This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
Operator
Please stand by, your program is about to begin. Welcome to the third quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference call and webcast for Zoetis. Hosting the call today is Steve Frank, Vice President of Investor Relations for Zoetis. The presentation materials and additional financial tables are currently posted on the Investor Relations section of Zoetis.com. The presentation slides can be managed by you, the viewer, and will not be forwarded automatically. In addition, a replay of this call will be made available approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call via dial-in or on our investor relations section of zoetis.com. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question during that time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If at any point your questions have been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star 2. In the interest of time, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and then queue up again with any follow-ups. Your line will be muted when you complete your question. When posing your question, please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality. Lastly, if you should require operator assistance, please press star zero. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Steve Frank. Steve, you may begin.
Zoetis
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Zoetis third quarter 2023 earnings call. I am joined today by Kristin Peck, our chief executive officer, and Whitney Joseph, our chief financial officer. Before we begin, I'll remind you that the slides presented on this call are available on the investor relations section of our website, and that our remarks today will include forward-looking statements, and that actual results could differ materially from those projections. For a list and description of certain factors that could cause results to differ, I refer you to the forward-looking statements in today's press release and our SEC filings, including but not limited to our annual report on Form 10-K and our reports on Form 10-Q. Our remarks today will also include references to certain financial measures which were not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles or U.S. GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP measures is included in the financial tables that accompany Our earnings press release and the company's 8K filing dated today, Thursday, November 2nd, 2023. We also cite operational results, which exclude the impact of foreign exchange. With that, I will turn the call over to Kristen.
Kristin Peck
Thank you, Steve. And welcome, everyone, to our third quarter earnings call for 2023. We generated strong performance in the third quarter, driven by our diverse companion animal portfolio of key dermatology products, pet parasiticides, monoclonal antibodies for osteoarthritis pain, and diagnostics. We delivered 8% operational growth in revenue and 13% operational growth in adjusted net income despite continued market challenges in China. We showed balanced segment growth this quarter with 8% operational growth internationally and 8% growth in the US. Our companion animal portfolio grew 11% and our livestock portfolio grew 3% operational operationally in 3Q, in line with our overall expectations. Through the first nine months of the year, we have grown our revenue 7% operationally as customers place a premium on the animal health benefits that our products deliver, even in times of economic and geopolitical uncertainty. As the market leader in animal health, we compete in an essential global industry that has been resilient during various economic cycles. and we continue growing above the market based on a steady pipeline of new products, lifecycle innovations, and commercial execution. We are on track to achieve our full-year operational guidance and have narrowed it around the midpoint of the range as we continue to balance headwinds and tailwinds in the marketplace. We are executing well on the drivers where we have more control, like the successful launch of Labrella in the U.S., while also mitigating the downside of macroeconomic declines in China, both of which were not considered in our original guidance this year. Once again, our diverse portfolio across product categories and geographies generates durable, reliable, long-term growth. We continue to expect our key companion animal franchises to be our core catalyst for growth. We anticipate strong growth in our market-leading dermatology portfolio for the year. building on the ongoing direct-to-consumer, or DTC, digital campaigns that support disease and product awareness, as well as the continued introduction of lifecycle innovations like Apoquil Chewable. Our Semperica franchise and broader portfolio of parasiticides continue to form well in this increasingly competitive product category, based on our innovative and highly effective products and promotional support from DTC. In terms of new products, we're very pleased with the U.S. launch of Labrella, our canine monoclonal antibody for osteoarthritis or OA pain. This product has been very well received by veterinarians and pet owners in the U.S., as well as other major markets globally, and we have built ample supply for continued growth in the U.S. and elsewhere. Silencia, our monoclonal antibody for OA pain in cats, has also been well received by veterinarians in markets around the world, as we look to help increase medicalization of cats. We're building awareness of this condition among cat owners and introducing our monoclonal antibody treatment through DTC campaigns, as well as AI tools like Cat Pain IQ, which helps vets and pet owners use videos to identify this condition. Our diagnostic portfolio has been showing stronger year-over-year performance in 2023, with 14% operational growth in the third quarter, and we continue to refine this business to better serve customer needs across our comprehensive portfolio. For example, we're simplifying our reference lab service and operating model in the U.S. and focusing on expanding our larger regional hubs, which can deliver one-day turnaround and have more modernized operations. We also continue to emphasize the benefits of AI technology and our virtual lab services to enhance the speed and quality of our diagnostic solutions. With all this in mind, we are narrowing our full year guidance for operational growth to a range of 6.5% to 7.5% in revenue and a range of 7.5% to 8.5% in adjusted net income, keeping the same midpoint as our prior guidance. Whitney will provide more details on guidance in his remarks. We continue to see strong underlying customer demand this year and into 2024. even while recovery in China is still a notable uncertainty. The majority of vet practices in the U.S. continue to see high customer demand for veterinary services. However, labor constraints and more limited hours continue to hamper their ability to meet this demand. Year to date, clinic visits are flat as we expected. We did see a modest decline in clinic visits this quarter in the U.S., while clinic visit revenues and average revenue per visit were up. Looking ahead, we remain confident in the sustainable underlying demand for animal health based on the strength of the human-animal bond, people's willingness to spend on pet health, and the essential need for safe and secure food supply. We expect to achieve double-digit operational growth for our companion animal portfolio this year and low single-digit operational growth in our livestock portfolio. Before I wrap up, I want to reiterate a theme I discussed earlier this year at Investor Day. It's the confidence we have in sustaining our key market-leading franchises across dermatology, pet parasiticides, and osteoarthritis pain based on lifecycle innovations in these categories, as well as the pipeline we are exploring in other areas of unmet need. We are firmly committed to investing in our portfolio, as well as the DTC programs and capabilities we need to support our growth while managing costs and creating value for our shareholders. Despite economic and geopolitical uncertainties in China and elsewhere, we believe we will continue to grow faster than the market for the remainder of 2023 and into 2024. This confidence stems from our diverse portfolio across markets and species, our industry-leading franchises, the ongoing launch of Labrella, and the operational excellence and agility that our people deliver every day for our business and for our customers. So thank you, and let me hand this over to Wetni. Wetni.
