It can be a dog’s life…
Especially if they are depressed…
Presenting a solution for the canine blues…
Feeling lonely? Depressed? Is life a cage? If so, then perhaps you are a parrot. Parrot owners are coming home to find their favorite pet has been plucking out his feathers or even pecking his legs to the bone in a fit of frustration.
Last time I ventured into this world I managed to upset pet-lovers. But at risk of upsetting them for a second time, dare I suggest that parrots may be feeling a bit fed up because they would rather be roaming the jungles of the Amazon than stuck in somebody’s living room?
Anyway owners are increasingly calming their parrots by administering a version of the same Prozac anti-depressant drug that, according to the latest research, is no more effective than a sugar pill. TV vet Romain Pizzi tells us that tropical birds are by far the most likely to be treated for psychological difficulties. And it is not just parrots. Research for Sainsbury’s Bank reveals that 632,000 cats and dogs in this county suffer from depression.
Now if you are a cynic like me you are probably asking whether this could by any chance be related to the fact that Sainsbury’s Bank offers animal health insurance. And how on earth Sainsbury’s Bank arrived at this figure? Is the pet population passing its time by filling in on-line questionnaires? Do concerned animal welfare officers conduct home visits and have a little chat? Goodness knows! But apparently the symptoms by which you can identify a depressed pet include attacks upon the furniture, loss of appetite, incessant scratching and aggression.
Beef flavour Prozac
Nothing that a good run around in the fresh air would not cure, I would have thought. But in an age when the average adult would rather lead a life of sloth and gluttony and then trust to medicine to undo the damage, why deny this to animals? So the makers of Prozac, the US firm Eli Lilly has launched an anti-depressant for dogs. This reformulated version of Prozac comes in the form of a ‘once-a-day chewable tablet flavoured with beef.’ Mmmmm!
This whole world of pets and petting is a mystery to me. The sale of drugs, though, is a commercial activity largely carried out by quoted companies, and so does fall within my territory. And what I notice at present is that while the business of animal medicine seems to be doing very nicely and sailing through the economic squalls with barely a splash, the business of human medicine is quite different. This week we have seen a further expansion by veterinary practice owner CVS and great results from Dechra that makes and distributes drugs and other forms of treatment for animals. I also note further progress from Genus, which produces – or should I say induces – semen from highly prized bulls for sale to cattle breeders.
Problems that afflict companies engaged in the production of drugs for humans do not always apply to those that cater for animals. Drug testing need not be so extensive. Genetic manipulation is just considered to be good farming rather than some weird and alarming experiment with the species. And many of the drugs that are given to animals are just derivatives of those that have originally, and expensively, been developed for humans. So perhaps it is no surprise to find that the stock market reputation of companies concerned with animal health seems to be much rosier than that of companies in the field of human health.
Back in the 1980s I remember the time when Glaxo was the darling of the stock market. Thanks to Zantac – which I think might have been the drug that coined the phrase ‘blockbuster’ – its shares soared and the whole pharmaceutical sector attained a lofty rating never seen since. Today shares in GlaxoSmithKline, as it now is, and those of its main rival AstraZeneca are amongst the lowest rated of all the market’s blue chips and offer dividend yields of nearly 5%. What happened to all those bullish arguments about the ageing population and inevitable demand for new drugs?
Human, as opposed to animal, pharmaceuticals is a sector very much out of favor. Investors are wary of competition for high margin patented drugs from generics. And they are weary of small biotech companies gobbling up money for research without ever spewing out a profitable product. As ever though, a field of cynicism and unfulfilled promise is one in which to find cheap and unloved shares, and companies that have created business models that allay the fears and prejudice of investors.
In tomorrow’s Penny Sleuth I’ll be looking at one such company. It’s been called a “pharmaceutical speedboat”, and later this year it plans to power past the lumbering big pharma “supertankers”. I’ll show you how you can go along for the ride.
P.P.S. If you want to follow the insights of a small company investor, and uncover the hidden gems of the stock market, find out more about The Penny Sleuth by clicking here.
