Aratana Therapeutics

Kansas City, KS

Aratana Therapeutics, Inc., based in Kansas City, is a companion-animal health company, leveraging human pharmaceutical and biotechnology drug development to identify compounds that can be developed into novel therapeutics for dogs and cats. Companion animal health provides numerous market advantages over human health. Animal health drug development poses unique regulatory challenges, but with the experienced Aratana drug development team, and their ability to pick the right compounds at the right stage, new medicines can be developed in significant less time and in a very cost efficient manner, compared to human drug development. Another significant advantage is that in veterinary medicine, there are no third party payer issues, and pet owners are eager to purchase state of the art medicines for their pets, who are increasingly viewed as family members. In addition, there are 10 multi-billion-dollar companies that provide therapeutics to companion animals and fewer than a dozen biotechs servicing this group (compared to 20 big pharmas and 2000+ biotechs). The focus is on developing drugs for major diseases and unmet needs for companion animals, using a capital efficient drug development model to streamline the path to regulatory approval. By identifying molecules with specific attributes, compounds can be developed in a cost-effective and expedited timeline.