Steve
Thank you, Kristen, and good morning, everyone. As Kristen mentioned, we had a strong third quarter with broad-based growth across both our U.S. and international segments, across both companion animal and livestock portfolios, and across both price and volume. For the quarter, we were able to deliver results in line with our expectations, even in light of continued headwinds in China. In the third quarter, we generated revenue of $2.2 billion, growing 7% on a reported basis and 8% on an operational basis. Adjusted net income of $629 million grew 11% on a reported basis and 13% on an operational basis. Of the 8% operational revenue growth, 5% is from price and 3% is from volume. Volume growth consisted of 2% from new products including our monoclonal antibodies for Oripane, Librella, and Silencia, and 1% from our key dermatology portfolio. Our companion animal portfolio was the main driver of revenue growth, growing 11% operationally. Livestock also contributed with operational growth of 3% in the quarter. Companion animal growth was again driven by our innovative products with double-digit operational growth in our key dermatology portfolio, our monoclonal antibodies for Oripane, Librella, and Silencia, and Semperico Trio. Our key dermatology products generated $393 million in sales globally, posting growth of 14% on an operational basis, with double-digit growth in both the U.S. and international. Globally, our monoclonal antibodies for Oripane posted $77 million in combined revenue in the quarter. Growth came primarily from our European markets, as well as from the impact of new launch markets internationally. With the October full launch of Lubella in the U.S., our overpaying products are now available in most major markets. The barricade trio posted global revenue of $206 million in the quarter, representing growth of 20% operationally versus the comparable 2022 period. Growth was driven by expanded DTC advertising support globally, as well as from increased field force and promotional focus. Our companion animal diagnostics portfolio recorded revenue of $90 million and grew 14% operationally with growth contributions from both the U.S. and international. Our livestock portfolio grew 3% operationally with international growth partially offset by a slight decline in the U.S. Growth in livestock was driven primarily by price, especially in high inflationary markets. We also saw volume growth in our poultry portfolio driven by increased usage of vaccines as well as our anti-toxidil product, Zomix, in the U.S. Now moving into revenue growth by segment for the quarter. U.S. revenue was $1.2 billion in the quarter, growing 8%, with companion animal products growing 11%, and livestock sales declining 2%. On the companion animal side, while vet clinic visits declined 1.5% in the quarter, we continue to see robust clinic revenue growth, up 6% versus a year ago. Average revenue per visit is up over 7%. On a year-to-day basis, clinic visits are flat, while clinic revenue is growing 8%. These trends highlight the continued durability of pet owner willingness to spend, as well as the continued impact of vet clinic staffing challenges. Our companion animal revenue growth continues to outpace veterinary clinic revenue growth due in part to our continued outsized growth in retail channel. Turning to product performance, companion animal growth in the U.S. was driven by our Key Dermatology portfolio, Semperica Trio, and Silencia. Key Dermatology product sales in the U.S. were $260 million in the quarter, growing 13%. SpiderPoint sales continued to drive growth in the quarter, with vets showing a preference for injectables due to higher compliance and pet owners appreciating the longer duration of treatment. Apocale cells were driven by growth in the retail channel, as pet owners continue to rely more heavily on retail for ongoing pharmacy needs, as well as retail auto-shift programs that drive higher compliance. Our latest dermatology lifecycle innovation, Apocale Trueable, was launched in the U.S. in October. Apocale Trueable has been well-received in Europe, as pet owners favor the ease of Trueable administration over film-coated tablets. Semperica Trio posted U.S. sales of $184 million in the quarter, growing 17%, driven by increased focus in our parasiticide promotional programs. We continue to see patient share growth in Semperica Trio, even with the recent competitive launch in the triple combination space. We remain confident in our ability to compete through our superior label, strong retail channel presence, and the strength of our corporate and specialty relationships. In the U.S., Our OA pain products posted sales of $15 million in the quarter. We continue to see solid platelet penetration growth for Silencia, as well as an uptick in feline cleaning visits and expect to continue to drive awareness of feline OA through our DTC advertising campaigns. Librella has been well received by early experience program participants and their patients during the third quarter. We moved to a full launch in mid-October. We have been very pleased with post-launch performance thus far, and are confident that we have ample supply to meet our demand expectations. Our U.S. companion animal diagnostics portfolio posted growth of 18% in the quarter as we continue to see positive results from the new field force we introduced last year. We saw strong placement growth in the quarter, especially on our images device. U.S. livestock sales declined 2% in the quarter, primarily resulting from the timing of supply on certain cattle products in the prior year where we had an improved supply position and restocking in the channel, which drove a strong comparable quarter. The Q3 decline was partially offset by growth in our cattle productivity implant, Synovex, due to extended label claims. The cattle decline was partially offset by growth in poultry due to vaccines and the expanded use of Zoramix, an alternative to antibiotic-medicated feed additives. Moving on to our international segment, where revenue grew 8% on both a reported and operational