Hi everybody and welcome to another special ed edition vet chat podcast, and today I'm delighted to be joined on behalf of Zoettis by Andrea Gonzalez, who is the senior research director at Zoettis and leads the Companion Animal research area. She has a PhD in toxicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, way back in 1997. And trained as a postdoc fellow in the Cancer research experimental therapy group at Legacy Park Davis.

She's got 25 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry as a lead biologist, pharmacologist and toxicologist in areas such as allergy and dermatology, inflammation and pain, oncology and drug safety evaluation and animal health, as well as human health. So there's a, there's a fair few hats being worn there over the course of her career. Her current roles include understanding mechanisms involved in the path of biology of the companion animal diseases and identifying diagnostic and treatment approaches that can be used throughout the continuum of care of our pets.

So Andrea, that's that's quite some CV that you've got there. And obviously it's great to to have you here, to, to look at sort of chatting through the, the research insights in in veterinary dermatology and I guess probably question one for us is, you know, as a member of, of the Zoettis research and development team, obviously part of being in R&DD is it it's quite cool, you get to work on a load of different ideas and see, you know, what works and what you can bring to market, but out of all of the stuff that you've done. You know, what's your, what's your favourite?

Sure. Well, thanks for having me here so I can discuss about my favourite work. I really, I think that, that my favourite projects are, projects that we really do to understand pathophysiology of disease.

We think that's such an important type of work to invest in because it really helps us, de-risk our programmes and Really hone in on appropriate targets where we think, we can bring the best solution to our pets. I also love it when, we do finally get that therapeutic to the market to continue to study its mode of action because we, we do have an idea of how it's working, you know, when we bring it forward through development into the market, but as we continue. To study it.

We're, we're always gaining more insights on how it's working, the pathways it's targeting, and how those pathways play a role in the disease. And then finally, I really love working with graduate students that work on this type of work, to really contribute to their training and their understanding and their development in the field of dermatology. So some of the, we have some of that work highlighted in the Congress in, in different programmes.

We have a graduate student, Caitlin Older, who's she's a graduate student from Texas A&M and she is one that, received one of those SOS awards for a talk to be given at the congress, so she talks about. Cytokines involved in feline allergy. We have another graduate student we supported, Chi Tamamoto Mochazuki.

She's at NC State University, and she also was awarded an SOS a talk, and she's talking about the expression of aisle 31 and its receptors in the skin of dogs with allergic, skin disease. So that highlights some of the work we like to. Support with other universities and then we also have our own internal research that we've highlighted at the congress.

We have a researcher at Zoetta Scott Bowen that's evaluating a broader panel of cytokines beyond TH2 cytokines and canine allergic skin disease and talks about kind of a new technology that we're using to study that. And then we also have a, a poster by Jason Ross that's studying the effects of Apaquel. And how it can inhibit inflammation in the skin.

We get a lot of questions on that. And so he, he performed a study to show that Apaquil can inhibit inflammation in the skin as effectively or, or if not better than glucocorticoids. So that kind of highlights some of the work that we like to do, or I like to be involved in at Zoettas, and we really love to come out, to these meetings, at the congress, and talk about that type of work.

Yeah, so it really is quite a sort of rich tapestry and obviously, you know, sort of as, as a researcher, obviously, you know, you go from, from that whole er spectrum of, you know. The concept of a, of a new product or a new type of product right the way through to, you know, that, that, that product hitting the market and going through all of the licencing and so on and so forth, but I suppose one of the, the things that we, we fail to identify regularly is the fact that, You know, this can take up to a decade sometimes in terms of, you know, the time periods, but through that whole process from sort of that, that first idea about, you know, something that can be a new product to it hitting the market, what sort of, what's the most rewarding part of that for you? Well, I feel very fortunate to work for a company as committed to R&D like Zoetice's and in fact, driving innovative growth is one of our strategic initiatives that we do talk about.

In the, in the public domain and as you mentioned in my introduction, I actually worked in the human health field, human health pharmaceuticals, for about a decade, and it seemed like we were reorging every 2 to 3 years. So I think I really appreciate. The commitment that Zoetta has made to dermatology, cause that's really a, a big reason why we've been able to deliver innovative products like Apaqua and yappoint.

So being able to work on those types of teams with that type of research programme that understands pathophysiology of disease and takes that and And really finds the right targets to go after, to deliver those innovative solutions to our customers. That is very, very rewarding and like you said, it, it takes many years. So, when we finally get those products out, I think it's even more rewarding when we, we start.

Hearing the feedback from our customers about how those products have really changed the quality of life for their pets as well as themselves, the pet owners. So, we're very thankful for that feedback. I'd love to get it, because we do spend so many years in the lab and, .

It's just, it's just very rewarding to, to understand how that affects our customers. Yeah, well, certainly speaking as someone whose dog has a very strong affection for his Apaquil tablets on a daily basis, I can only say thank you for that because you can tell when I as an owner have forgotten to give him his Apaquel and he spends the night itching away. So yeah, no, I can I can have complete empathy with that sort of feedback side of things.

Now of course. Isn't that, yeah, that's very interesting. We hear that a lot too, so.

Yeah, it's and and it is, it's, you know, you really do when you can see those tangible benefits to the individual. It, it sort of makes it, it hammers it home all the more really, as to why we do what we do. But of course Apaqual is probably one of the greatest examples of, you know, how treatments and managements of conditions has come along so far in the last 20 years, but of course, it would be great if we look at that development and say right, OK, look, we've done all of this and now we can stop, but you know, science and, and treatments and managements for conditions moves forwards all of the time, and I wonder sort of, you know, looking at veterinary dermatology.

