Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

And then for Todd, can you just talk specifically about gross margin trends the guide for next year, I guess, at the low end of the range is down about 100 basis points. But trying to tease out all the different effects in terms of inflation, or just reduce expectations for some of the performance products or higher-margin products in 2024. Just trying to think about what in a more normal environment may allow those margins to improve a little bit more than just sort of modestly. And how should we be thinking about your previous longer-term targets in light of today’s update.

Katy Grissom: Okay. A lot in there. Well.

Todd Young: Let me do the first and the third, and I’ll turn it back to Jeff on — so first, we think competitive pressure was roughly $100 million full year. We called out $80 million previously. The vet clinic traffic continues to be reasonably similar to there was a generic launch of a product that competes against Claro that hit us in Q4 plus some of the trade from retail channel into the vet channel. When we think about gross margin, a lot of this is mix. We don’t expect our pet health business to grow in ’23 in constant currency. That is our highest margin business. So that is a negative impact. The other part is we still have about $80 million of inflation, adding into our top space. A lot of productivity and work across our manufacturing network to offset that in the face of both declines in pet health and inflation in ’22, we were able to increase gross margin.

So the team continues to find ways, but that mix element is certainly impacting it. And then we did take off the longer-term targets a year ago, right now, we’re looking to stabilize on a lot of different areas before we think about reiterating any of those things. Do we expect margins to improve Absolutely. The new products will drive it. The new retail innovations will continue, but we’re not putting any commitments out there at this time. And I’ll turn it over to Jeff for the Galliprant.

Jeff Simmons: Yes. We — just at a high level, Galliprant, again, had a very strong year. And our overall pain segment continues to expand with on Sierra Nocita, Zorbium, as we know, and Galliprant and that whole segment is pain is growing and really one of the fastest-growing markets in pet overall, and we’re well positioned with a large portfolio. When you look specifically, Elliott, at Galliprant, first of all, in the U.S. and relative to the new competitive entry coming in. It’s been here longer. It has a wider label. It has more brand awareness and vets are using in an increasing way. And I would say pain for OA is multimodal. Most of that will recommend multimodal treatments with a focus on inflammation. I think that’s important.

And we expect the treatment guidelines will recommend typically an inset like a Galliprant. We’re becoming more of a first-line treatment of an NSA segment. in addition to maybe an overall treatment regimen that would include maybe innovation. So again, we believe we’re well positioned overall in pain. Galliprant in a much stronger position than we even were in Europe. And we believe that, again, this segment, even with our pipeline, pain will become increasingly more and more important to Elanco as we go forward.

Operator: Next question comes from Balaji Prasad from Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is open.