TechAccel announced Aug. 21 a novel partnership with Reliance Animal Health Partners to focus exclusively on bringing animal health innovations to market under the name of Covenant Animal Health Partners.

According to the announcement, Covenant is dedicated to the development and registration of “revenue-ready” animal health products, addressing critical market needs across production and companion animals and advancing new assets into industry partner portfolios.

This partnership combines TechAccel’s unique technology and venture development and advancement focus with the expertise of Reliance’s four partners, who have decades of experience in international animal health companies, the announcement said.

“This new enterprise assembles an all-star team of industry leaders with firsthand know-how in product development,” TechAccel president and chief executive officer Michael Helmstetter said. “Covenant will identify and advance new technologies to market as well as operate external innovation programs for the global animal health industry.”

Thomas Overbay of Reliance — who, along with Helmstetter, will serve as a Covenant board member and managing director — said the ongoing consolidation in the $26 billion animal health industry creates significant opportunity for Covenant. Overbay is the founder of Expedite Animal Health, a business development and technical consultancy to the international animal health industry.

“Research and development (R&D) budgets are tightening up across animal health firms,” Helmstetter said. “As a result, they will primarily fund projects with the largest revenue potential and lowest risk. We see a significant opportunity to develop products that address real market needs but do not clear the internal development hurdles of large animal health companies. Covenant will quickly and cost effectively advance these assets and then match them with leading animal health manufacturers and distributors.”

Brett Morris, principal with TechAccel who led the Covenant deal, said the new venture is already working on projects for companion and production animal markets. Terms of the deal and the projects were not disclosed.

“The market is hungry for external product support,” Morris said. “Covenant’s thesis is to develop new products for approval by the appropriate regulatory agencies and sell those registrations to animal health companies. The industry is looking for ways to increase revenue and expand their product portfolio without consuming internal research and development dollars, and we intend to fulfill that need.”

Covenant does not plan to market and distribute its own products to compete with animal health firms. Rather, the company will generate income via asset sales or licensing deals, Morris said.

Covenant will leverage TechAccel’s established network, infrastructure and resources. Along with Overbay, Covenant’s team includes the three other founders of Reliance: Thomas Campi, former director of external innovation at Elanco; Thomas Kennedy, who held senior R&D leadership roles with the Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health business unit, the former Mallinckrodt Veterinary Inc., Bayer Animal Health and Central Life Sciences, and Robert Nordgren, former R&D executive for Boehringer Ingelheim and former lead of global vaccines and biotherapeutics at Merial.

TechAccel was founded in 2014 as a first-of-its-kind technology and venture development organization in the agriculture, animal health and nutrition and food technology sectors. TechAccel sources, invests in and acquires early-stage innovations. Through collaborations with universities and research institutions, TechAccel conducts advancement and de-risking R&D to ready technologies for commercialization.

Reliance Animal Health Partners was established in 2017 to identify, evaluate and develop technologies of interest to the global animal health industry. The company’s experience in pharmaceuticals, biologicals, diagnostics and devices around the globe offers the industry the resources necessary to discern opportunities and bring those meriting development to market efficiently and economically.