Vetoquinol - Universal Registration Document - 2021

2 54 Vetoquinol Universal Registration Document 2020 Financial report STATEMENT OF NON-FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE Our products 2.6.4 Overview of current R&D programs Group R&D priorities have changed in light of changes in the animal health market and the increasing use of pet medicines. Initially geared almost exclusively towards the food-producing segment, the Group is currently focusing a large portion of its research work on the pet segment while developing innovative production (biotechnologies) and formulation (drug delivery) technologies. R&D is focusing on developing powerful “disruptive” innovations, in addition to incremental innovations and improvements in existing products. 2.6.5 Risk of dependence on human health research to develop new molecules In the animal health industry, innovation takes place in the domains that are specific to the industry, inclu- ding vaccines and reproduction (productivity) and in domains shared with the human health industry, inclu- ding antibiotherapy, pain and inflammation, cardiology and cancer, or associated with plant protection, such as parasiticides. These therapeutic domains may be seen as conferring an advantage on animal health companies belonging to a human or plant health group, due to potentially easier access to a portfolio of molecules. This is not a limiting factor with regard to Vetoquinol’s capacity for innovation, for the following reasons: • for animal health applications, there are many patented molecules used in the human health industry that have fallen into the public domain; • in domains where research is highly intensive in the human health industry (cardiology, pain, cancer), a large number of biotechs are willing to license their technology and/or molecules to the animal health sector in order to help fund the early stages of deve- lopment in human health; • medium-sized human health companies that do not have an animal health department are happy to provide animal health pure players with their molecules if they can find an outlet for them. This provides an additio- nal area of development that is worthwhile for these companies, as the animal health sector has a different growth curve to the human health market. Another source of innovation lies in drug repositioning, which aims to reposition existing molecules and develop them for new therapeutic indications.