cannibalization. So experience taken from Optaflexx, there will be some Credelio Quattro that will take from Credelio. So it's not going to be just an automatic had, as we've talked about but we like where we are relative to the trajectory of the innovation. That will be the thing to watch and the most important success factor on our value proposition. We do have a stabilizing base business. There's no question. So I think that's also going to be a positive contributor. There will be some added expense and a pretty significant expense on the launch side. Bovaer will be dilutive, as we've mentioned, that will be another factor in this. And then I think just on some of the other pulls against this is, look, we see China as being softer, that's our second largest country. And the competitive pressure, we don't expect competition to be nonresponsive to all the things that we're doing here. And competitive innovation is a little less transparent what's coming from the competitors compared to the human pharma industry. So that's the balance that I would say as we look through the next couple of years. But we know launching innovation, getting these approvals, getting ideal labels and launching well are the critical success factors that will drive the most value.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#29

And I guess another kind of component of the outlook is just kind of how you feel about the health of the vet industry. I think there's been a lot of focus on visits, obviously, maybe it's been more on the wellness side, which may not impact kind of therapeutics as much. Maybe just kind of both near term and kind of when you look out over the next 18 months, how you feel about kind of the health of that market and then the impact on your business? And do you feel like there's -- that headwind to visits creates a drag.

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#30

Yes. I don't think this is an apples-to-apples comparison vet visits from company to company, whether it's a diagnostic company or one animal health to the other. So I'll speak for Elanco. Elanco, when we acquired Bayer Animal Health, we had a vision that is playing out very well, which is we want to be the omnichannel leader. We want to reach every pet owner where they want to shop at the price point they want to shop at, whether that's a dollar store with a topical product that is an OTC product or a collar, or whether it is drop shipped or whether it's in a clinic with something brand new, like a parvovirus or whether it's Credelio Quattro here in the future. So I would say we are less probably prone or dependent on vet visits. I don't think vet visits, I mean, they're up or down a couple of percent, they've been down. But revenue is up, retail is up, drop shipping is up. So I would say that when we look at it, I don't think it is as bad as -- for the industry. I do think visits also are being driven a lot around the capacity of the clinic. There's just fewer vets that want to work on weekends. And now people are back to work, so they can't take it in during the middle of the week and all of these factors are driving into less visits. But I like the revenues up, drop shipping is up. Retail continues to be pretty strong. Especially on the e-com side, and we're well positioned. That was the strategy when we put Bayer and Elanco together, and we feel good about that.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#31

And have you seen an accelerated shift more recently to retail? There's a lot of thought about like easier to get a product through some of these alternative channels and maybe going into the vet for the consumer. Do you feel like that's accelerated in your mind? And then I also wanted to ask, like you have made retail a big focus. You've expanded the number of stores where your products are available. Maybe talk to us about where you are in that process in terms of increasing availability.

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#32

Yes. I think the data is not as good probably on how much is moving from one sector to the other. And I think we all know, and all consumers and all segments want things more conveniently. And veterinarians have done a nice job of being able to script products, have a relationship with a pet owner and then create convenience, and we want to be a leader in being able to be part of that. We do believe it always starts and ends with a veterinarian. But there's still 1/3 of the pet owners in the United States that don't have access to a veterinarian, don't go to a veterinarian, cat owners don't like going to the veterinarian as much. So we want to be able to serve that market, and the price points as well. So that's one. I think to answer your second question, Nathan, I think our pet retail business after acquiring it from Bayer, we brought in additional expertise. We've had this really 2- or 3-pronged approach here strategy. Bobby Modi has led it, he done a great job of saying, "Hey, we want more distribution points," and we measure that quarter-to-quarter. So that's in more retailers, that's also in more shelves. We're in a few different shelves in Walmart or in the end cap with Seresto or in a higher end with an Advantage, multi or more a advanced product Advantage, too. And then we got Advantage mono down on the lower cost shelf. So physical availability is another aspect. And then we're innovating. We brought a lot of products. Adtab, one of our faster-growing products now is the Credelio active ingredient with an OTC approval with the Advantage name on the brand. And that right now is Europe's biggest growth driver. So we're bringing innovation that actually we didn't necessarily have with Bayer when we acquire them. So we like retail, but it's a retail in vet. We want to lead in retail. We want to lead and continue to take share in Farm Animal and open up livestock sustainability. And then pet and vet market, no, we're not leading, but we're going to bring a lot of innovation and bring that 4 dimensional portfolio. That's the Elanco story and strategy coming to life here between now and the end of '25.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#33

And what do you see as the outlook for the livestock market? It seems like maybe more innovation now, especially from you, your company than we've had in the recent past. And Tyson made the decision to go back to using ionophores. I guess, do you feel like there's maybe -- this is a more favorable environment for the livestock portfolio than what we've seen in the past several years?