basis in the quarter. International companion animal revenue grew 12% operationally, and livestock grew 5% operationally. Increased sales of companion animal products resulted from growth in our monoclonal antibodies for ORA pain, our key dermatology products, and our small animal parasiticides portfolio. Growth in our OA pain products was bolstered by field force focus and DTC awareness campaigns in early launch European markets, specifically the UK and Germany, as well as the continued uptake in markets launched earlier this year. Librella sales were $50 million internationally, or 55% operational growth in the quarter, despite a slightly more difficult comparator in Q3 of 2022 due to the removal of supply constraints in our international markets. We remain confident in our ability to supply our forecasted demand for Librella. Salencia sales were $12 million in the quarter. Our international key dermatology portfolio contributed $133 million of revenue and grew 17% operationally. We saw double-digit growth across most of our major markets and strong uptake of Apoquil Atruable. Apoquil growth was driven primarily by the delayed itch season in Europe and Canada. Cytopoint growth was driven by continued patient expansion and higher compliance in existing patients. Our international small animal parasitized portfolio growth of 9% operationally was driven by our Semperica franchise, with Semperica posting $40 million in revenue, growing 29% operationally, driven primarily by demand generation in emerging markets. Semperica Trio posted $23 million, growing 47% on an operational basis, driven by growth in corporate account contracts. The Semperica franchise performance was partially offset by a 16% operational decline in Revolution franchise, driven by a difficult comparable period in China due to the return of supply in the prior year, as well as the ongoing impact of the current economic conditions. As Kristen mentioned, we have seen declines in China due to the ongoing economic challenges, particularly on the companion animal side, which were not fully reflected in our initial guidance. We continue to monitor economic conditions. However, we are not expecting an improvement this year or into the first half of next year. Our international livestock segment grew 5% operationally in the quarter, driven primarily by price increases, especially in high inflationary markets. Wealth was driven primarily by our cattle portfolio, which grew 8% operationally. Brazil was the largest contributor, where we have seen price growth, supply recovery in certain products, as well as continued improvement in cattle industry dynamics. Additionally, the prior was a weak comparative period due to the impact of supply disruptions, and a more uncertain industry dynamic led to a lowering of channel inventories in the quarter. Our poultry business also contributed to growth in the quarter, growing 9% operationally due to increased key account penetration in emerging markets. Now moving on to the rest of the P&L for the quarter. Adjusted gross margin of 70.5% improved 70 basis points on a reported basis compared to the prior year, primarily driven by the impact of price increases and lower freight charges. This was partially offset by higher manufacturing costs, inventory charges, and product mix. Adjusted operating expenses increased 7% operationally, driven primarily by higher SG&A expenses, which grew 5% operationally due to higher compensation-related expenses. R&D expenses grew 13% on an operational basis in the quarter, driven by higher compensation-related expenses, as well as increased project spend for our pipeline projects. The adjusted effective tax rate for the quarter was 19.6%, a decrease of 130 basis points due to favorable jurisdictional mix of earnings and a higher benefit in the U.S. related to foreign-derived intangible income, partially offset by lower net discrete tax benefits. And finally, adjusted net income grew 13% operationally, and adjusted diluted EPS grew 15% operationally for the quarter. Capital expenditures in the third quarter were $145 million. We now expect full-year capital expenditures to be in the range of $725 million to $750 million. In the quarter, we repurchased $250 million of Zoetis shares. Now moving to guidance for the full year of 2023. Please note that guidance reflects foreign exchange rates as of late October, which reflect the continued strengthening of the U.S. dollar. beginning with revenue for the full year. Due to unfavorable foreign exchange rates, we are revising our reported revenue range while narrowing our guidance on operational revenue growth. We expect revenue between $8.475 and $8.55 billion, with a range of 6.5% to 7.5% operational growth. Our previous guidance was 6% to 8%. We have been pleased with our operational performance thus far. While foreign exchange headwinds have been larger than expected, our year-to-date operational revenue growth of 7% is in line with our expectations. We expect to benefit from the approval and launch of Lubella in the US, which was included in our revised guidance last quarter, as well as the performance of our livestock business. However, ongoing uncertainty in China has continued to offset upside potential. We are expecting adjusted net income to be in the range of $2.49 billion to $2.51 billion, also slightly lower driven by unfavorable for an exchange. Operation only, we are narrowing our growth expectations to a range of 7.5% to 8.5%, previously 7% to 9%. Expected reported diluted EPS narrows to a range of $5.14 to $5.21. And adjusted diluted EPS narrows to $5.38 to $5.43. Finally, to summarize before we go to Q&A, our broad-based growth across species and geographies, despite the challenging economic environment in China, continues to highlight the resilience of our portfolio and of the animal health industry. We remain committed to growing above the industry, driven by our innovative portfolio, commercial execution, and multiple sources of inline growth. Now, I'll hand things over to the operator to open the line for your questions. Operator?
