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. Very happy to have Elanco with us today. Jeff Simmons, President and CEO, thanks so much for joining us.
Sure.
Appreciate the time. Jeff, do you want to maybe start with some, you know, opening comments? Obviously, coming off of a good quarter, kind of raise the outlook for the year. Maybe talk about, you know, what's kind of gone better than planned so far this year from a top line standpoint, and kind of, you know, what you see as the key priorities are for the, the rest of the year.
Sure. Thank you, Nathan. Thanks. I came down here for some sunshine.
Yeah, uh-
But hopefully, the heat will come.
Hopefully, we'll get you some before, before you leave.
We like rain, followed by heat. It's good tick, flea-
You're right.
Yeah, so listen, 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... You know, we talked a lot about our IPP strategy, innovation, portfolio, and productivity. Really, that delivers three 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've grown consistently in that mid-single digit range for three 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's kind of those four segments.
We've seen, you know, some pushes and pulls, but as a whole, probably the most durable, stable, you know, business overall. So growth is led by innovation, which leads to innovation. Innovation is really. We've got this mantra of headed towards $600 million-$700 million of innovation since 2021, by the end of 2025. We had a $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, you know, a key driver of our growth. And that's right now being led by what we kinda call the first three major innovations, Parvo, Experior, and AdTab. And then, of course, we've got the next three, 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 seven assets and innovation driving us to that $600 million-$700 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 gonna sell our Aqua business to Merck. So we will move from a mid-fives to a mid-four levered business, debt to EBITDA, and then we will move to you know, to that low-four, high-three. So that's growth, innovation, cash. We've seen nice, consistent growth guiding to that, raised our guidance a little bit, 2%-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, that's the high level, and just about any question kind of comes back to that-
Yeah
- focus.
I guess, as we think about, the opportunity going forward, when you look at the 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, you know, talking about the value kind of proposition across the portfolio that you're going to bring to market. You know, can you talk about kind of, you know, what benefits that's had so far with the base business, and then how that maybe accelerates when you bring, you know, that new innovation to market?
Right. Yeah. So look, I always say it, it starts and ends in animal health with a veterinarian. The veterinarian's influence continues to grow and, you know, 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've brought the first SGLT2 for diabetes in the feline market last year. We've brought a couple pain products, post-surgical pain and other pain products. We've brought parvovirus. And what this has done, and Nathan, is it's given us a chance to get into more clinics. Typically, when you have a parasiticide, you might be in one third. 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 in 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, you know, 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 is we are gonna be the second company that's gonna have all four dimensions of a 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? 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 gonna be able to bring that here, starting this year.
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? You know, like, what's the mechanism in terms of going to market?
There's no question on 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, you know, 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, you know, 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 gonna launch with no regrets.
I definitely think that as you look at a multiple offer, the first thing is they want a second option. You look at derm, a lot of the label claims are there's only a 65% response to the product. So we wanna highlight that we got something new. Then, yes, then you start to say, "Hey, if you've been a long-standing customer in these two or three areas, we've got a fourth dimension now, and we'll look at whether that's a, you know, a total value-based portfolio approach." Corporates will be different than the smaller clinics, and probably Elanco Pe t 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 to these four dimensions of the portfolio.
Great. When it comes to, I guess, innovation and that differentiation piece, you talked on the last call about sort of, you know, prioritizing kind of optimization of the label. Could you maybe just kind of, like, talk about what that means, you know, and maybe as you've kind of gotten some of the different technical sections approved, kind of level of confidence in the differentiation that you're bringing to market?
Yeah. So I think we've, 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, 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 ADUFA. It's we're in ADUFA 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, you know.
And it's very common to say, "Hey, we will be always looking at how we can optimize a 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. So, that'll 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, you know, look forward to communicating the outcomes as they come forward.
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, you know, reach maybe more of a run rate or kind of steady state growth three or four years into the future? Or, is there any reason to believe that, like, this, you know, these drugs could be different? These are obviously, like, established markets that you're going into.
Yeah.
Could it be a faster uptake?
Yeah. So I think the good news and why I think people are excited about animal health is these markets continue to grow. Even parasiticides, $6.5 billion market between the globalization, pet ownership, innovation, the markets are growing. So I think that's... derm, you know, has gone from $1 billion, headed to $1.5 billion, headed to $2 billion-$3 billion. So I think the, the big thing here is, one, is innovation usually stimulates market growth. So we wanna take part in the, in the growing market. Pain's, pain's the third market doing the same thing.
So I think one is, you know, we're gonna come in, we're gonna be focused heavily on the differentiation in 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'll 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 gonna resource and invest behind these launches like probably never before in Elanco's history. We've 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 two years with some of the launches we've had. So I do see a typical kind of archetype and an adoption from historical standards.