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#34

Yes, I think you said the key word. When you talk to livestock, large meat companies and our customers on the Farm Animal side, they like portfolios. They want you to come in with a portfolio. And when -- what we're doing with Bovaer, Experior or others, is going to help the Rumensin in what we have in terms of the ionophore that we're using now with Tyson with as they come back and a shift back to really no antibiotic ever has shifted to, not used in human medicine and that's allowing Elanco to have a portfolio that serves that. But we can do the no antibiotic ever, too. So I think it's a lot about portfolio. And then every portfolio, whether it's poultry, dairy, beef, we're adding an innovation into that portfolio and that innovation has given us a competitive advantage. So we're growing share. And we continue to see, especially in beef and dairy and poultry. We see these species as key species for us to continue to grow significantly in the future. But it is a market still has generics. It's still value based. You still have cycles that impact it. But to us, it's a nice market that we can continue to sustain good leadership.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#35

Got it. And you mentioned some pressures in China. I guess are there any other geographies that you're kind of watching in terms of maybe trending not as favorably or more favorably than you anticipated just from an international standpoint?

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#36

Yes. I would pull out China just to say, it's soft. It continues to be soft. We're seeing on the pet side, that consumer market confidence the -- maybe main street economics in China is not strong. We're seeing vet clinics and vet shops actually being shut down. So we do see a softer market. We keep talking about pork prices hitting breakeven and they don't seem to be hitting breakeven. So pigs and pets maybe poultry is a little more resilient, little bit more economically safeguard from a meat standpoint. So I want to highlight that. And then I'd say we took earlier this year with some of our restructuring we have changed a few different countries. I'll use Argentina as an example, where we're still there, but we moved to distribution, and we've taken our people out and move to distribution just as a way to kind of create less risk in some of these volatile, especially currency-driven markets. So we've got a few of those that we've been a little more targeted on, just to make a simpler, safer, more concentrated, focused Elanco, same with our Aqua business. It's a great market. It's only $400 million. We're going to go after the $20 billion pet market that we think is more important.

Nathan Rich

analyst
#37

Yes. Maybe in the last minute that we have, you have the Analyst Day back in 2020. The company hasn't really kind of revised its long-term targets since then. I guess, when do you think that you'd be at a point to kind of issue kind of the next set of kind of long-term guidance? And like what do you think -- what components do you think are most important for like investors to think about? As they think about the longer-term future of the company.

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#38

Yes. I'll start with the most important thing is quarter-to-quarter become a consistent company of delivery. We know we're a show-me execution story, we've seen that pretty consistently here over the last 3, 4 quarters. Heavy focus on growth innovation cash, keep this company growing. Top line, bottom line, the innovation will drive the trajectory of both top and bottom line and it will take some investment to pull that off because we want to really have some very strong launches. And the balance sheet is going to get a lot stronger. That's going to help from an interest expense. Todd's got 80% of our debt fixed. So we're really creating a much stronger balance sheet here over the next 12 months as well. So I anchor to that. And what I would say is, look, we want these approvals, we want to head down the trajectory of the metric that matters right now more than anything is $600 million to $700 million of innovation because that will solve everything. And that's what we're going to focus on. And then as we get these products in the marketplace, a clear understanding of the market ahead, we'll begin to start to communicate, potentially have more investor engagement and Investor Day to highlight that...

Nathan Rich

analyst
#39

Jeff. Thanks so much for the time. I appreciate it.

Jeffrey Simmons

executive
#40

Thank you. Thanks.

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Programmatic access to Elanco Animal Health Incorporated earnings transcripts and 32,000+ others is available through the EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments, full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.