In the next 10 to 20 years, you know, what, what kind of changes and advancements can you, can you see coming or would you like to see coming from your own perspective? Sure. Well, we're hoping to, we're always hoping to to add on new indications to our current products like Aqua, not just in dogs, but in cats and horses, and we've highlighted some of that work in our Zoetta's pre-congress symposium, and I should also plug that .

We do highlight our journey of the discovery of Apaquas, kind of understanding of the aisle 31 and, and the role in the disease and how that led us to develop cytopoint and we also have a lot of other exciting topics that we, we discussed at that Zoeta symposium. We'll also hear about some of the new innovations that we'd like to bring forward such as peptide vaccines. We hope to bring those types of products to the market and the dermatology space, new formulations that maybe help treatment compliance, make that a bit easier.

Possibly some green solutions, greener solutions in the anti-infective space and as well as you, we hear a lot about diagnostics, digital solutions, artificial intelligence, and we hope to bring some of those solutions to the market and, and maybe change. The way the veterinarians are diagnosing the disease or or treating the disease. And some of that has been discussed in our pre-congress symposium.

We also have other interesting topics like research on skin barrier, skin microbiota, and clinical experiences with current treatments, . By Doctor Jennifer Schistler from Colorado State University and also Doctor Donald Leong, he comes from the human health side. He's an allergist and immunologist at National Jewish Health, and they have some great discussions and, and some of the things that Doctor Leong brings up in human health are, are some very interesting concepts that we also hope to apply to veterinary medicine.

Yeah, and it is, it's, it's great seeing that transition from learnings from human health and how we can incorporate that into veterinary health. Of course, quite often that's some of the things that we, we learn about at the various different symposia that we go to all over the world. Now, God willing, we, we all meet in, in 2024 in in Boston.

And obviously, you know, we, we, I, I dare say you probably have a slightly better insight as to what might be the scientific developments between, between now and then, but sort of what, what do you expect us to be talking about at that next symposium, you know, do you see any big sort of leaps forward for us, as a, as a, as a profession of vets, but, but more specifically dermatology, as a, as a, as a specialism. Yeah, so, so we're certainly gonna see more products or more choices around Janu kinase inhibitors and Mbs targeting aisle 31, you know, since Zoetta has already spent all of that effort, demonstrating the importance of those pathways or. Targets in the disease.

So we, we recognise there's other people that are gonna going to be entering this space and other animal health companies bringing their versions of Jack inhibitors and aisle 31 mabs to the market. So we, we know we're, we're likely going to see that and that. Probably in that next symposium, but what I'm most excited about to see our ideas and research on potential tools or treatments that help us really expand that continuum of care in dermatology.

So for example, what can we learn more about the genetics of the disease so that we can detect animals that are predisposed to those dermatologic. Conditions are, can we come up with diagnostics or digital solutions that help us detect those animals at risk getting that disease very early on, detecting them early on, and then, of course, can we use some of those tools to help us pick the right treatment for those animals because we are gonna have likely more solutions out on, on the market. So can we tailor those solutions.

So that we, we bring in the best choice for that animal. So I'll, I'll be interested in seeing what's going on in that area. And of course, we hope to see new treatments in other species like cats and horses.

We've done a great job in finding some solutions for dogs, but there's, still very few options available for those other species. So hopefully we'll, we'll see some other options there. Yeah, and obviously sort of, you know, one of the, one of the key focuses of the Zoeta symposia is, is this sort of, you know, translational medicine, where we look at, you know, learnings in one species and whether they are transferable to other species.

But obviously, you know, that's, it's in humans generally, you know, it's it's treatment that, you know, works in one human works in another human, whereas obviously we have. Such a, a plethora of species that we deal with, but you know what sort of ideas do you have on that and what sort of areas of that do you find that are are sort of quite exciting really? Yeah, so we were very interested in understanding the role of cytokines across species and allergic skin disease.

So, IL 31 was one that we thought was a very important mediator in dogs, and it was clearly demonstrated to be so with our therapeutic cytopoint, which is the only thing cytopoint targets and it's very effective. So we've been interested in understanding, is that important in other species. So to help us understand that, that's in part why we've been initiating collaborations with a variety of vet schools across the US.

We have collaborations with Texas A&M. NC State University and University of Georgia. And so some of that that work is highlighted in the symposium programme throughout.

So, we, we continue to invest in that because we know Dogs aren't necessarily cats. We're gonna see some similarities, but there's likely to be a lot of differences. So the challenge will be to translate that information from the different species so that we can make a a product that's beneficial for that specific species.

So we're very excited to see how that work comes along, and the students do a great job. It's, it's always fun to work with them. They're very enthusiastic about their work, so.

Well, stay tuned, see what, see what they find. Yeah, definitely, well, it's, it's fantastic to chat and it's great to get some insight into sort of, you know, what goes on behind the closed doors really and that sort of, you know, pharmaceutical R&D sphere and it's certainly obviously an exciting, Area and it's great to see so many advancements in that over the last er period of time and, and to know that there's so much more in the pipeline for the future. So, hopefully this gives people a nice bit of a, a wetting of the appetite for the er the the Zweta symposium and and thank you so much for your time and and your insight and joining us, it's been great to chat.

Thanks. Thank you so much for the opportunity.