Operator
Certainly. At this time, again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your touch-tone phone. You may withdraw your questions at any time by pressing star 2. In the interest of time, we do ask that you limit yourself to one question and then queue up again with any follow-ups. We'll take our first question from John Block with FIFO. Please go ahead.
John Block
Great. Thanks, guys. Good morning. I promised one long question. So in companion animal... The overall revenue was a bit shy of what we had expected, but you really had great performance, you know, what we call sort of the big five products. So Atopic Derm, TrioMabs, you know, the big five were all ahead of our estimate. So maybe if you guys can talk a little bit about the ongoing uptake of some of those key big five products, even with a more difficult consumer, right? Because people view some of those as discretionary. Again, the results were really strong, and even despite the more difficult consumer. And then the flip side would just be like anything to cite regarding the legacy products, right? So if you back into legacy, that might have been modestly down year over year. And a quick Part B on the follow-up. Kristen, you mentioned faster growth for Soetis, you know, than market again in 24. I don't think we're really surprised by that. You've done that year in and year out. Can I push you a little bit on how we should think about for Zoetis in 24 versus Zoetis in 23? In other words, if we take into account the OA pain uptake, if you would, could we see accelerated growth for the company in 24 versus 23 when we think about all the moving parts? Thanks, guys.
Kristin Peck
Wow, okay. So, John, great question. I think there's like 20 questions in that one, so I don't know how we would do that. But let me start, and then I'll let Whitney build on it. To your point, we had really strong growth across our franchises. And if you look at dermatology, it's 14% in the quarter, paras at 10%, diagnostics at 14%, and the overall pain portfolio at 91%. So there really was strong growth across all those. Obviously, leading the growth there will be pain. And as you look into 2024, we see that as well as, you know, significant optimism about where that's going to go. We're very pleased with where that launch is. These are both Labrella and Silencia, two products that are very early in their life cycle with significant growth. And I think, you know, if you really double click, if you look at International, who already had these products in the market for a while, you're seeing great growth. Importantly, we're continuing to see really strong compliance on those products across Europe. As someone who currently has a dog who is in early experience, who has got their second dose of Labrella, the difference that it makes, I really can't see any pet owner taking their dog off these world-leading medications. So maybe, Whitney, if you want to take on some of the detailed questions you had around Derm, PEARS, and Silencia. But to your point, we remain very optimistic looking into 2024 about the strength of our companion animal portfolio. And the 11% was in line with what we expected, to be honest. But do you want to give more detail on some of that?
Steve
Yeah, absolutely. Look, the 11% growth operationally in companion animal was right in line with our expectation coming into the quarter. And the overall growth of 8% operational, I would even say, is slightly above. If you recall, on the last call, we said expect Q3 to come in somewhere between the mid and the high end of our growth rate. So that's roughly between 7 and 8, so at the high end of that. But in terms of consumer, look, as you've said time and time again, if you look at the therapeutics category in terms of the value in pet health, as well as some of the chronic conditions, as Kristen mentioned, you know, consumers have not been treating those as discretionary. Even when you see some relative softness in pet span, it doesn't carry over into the health care piece in terms of therapeutics, et cetera. And we've seen that play out in many ways. Even as I'm sure we'll get into clinic visits or slightly down in the quarter, clinic revenue is up almost 7%, and we're growing faster than that. Again, retail being a part of that, and we'll get into that in a little bit more detail. When I look at these big products as you described them, John, DERM, TRIO, MABS, all up double digits and up across U.S. and international. I mean, our growth this quarter is broad-based. Across companion animal, livestock, U.S. international, price 5% volume on 3%, so really broad-based, and I think that really underscores the breadth of our products as well as our innovation and the value that consumer and pet owners place on products. The legacy products, when I look at inline, keep in mind, when we talk price, we tend to see price lift in those legacy products as well. But when I look at volume, it wasn't down. Inline products were actually flat on the quarter year-on-year with some lift on price. So hopefully that helps. But I share the optimism Kristen described with respect to 2024. I mean, we have multiple sources of growth. Not only the Labrella launch in the U.S., you've got continued growth across international markets for Labrella and Cilentia as well. And, of course, we'll have price as a lever in addition to inline products we just talked about. Livestock is now back to growth, and we'll look at what that looks like when we come back with guidance next year. And then we expect growth across our key franchises as well in terms of DERM, Paris, and diagnostics. So I'll cap it there. That was a long answer to a long question, but we'll take the next one.
