Indiana-based Owl Manor Veterinary was founded last year by two veterans of the orthopedic devices industry who had a dream of bringing regenerative medicine to horses with joint problems. Now the company has raised $1.2 million in a Series A financing to help develop its portfolio of products--and expand it for use in dogs.
Mark Schindel, chief executive officer, and Mike leach, chief operating officer, started their careers at Biomet and other leading human orthopedic device manufacturers. Even though end users of their new company’s products “have four legs, not two, there’s a lot of synergies and collaborative interests,” Schindel told Inside Indiana Business.
Owl Manor markets a variety of personalized treatments for racehorses, as well as companion horses. They include Pro-Stride Injection, which is made by removing anti-inflammatory proteins and growth factors from a horse’s blood and then re-injecting them to treat osteoarthritis. The company also uses blood samples to create platelet-based injections to repair tendon and bone, and it takes stem cells from bone marrow and uses them to treat injuries.
Leach told Inside Indiana Business that the company’s main selling point is that it can create its therapies in about a half-hour on-site with customers, who can then administer them immediately. “There are a few products on the market that address these injuries and diseases, but a lot of those require the animal to stay overnight or for the bone marrow or stem cells to be sent out to be cultured,” Leach said.
The company is now working on adapting its technologies for dogs with osteoarthritis. Regenerative medicine “is more accepted in the equine space, but the same benefits can apply in the small animal space,” Schindel told Inside Indiana Business.
The orthopedic segment of the animal health industry is growing rapidly. Among the other players in the market is VetStem Biopharma, a San Diego company that also offers personalized stem-cell based therapies for dogs and horses. VetStem has a licensing agreement with Aratana Therapeutics ($PETX) to develop an off-the-shelf treatment for canine osteoarthritis, and last year it began testing a stem-cell therapy to prevent a dangerous condition in racehorses called exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage.
- read more about Owl Manor at Inside Indiana Business
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