I guess with Zenrelia, you talked about kind of doing the market research, you know, potentially a $2 billion market kind of over time. I guess, what drives it there?
Mm.
'cause 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-
Yep.
to use that product or switch from the product they're currently using?
Yeah. So I think the biggest thing, derm's an exciting, very different market. So if you think about, you know, derm, it is—one, it's probably the only way a dog can self-diagnose, right? An itching dog is the number one 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, you know, globalization will be another factor that will drive us to $2 billion.
I think the other is, it's a market that's a chronic problem, as an owner of two labs that have itching problems. And, you know, some products work, some don't work. You know, 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 a billion-dollar market with only two products really in it. So I think vets want options. They, most every other category, they want two or three options on their shelves, and most labels don't have only 65% respond. So it's set up very nicely for the next generation of innovation and alternative options.
So Elanco's looking at derm as global, as a portfolio approach, and we've got multiple things in our pipeline, not just, not just as Zenrelia-
Right
... but any products to follow, starting with an IL-31 in 2025.
Yeah. And I guess, you know, 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?
Right. We've invested, you know, 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, you know, 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 for these products. So these would be the investments that will be variable. They'll be probably more DTC-oriented, and, you know, there will be, you know, more of a substantial spend in year one. So as we look in 2025, that is something that we do expect to see, is a leaning on investment. We haven't given guidance, we haven't given the numbers, but it will be something that we will...
And we've got enough market research that these will be data-driven, know-how-driven decisions. We won't be guessing. We'll have data that will be based on, but it'll be pretty resource-heavy in 2025.
Okay. You also talked about kind of faster approvals for some of the international markets for Zenrelia.
Yeah.
I guess, you know, maybe talk about what, you know, you kind of expect what markets you expect to get approval in, either late this year or early next. I guess from a capacity and ability to supply what, you know, could potentially be a global market, you know, in 2025, how do you feel like the company is positioned from that standpoint?
Yeah, 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'll 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. So, and, you know, this is the most, you know, 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.
Great. And one other question as it relates to the Zenrelia launch, but also I think kind of Quattro would fit into this question as well is, like, you know, 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, you know, some concern that that is impacting demand. How does that change maybe how you're thinking about kind of commercial and go-to-market strategy? You know, do you 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?
Yeah, I think, you know, 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 that, you know, 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, you know, 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 we'll take a very value-based, not market share-based, but a value-based approach on pricing. And we see the data maybe a little bit more balanced and continue to see strong, you know, movement on the ability to get price and to be able to get growth, with the right innovation and the right portfolio.
I wanted to ask on Bovaer. Significant economic incentive for dairy farmers to use the product. What type of education needs to be done, you know, to kind of get them engaged in the carbon credit market and, you know, be in a place to kind of secure these incentives that are out there, you know, as they start to use this product? Can you just maybe talk us through that process and, and-
Sure.
How you see that kind of playing out?
Yeah, and I'll just say for people here, I mean, Bovaer—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, we saw 1.3 billion media impressions. That's about 30% of what we saw all of last year. So the interest from the three constituents, the dairy farming industry, the dairy cooperatives, and the CPG companies, was extremely high, beyond probably our expectations.
Yeah.
Now, it's a new market, but to answer your question specifically, you know, 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, you know, 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 when they, you know, put in one tablespoon a day on 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's an independent bank for carbon, and a Nestlé or a CPG company will buy that maybe at 2-3 cents a gallon of milk, 1% of cost. That, 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-$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-
Mm-hmm.
-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." Cooperatives 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 number one 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, you know-
Yeah
... 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.
Does that mean, I guess, faster uptake potentially than what you saw with Experior?
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, you know, our competition is creating in a new market. It's non-use, it's not really a competitor.
Right.
So that's, 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, you know, 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'll be dilutive, as we've said from the beginning. But, we do believe that, you know, 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, you know, 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, you know, next month.
I guess kind of pulling it all together, on the last quarter call, you kind of talked about $600 million-$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% to growth. I think in the past, you know, 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 2025?
Yeah, we're not giving 2025 guidance. I think there's gonna be pushes and pulls, but we, you know, we're confident in the $600 million-$700 million. So you're right, we are gonna see a step up. We're gonna see some cannibalization, so, you know, Experior is taken from Optaflexx. There'll be some Credelio Quattro that'll take from Credelio. So it's not gonna be just an automatic add, as we've talked about, but we, 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 in our value proposition. We do have a stabilizing base business, there's no question. So I think that's also gonna 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'll be another factor in this. And then I think, you know, 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, you know, competition to be non-responsive to all the things that we're doing here, so. And competitive innovation's a little less transparent, what's coming from the competitors compared to the human pharma industry. So that, that's the balance that I would say as we look through, you know, the next couple years, so. But we know launching innovation, getting these approvals, getting, you know, ideal labels, and launching well are the critical success factors that will drive the most value.