Operator
Certainly. We'll take our next question from Aaron Wright with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Aaron Wright
Great. Thanks. On Librella, can you talk a little bit about the initial feedback for U.S. processes? Will there be any initial clinic-level stocking? I think you said your expectations are intact there, but any lumpiness quarter-to-quarter that we should be thinking about? Has anything changed in terms of your expectations there? And then As we think about margin expansion next year, given Librella won't be at critical mass, so that may weigh on the growth margin, but is there still some underlying operating leverage that we should think about across the business? Thanks.
Kristin Peck
Sure. Thanks, Erin. I'll take the first half of the question, and, well, Whitney can take the second half of the question. You know, we launched in the U.S. the early experience trial in September with 400 clinics. As I mentioned, my dog, Poppy, was actually one of those dogs. We went to full launch in mid-October once we got a full dose in, and that's, you know, really the uptake was really strong. Very pleased with the results. We're obviously still in the early stages, but we're seeing it very similar to what we saw in Europe. Both vets and pet owners are super excited. We made sure that we've got ample supply, as both Whitney and I mentioned, because we do see this as a strong ramp, as you saw what happened in international. International had a supply constraint for a while, and as soon as we opened that, we saw where that really went. So we continue to see really strong demand. Penetration is going really well in the clinics in the U.S., and the experience is, you know, broadening. There'll be some small initial stocking, you know, for sure in some of those clinics, but I don't know that I would call that lumpiness going into next year. There definitely was, you know, obviously they stock it, and, you know, our hope is we continue to just, you know, continue to drive that growth, you know, going forward. You know, it is the number one selling OA pain product in Europe. We expect it to obviously be the same in the U.S. If you look at the U.S. in particular, Erin, there are 26 million medicalized dogs with OA. So this is a big market that we're going after, and this is a game-changing product. So we really see the, you know, very strong potential with this. We think Labrella will expand the market. And as, you know, we've mentioned before, we really do think Labrella and Silencia alone can be a $1 billion, you know, portfolio for us. And, you know, that's in a market today that was only $400 million. So I think that sort of underscores where we see growth there. But do you want to talk about the margin expansion issue, Watney?
Steve
Sure, I will. Look, you're right, Erin, in terms of, as we said, when you look at MAPS, at peak once they ramp up, they'll be additive and accretive to our gross margins. We believe they're also accretive to our contribution margin, even when there are what I'll say is subscale in terms of getting towards their peak. So, as we launch into the U.S., which is a large market, obviously, as you said, we'll see a little bit of a headwind from a gross margin perspective. But given many of the investments that we need to drive this field force, et cetera, already in the books, if you will, There'll be some incremental AMP and DTC once we have the right level of penetration of the product in clinics. But that's still going to leave room for contribution margin lift in the product. So that will be, I would say, a factor from a gross margin standpoint. Look, we'll give more precision in terms of guidance with 24 at the next call. But as you can read from us and what we're saying today, we're very excited about 24. We're optimistic on 24, given the levers I just described. So in line with what we said at investor day, we expect to grow them into high single digits. I think you'll continue to see us look for margin expansion given the mix up in companion animal versus livestock, but I won't give you any more specific than that.
Operator
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Nathan Rich with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
spk04
Great. Thanks so much for the question. I wanted to stick with Lobrella and Kristen specifically ask about, you know, how vets are diagnosing OA pain and starting dogs on therapy. You obviously talked about the, you know, large number of pets that could benefit from this, but, you know, relatively few dogs on treatment, I guess. you know, anything you can share in terms of diagnosis rates for practices that were in the early experience program, um, and where those, you know, diagnoses are coming from, are these dogs currently on a pain product and maybe switching to a umbrella or these, you know, new dogs being diagnosed, um, Anything there would be great. And then a quick follow-up on the international performance of Librella. It looks like it was roughly flat sequentially on a constant currency basis. Any learnings on seasonality or anything like that on the international side now that that's been on the market for a little bit?
Kristin Peck
Sure. A few things I'd say there. Unlike Cat Payne, which we can certainly talk about if someone has a question on it, You know, dog OA pain and, you know, osteoarthritis have been diagnosed quite well by vets. This is not hard to diagnose. Dogs, unlike cats, do not hide it. You can sense they're less active. They, you know, they limp. They don't want to go upstairs. It is not hard to diagnose. And a lot of these dogs are already being treated. They're being treated, you know, with our product, Remedil, and other, you know, OA products. There's diets for this. So this is not a, you know, a space where there's not a developed market, a developed protocol for diagnosis. That is not the case in cats where we do have to really, you know, develop protocols for diagnosis. You know, what we saw initially is the first dogs they put on are the most symptomatic dogs where, you know, they know that like, you know, they really are really struggling. I think if you look at what we've seen in international is as vets get more comfortable with this, they then start providing it for dogs earlier in the OA pain, which actually is even better. They have greater quality of life over time. So our experience of diagnosis is really coming out of international, which is normally initially the dogs they first put it on are the ones suffering the most where they're pet owners are begging for it. And then over time, you move into earlier stages of OA. But again, this is not one that is hard to diagnose for vets. They have protocols to do that today. So we're not really as concerned here in the diagnosis part. I think what we really need to do, and we already see growth in 24 and beyond, in 25 and 26, is having vets really provide a product like Librella to dogs earlier in their disease, which I think will be a good growth driver. And in international, that is definitely not the case. We're seeing phenomenal growth right now. It is definitely not flat. But Wendy, do you want to get into some of the specifics of the international growth situation there?
