Mainebiz

V O L . X X X N O. X I X 66 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine I N N OVAT I O N / R & D T he Portland area has recently sprouted as the Silicon Valley of animal health, but that distinction took root back in the early 1980s. At the time, the world's biotechnol- ogy pioneers were scaling up, attracting investment, and generating buzz about the potential of new sciences to improve human health. Meanwhile, a Maine startup was quietly beginning to apply biologi- cal innovation in a different health field, veterinary medicine. David Shaw created IDEXX Laboratories in 1983, after work- ing for Gov. James Longley and as an agribusiness consultant in Massachusetts. Shaw recognized a need for better diagnoses in livestock care, and how new technology could help. In an interview with the Boston Globe, he explained, "I saw opportuni- ties in animal health that were not being served well. I got tired of the commute to Massachusetts and liked living in Maine, so I started with the poultry industry, see- ing that the initial investment would be small and the time to market shorter." Shaw launched the business with four employees and the help of a recently founded biomedical testing company in Maine, Ventrex Laboratories. He recounted to Mainebiz years later: "I rented a little building down on the Portland waterfront. I thought it would be more interesting — if we're interested in great jobs and exporting products and economic development and entrepreneurship — to do some- thing, versus talk about it." Today, IDEXX (Nasdaq: IDXX) is headquartered in Westbrook and employs nearly 11,000 people. Its reach is worldwide, supplying diag- nostic products and software to more than 50,000 veterinary practices in 175 countries and territories. Another Maine company that's carved a niche in veterinary health, ImmuCell Corp., began in Portland about the same time as IDEXX. Initially, ImmuCell (Nasdaq: ICCC) worked on a biotechnology to purify milk protein for human use. But like IDEXX, the company recognized an unmet need. Eventually, ImmuCell shifted its focus to preventive health products for dairy and beef cattle. "ese animal health product opportunities are generally less expen- sive to develop than the human health product opportunities that we had worked on in the 1990s," the company said in its 2014 annual report. Today, ImmuCell has a market cap of around $30 million, employs over 75 peo- ple and is hiring. e company's main product is First Defense, which provides immunity against E. coli and other viral infections in newborn cows, reducing the need for traditional antibiotics. ImmuCell is also in the late stages of developing Re-Tain, a treatment for a common disease in lactating cows that costs the dairy industry an estimated $2 billion a year. A new generation Like IDEXX and ImmuCell before them, young Portland-area entre- preneurs are innovating further to advance animal health. e new generation includes compa- nies like Covetrus, a veterinary phar- macy, supplier and tech company started by Shaw and his son, Benjamin; and ElleVet Sciences, which develops canna- bis products and therapies for pets. Perhaps the fastest-rising star is Rarebreed Veterinary Partners. e company was launched in 2018 by two former IDEXX employees, Dan Espinal and Sean Miller, who felt they could improve animal health by applying lessons from the business of human health. Rarebreed invests in veterinary practices and hospitals, typically tak- ing a majority stake. Just as impor- tantly, the company provides strategic guidance, marketing, staffing, opera- tional support, IT and other help to improve practice performance. Clinicians in human health banded together or sold their practices to larger entities long ago. But practitioners of animal health care — including the country's 90,000 veterinarians — still typically work solo or in small, free- standing groups. ere are few shared resources and little business support. We are trying to innovate on the model that preceded us, which was largely 'acquire as much as you can, as fast as you can.' There wasn't much connection to the company, or another practice down the street. — Sean Miller Rarebreed Veterinary Partners Breeding innovation Rarebreed grows out of Maine's animal-health hub B y W i l l i a m H a l l F I L E P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Sean Miller, left, and Dan Espinal of Rarebreed Veterinary Partners in their Portland office

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