I guess, you know, another kind of component of the outlook is just kind of how you feel about the health of the vet industry.
Yep.
You know, I think there's been a lot of focus on visits, obviously, you know, maybe it's been more on the wellness side, which may not impact kind of, you know, therapeutics as, as much. Maybe just kind of both near term and kind of, you, you know, when you look out over the next 18 months, how you feel about kind of the health of the vet market, and then, you know, the impact on your business, and, you know, do you feel like there's, you know, that headwind to visits creates a drag?
Yeah. I don't think this is an apples to apples comparison, vet visits from company to company-
Yeah
... whether it's a diagnostic company or from one animal health to the other. So I'll speak for Elanco.
Yeah.
Elanco, when we acquired Bayer Animal Health, we had a vision that is playing out very well, which is we want to be the omni-channel 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, you know, drop shipped or whether it's in a clinic with something brand new, like a parvovirus, or whether it's a, you know, 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%. They've been down, you know-
Yeah.
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.
Right.
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 that revenue's 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-
And-
Feel good about that.
Have you seen an accelerated shift more recently to retail? You know, there's a lot of thought about, like, easier to get a product through some of these alternative channels than maybe going into the vet for the consumer. Do you feel like that's accelerated in your mind? Then I also wanted to ask, like, you have made it, you know, retail a big focus. You've expanded the number of, you know, stores where your products are available. You maybe talk to us about where you are in that process in terms of increasing availability.
Yeah, I think, you know, the data is not as good probably on how much is moving from one sector to the other, and I think we all know, you know, all consumers in all segments want things more conveniently. And veterinarians have done a nice job of being able to script products, have a relationship with the 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 the veterinarian, but there's still a third 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, 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 two or three prong approach here strategy. Bobby Modi has led and 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. We're on the end cap with Seresto. We're in a higher end with an Advantage, you know, multi or more advanced product, Advantage II. And then we got Advantage Multi down on the lower cost shelf. So physical availability is another aspect, and then we're innovating. We've 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 acquired it.
Yeah.
So we like retail, but it's a retail and 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 the pet and vet market, no, we're not leading, but we're going to bring a lot of innovation and bring that four-dimensional portfolio. That's the Elanco story and strategy coming to life here between now and the end of 2025.
What do you see as the outlook for the livestock market? It seems like maybe more innovation, you know, now, especially from you, you know, your company, than we've had in the recent past. And you know, Tyson made the decision to go back to using ionophores. You know, I guess, do you feel like there's maybe, you know, this is a more favorable environment for the livestock portfolio than what we've seen in the past several years?
Yeah, I think you said the key word. When you talk to, you know, livestock, large, you know, 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 gonna help the Rumensin. You know, what we have in terms of the ionophores that we're using now with Tyson, whether as they come back and a shift back to really No Antibiotic Ever is shifted to, you know, 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.
Yeah.
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 competitive advantage. So we, 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, you know, 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, it's a nice market that we can continue to sustain good leadership.
Got it. You mentioned, you know, some pressures in China. I guess, are there any other geographies that you're kind of watching in terms of, you know, maybe trending not as favorably or more favorably than you anticipated, just from an international standpoint?
Yeah, I would pull out China just to say, you know, 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 break even, and they don't seem to be, you know, hitting break even. So pigs and pets, maybe poultry is a little more resilient, a little bit more economically, you know, a safeguard from a meat standpoint. So I wanna highlight that. And then I'd say, you know, 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've moved to distribution, and we've taken our people out and moved to distribution just as a way to kind of create less risk in some of these volatile, especially currency-driven markets. So we've had a few of those that we've been a little more targeted on, just to make a simpler, safer, more concentrated focus to Elanco. Same with our aqua business. Hey, it's a great market. It's only $400 million. We're gonna go after the $20 billion pet market that we think is more important.
Yeah. Maybe in the last minute that we have, you know, you have the analyst day back in 2020. 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, you know, 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?
Yeah. 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 three, four quarters. A 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'll take some investment to pull that off, 'cause we wanna really have some very strong launches. And the balance sheet's gonna get, you know, a lot stronger. That's gonna 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 wanna head down the trajectory of the metric that matters right now more than anything, is $600 million-$700 million of innovation, 'cause that'll solve everything. And that's what we're gonna focus on. Then as we get to these products in the marketplace, a clear understanding of the market ahead, you know, we'll begin to start to communicate, potentially have more investor engagement and investor day to highlight that then.
Time.
All right.
Jeff, thanks so much for the time.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thanks.