Steve
Yeah, absolutely. Look, if you look at Librella, we deliver $53 million in revenues in Q3. That's 65% growth operationally. Now, if you look at the pre-existing markets, they were up about 33%. So that's an incremental $10 or $11 million on the quarter year-on-year growth in the pre-existing markets. And then new markets that have been launched this year is about $10 million. That includes a little bit from the U.S., from the early experience program. So year-on-year growth. And then sequentially, I think, was your question, and we're still up a few million sequentially. Just keep in mind, Q3 last year, as we've said, we have a bit of a tougher comp for Q3 because that's when we released sort of the allocations that we're on and the supply constraints. So that is factoring a little bit, but we still have 33% in the EU sort of locations, markets where we previously launched. So that's still very robust growth despite the comp.
Operator
Thank you. We'll take our next question from James. David Westenberg with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
James
Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. Just on 2024 on DERM, do you expect a competitive launch outside of the one we already know from Elanco? How comfortable do you feel about your decision to price Apoquil Chewables at parity with your existing products? And are there any analogs for Chewables as a competitive differentiator in front of a competitive launch? And just as a quick follow-up on the R&D, it did step down a little bit, and I think you're guiding for it down. Is there anything, are we reading in it too much to say, you know, maybe there's not a new product, a significant new product in 2024, 2025, and reading into that too much? All right, thank you.
Kristin Peck
Sure, as we look for competition in dermatology to your question, we are expecting competition in the second half of next year. Our knowledge is that really there's only one that we're aware of at this point that we're expecting in 2024. We obviously don't know when in the second half that it would be coming, but we're well positioned for competition. As you know, we've been preparing for competition for a while. We both have Cytopoint, we have monoclonal antibodies, we've got Apoquel, we've got CHU. We've got a pipeline behind that of continued life cycle innovations with longer duration monoclonal antibodies, other species. So dermatology is a critical portfolio for us. We're continuing to grow. We did 14% in the quarter, so we're going to invest heavily behind this to make sure that we can continue to grow both our portfolio and the market overall. And if you look at chewable pricing, you know, our strategy was let's move everybody to a product that's even easier, that their dog likes even more, that they see as a treat before you have competition, which we're expecting to be in a film-coated tablet, similar to the original Apple Quill. So we do see this as a really strong defense strategy for us. You know, we've been seeing great. If you look at the growth in international in the quarter, it was led by the conversion to apropos chewable. And in the U.S., you know, a lot of the growth in Durham for us was also led by retail, which has done really, really well. To your point on R&D, I'll let Whitney take it, but there's absolutely nothing, you know, going on there in the sense of, you know, any weakness in our portfolio. But, Whitney, do you want to talk about sort of what drove some of that?
Steve
Yeah, absolutely. Look, as Kristen just said, we remain on target. with our regulatory milestones with respect to R&D. R&D spend was up about 13% year-over-year on the quarter, so clearly well above our revenue growth rate. So what you're seeing in terms of our overall expectations for the year versus where we're landing is just a matter of timing on the span across projects, but nothing significant or notable there. Again, we continue to drive innovation both across new innovation as well as lifecycle innovation across our portfolio. We're very excited about the progress we're making in R&D.
Kristin Peck
Yeah, it's mostly just timing of investments. I mean, it varies quarter to quarter.
Operator
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Mike Ryskin with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Mike Ryskin
Great. Thanks for taking the question. Mostly I want to focus on TRIO. You had a really solid result in the U.S., but it's still sort of in that ramping up phase. Can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing in the market between yourself and the key competitors, you know, BI, Merck, Alonco? And specifically, BI just launched NetGuard Plus. We saw a relatively surprising decline in Brevecto revenues from Merck. So I'm just curious, you know, any change to competitive dynamics, anything you're seeing in terms of pricing or stocking or destocking and how that impacts Trio? And then just a follow-up on the very last question. CapEx as well, you slashed the guide this year pretty significantly. I think I heard you say, Whitney, $725 to $750, and previously it was, I think, $900 to $1 billion. So just curious, did that get pushed out at the $24 as well, or is there any other change there? Thanks.
Kristin Peck
Sure. I'll take the first half of the question, see if Whitney wants to build on it, and then, Whitney, if you want to handle the CapEx question. We did see strong growth in TRIO in the quarter, 20% in Q3 for TRIO. It remains the number one flea tick heartworm in the U.S. by revenue. And really importantly, it's continuing to grow share. It's up 3% in the quarter. It's also growing patient share, which was up 2% in the quarter. So we're expecting solid growth this year. You know, obviously, there's a new competitor. But in the Q4, I would also say to watch, we got a challenging comp as you look at us in Q4. If you remember, we got back into stock and ran a number of promotions. in Q4 of last year, but we continue to expect strong growth for the year there, even with the stocking that we saw in the US in Q1 and the pre-priced buying, as we talked about before, that you had in Q4 of 2022. So we see this as a franchise that will continue to grow. A lot of our growth is really being driven by our auto shift by retail, which remains very strong for us, with our corporate accounts. You know, this is also a category you do see, you know, low switching once you get, you know, on a product. So, you know, we do believe we have the broadest portfolio, but continue to see strength in TRIO. So, you know, we're happy with the growth we've seen there. But anything I missed there and you want to talk about CapEx?
