Courtesy / ElleVet Sciences
Amanda Howland is co-founder and chief creative officer at ElleVet Sciences.
January 5, 2022
South Portland animal-health startup gears up for international expansion
Courtesy / ElleVet Sciences
ElleVet Sciences added to its line of CBD products for pets with a new paste that aims to relieve discomfort, stress and neurological support in cats.
A South Portland-based animal-health startup specializing in cannabis-based products for pets recently launched a medicinal paste for stressed cats as it gets ready to expand internationally.
The privately held company, ElleVet Sciences, was founded in 2017 by Christian Kjaer, a former senior executive at IDEXX Laboratories Inc. (Nasdaq: IDXX), and Amanda Howland, who has a background in public health. Kjaer serves as ElleVet's chairman and CEO, while Howland is chief creative officer.
ElleVet Sciences, which claims to be the only producer of cannabidiol (CBD) pet products for dogs and cats proven to work in clinical trials, sells directly to veterinarians, as well as to consumers via a website.
The company's latest product is ElleVet Feline paste, a chicken liver-flavored ointment to provide relief for discomfort, stress and neurological support in cats. The product was released commercially last week after more than two years in development.
"It's been a long road to create a really good feline product," Howland told Mainebiz, calling the cream a "game-changer" for the product category. "It's very hard to give cats a pill, and cats also require different dosing than dogs."
Unlike dogs, cats don't like the taste of CBD oil, she said, but seem to love the chicken liver-flavored cream. "If you put it on their paws, they will lick it off."
Howland said that three or four other products are currently in development the company hopes to launch later this year. ElleVet Sciences aims to become a bigger player in the growing CBD pet product market.
That market is expected to reach $4.8 billion globally by 2028 with an estimated compound annual growth rate of 59% between 2021 and 2028, according to Howland.
"Increasing health expenditure and growing health concerns among the owners of domesticated animals are driving the market," she said.
ElleVet Sciences, which is entirely self-funded, employs 48 people in total, including 38 in Maine. It also just opened its first office overseas, a two-person office outside of Amsterdam, with a goal of launching its first products internationally in the first quarter of this year, Howland said. The plan is to start selling in Holland and then move into other European markets such as Italy, France and Germany.
"If it follows the way ElleVet Sciences did in the U.S., we could easily be at 20 to 25 people by the end of the year," she said. "I expect that to grow rapidly."
She said the move to expand internationally was prompted in part by queries from veterinarians and pet owners asking to ship the company's science-based products overseas. She also noted that Kjaer used to live in Amsterdam during his time with IDEXX and is fairly familiar with International markets.
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