Steve
Yeah, sure. Look, on TRIO, I think you covered it well, $206 million of revenue in the quarter. That's up 20% operationally. We're very pleased with that, including the patient share gains that Kristen already described. On CapEx, yes, we did reduce our CapEx expectations for the year from about $950 to $1 billion down to $725 to $750. This is really on timing on project span. We remain committed to the investments that we're making, and this is still representing about a 25% increase in CapEx year over year. So as we said at investor day, expect CapEx to remain elevated for the next couple of years, and then we'll start to bring that down sort of in the range of a growth rate that approximates our revenue growth range as you go beyond 24, 25 timeframe. So again, really just a matter of timing is what you're seeing from a CapEx standpoint.
Operator
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Brandon Vasquez with William Blair. Please go ahead.
William Blair
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. On the companion animal side of things is a nice strong quarter. You know, I think you had said, if I heard you correctly, that in 2023 you expect full year organic growth, double digits. The question being, I think you're at 7% year to date. I'm kind of being a little dangerous here and playing with my model live, but I think it implies kind of like a high teens organic growth in companion animal in the fourth quarter. One, am I thinking about that correctly? And then two, what's kind of giving you the confidence that the business can do that, especially I think QCOR is a little bit more difficult year over year comp. Thanks.
Steve
Yeah, I'll be happy to take that look. We continue to see, as you saw this quarter, 11% operational growth in companion animal. And though we have some tough comps, as Kristen just referenced with the TRIO answer in the previous question, we are expecting very, very strong growth across companion animal in Q4. Keep in mind, we have some comp challenges with respect to livestock, which will decelerate from what it is on a year-to-day basis, about 6%, to a low single-digit growth. So as you look at what's factored into the guidance that we just gave in narrowing the range but still maintaining our midpoint, if you will, you can factor that into your equation in terms of what the livestock versus companion animal mix is as we exit the year.
Operator
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Balaji Prasad with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Balaji Prasad
Hi, good morning. A couple of questions for me. Firstly, to the extent you can without commenting on any 24 guidance, can you highlight some of the macro factors and how you expect that to change? Looking at the diagnostic space of consumer trends, better option volume, And secondly, a bit more specific, can you speak about your Liberla supply plans? You recently opened a new facility in Lincoln, and what impact does it have for supply costs and margins? Thank you.
Kristin Peck
Sure. I'll start with the beginning, and then, Whitney, maybe you can build on it. You know, we continue to see very strong macro drivers in animal health. It's really led by, you know, the humanization of pets, which is a global trend. It's also led, you know, we continue to look at 2024 as to who's adopting those pets, which is more millennial and Gen Z, and importantly, more high-income households. who are really raising the standard of care that they want to spend on their pets. We see this as important drivers as we bring real innovation to the market with Labrella, with Silencia, certainly continuing with Cytopoint, which is growing very strongly. So we look at the drivers of pet care globally, which is really who's adopting the pets, how they want to spend on their pets, and looking at revenue per clinic, which continues to grow very strongly, which is what we're really correlated against. It's something that continues into 2024. These are strong macro drivers for us. As we've spoken about on the livestock side, we really believe that market, you know, historically, and we believe in the future, will continue to grow 2% to 4%, you know, in the low single digits. And as we said, we were going to return to that growth rate as we started to fully lap the challenges with Draxen. So as you look at livestock, what's driving that is a growing middle class and more consumption of protein. You know, with the whole Ozempic-Wagobi thing aside, which really hasn't really impacted livestock or the consumption of protein globally, really because of who's really driving a lot of that growth, which is middle classes across the globe. and more and more people entering that and, you know, seeing and upgrading their protein. So we look at those macro drivers, and we really don't see any changes. We look into not just 2024, but 2025 and 2026. And when we bring innovation to those markets, we believe we can continue to grow ahead of that. So, Wendy, I'm not sure if I missed anything there, and if you want to take the second half of this question.
Steve
No, I think you covered the macro dynamics well, Kristen. On the supply question with respect to Librella, We are very confident in our supply plans to meet the demand expectations for Librella that we have certainly for 24 and beyond. Mentioning the Lincoln facility, certainly in addition to both our internal capacity and third party that we are using, we continue to invest internally. And I think if you look at Lincoln, that would be a factor, particularly as you go beyond 2024. with respect to supply planning for Librella and other MABs as well. So again, very confident in our ability to meet those demand expectations. And we've already factored the ramp that we saw in Europe in our thinking around demand there as well.
Operator
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Chris Schott with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Chris Schott
Hey, this is Ekaterina on for Chris. Thank you so much for taking our questions. So first, very quickly, just on veterinary visits and the pressure we've been seeing there recently, Can you just remind us how sensitive Zoetis is to this dynamic and maybe your latest thinking around how visits are going to trend maybe into 4Q and potentially into 2024, if you want to comment on that? And then the second question is just on U.S. cattle. Can you just elaborate a little bit more on the dynamics you saw in the quarter? Because I think one of your competitors mentioned the timing of the cattle run kind of was shifted earlier this year. Is this something that you saw, and does that potentially create a headwind for you as you think about the fourth quarter? Thank you so much.
Kristin Peck
Thanks, Ekaterina. I'll take your first question, and then Whitney can build on me and then take the second. You know, vet visits were flat year-to-date, which is what we've expected and what we've talked about previously. In the quarter, they were down around 1.5%. You know, as you discussed, we're really not as reliant on vet visits. The better proxy for us is revenue because, again, remember that a lot of our products don't need to be purchased in the clinic. You know, if you look at both auto-ship, as you look at retail, you look at chronic medications, All of this continues to have us be a higher correlation with overall revenue growth in the clinic. So historically, as we talked about before, vet clinic visits are flat to maybe 1%. And if you look at where they stand today, they're still ahead of where they were pre-pandemic. So we don't pay as much attention to that vet clinic visit. If you look at revenue in the clinic, our growth in companion animal was higher than even that number. And that's because we're driving so much innovation there overall. So as you look at vet clinic visits, we're not as tied to that number as we continue to say So I don't know if there's anything I missed there, Whitney, you want to build on and then you want to take the second question?
Steve
Yeah, sure. The only thing I would add on the vet clinic visits is you see our growth continues to outpace that of the clinic growth. And the vet visits were not as, they're important, right? But we're not as sensitive to visits because therapeutics and chronic indications tend to power through that. And you can still see a volume growth even as visits are down. And then the retail piece, which is continuing to grow, we've seen an additional two full percentage points as a percentage of our pet care revenues in the U.S. each year. So we've gone from, you know, all the way to 11% from about 5% just a few years ago. So we continue to see that in the quarter. It was up about 35% if you look at our retail sales. So those are the factors I would add. With respect to the cattle dynamics and livestock in general, I would say clearly we've had a very strong start to the year through the first nine months. Livestock is up about 6%. Clearly, we're signaling that will come down in the fourth quarter. And that's really more of a factor of variability across quarters, given the timing of supply that we've had in the prior year versus the current year, the timing of when we've taken price adjustments for Jackson, for example, which impacted Q2 versus Q3, as well as Q4 this year, as we're anticipating a step in that at the end of the year. So that will put some more pressure on Q4. We factored all that into our guidance that we've just issued today, which we are still in line with our expectations that we started the year with, which is right around our midpoint. We just narrowed it. So all those are in. With respect to cattle dynamics around, we haven't seen anything that would say there's a pronounced shift with respect to the cattle run here. But again, we factored all these items into our thinking and what we've just iterated today from a guidance standpoint.
Jackson
Thank you.
Operator
We'll take our next question from Steve Scala with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Steve Scala
Hi, this is Chris. I'm for Steve. Thanks for taking our questions. We had two. First, on the U.S., on the Paris Interstate market, can you provide an update on the estimated volume share of topicals and collars today? And then looking ahead to 2024, what is the risk of significant pricing pressure on TRIO from the launch of Cordelia Quattro? Assuming a non-inferior product label, price seems like the main lever they could leverage to grow their market share. And then clarifying question on U.S. Librello, can you confirm that U.S. sales was zero in Q3? Then looking ahead to Q4, do you still expect sales to be immaterial for the full year? Thank you.
Steve
Yeah, look, I'm not sure if I got the second question, but I'm going to give it a shot and then ask you to clarify. On the parasiticides market, we still estimate in terms of volume Nearly half is still in the collars and topicals, but from a value perspective, dollars were significantly leaning on the oils and prescription. As you know, those are at higher price points. I think you were asking a specific question about share for specific products within the topicals and collars, and I don't have that to hand. But if it was a different question, I'll ask you to clarify after I give you an answer on the umbrella. So Librella in the third quarter was minimal. As you know, in September, we had our early experience program. That was only about 400 clinics, very limited, with KOLs to get them using the product and being able to talk about it, et cetera, and helping with refining protocols and so on. And so the number was like maybe $3 million in the quarter, not meaningful at all. And given the timing of the full launch in October and with the holidays coming, it is not going to have a meaningful impact on the full year growth. Again, on that point, but I'll ask you to clarify if I didn't get the question right on the PEARS.
Jackson
And it appears they've disconnected at this time. Next question?
Operator
And there are no further questions at this time. I'll turn it back to Kristin for closing remarks.
Kristin Peck
great uh thank you everybody uh great questions today you know once again we want to reiterate that we remain confident in our ability to achieve our full year guidance based on the diverse and innovative portfolio that continues to drive our success we are firmly committed to continuing to invest in that portfolio as we look at the opportunities ahead of us through dtc and building our capabilities to support our growth but we'll also continue to manage our costs to make sure we're creating value for our shareholders We continue to grow faster than the market by focusing on our people, on our colleagues, and on operational excellence and agility. They deliver every day for our business and for our customers. So we look forward to updating you on the full year and their long-term value proposition and hopefully seeing many of you in San Francisco at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference to kick off 2024. Thanks, everybody.
Operator
Thank you. This concludes today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time. This does conclude today's program. Thank you for your
Disclaimer