Boehringer, Zomedica team up on point-of-care PPID testing
Bottom line
Zomedica and Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA have launched a strategic collaboration to fold Zomedica’s TRUFORMA point-of-care platform into Boehringer’s idPPID awareness and testing program for horses with suspected pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction, or PPID. The arrangement lets participating veterinarians run Zomedica’s equine endogenous ACTH and equine insulin assays in clinic, rather than relying only on reference-lab workflows, while Boehringer expands its program to reimburse testing performed on TRUFORMA as well as laboratory testing through Cornell University. The announcement was published March 24, 2026, and builds on Boehringer’s long-running PPID testing initiative, which has operated with Cornell since 2013 and has tested more than 50,000 horses. (equimanagement.com)
Why it matters: For equine veterinarians, the collaboration is really about speed, workflow, and case management. ACTH testing remains central to PPID diagnosis, but traditional testing can require careful sample handling, rapid plasma separation, and chilled shipment to an outside lab. Early data presented by University of Georgia researcher Kelsey Hart, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, found good overall agreement between TRUFORMA’s point-of-care eACTH assay and a chemiluminescent immunoassay, though bias was greater in PPID horses and some discrepant results could affect diagnosis. That means faster in-clinic answers may help practices triage and monitor horses sooner, but veterinarians will still need to interpret results carefully, especially in borderline or complex cases. (equimanagement.com)
What to watch: Watch for details on how broadly veterinarians enroll in the reimbursed program, whether TRUFORMA placement accelerates in equine practice, and whether additional validation data, especially in fall testing and clinically ambiguous cases, strengthen confidence in point-of-care PPID workflows. (equimanagement.com)
Zomedica is using a new collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA to push TRUFORMA deeper into equine practice, this time through PPID testing. Announced March 24, 2026, the deal integrates TRUFORMA into Boehringer’s idPPID program, allowing participating veterinarians to run equine endogenous ACTH and insulin assays at the point of care, with Boehringer reimbursing eligible testing done on the platform as well as testing routed through Cornell University. (equimanagement.com)
The move builds on an established PPID infrastructure rather than creating a new one from scratch. Boehringer has run spring and fall PPID testing programs with Cornell since 2013, and said in 2025 that the initiative had already supported testing in more than 50,000 horses. Through idPPID, the company has also built a broader education and disease-management hub for veterinarians, including guidance on baseline ACTH testing, TRH stimulation testing, result interpretation, and horse-client resources. (thehorse.com)
For Zomedica, the collaboration gives TRUFORMA access to a much larger clinical awareness engine. The company has been trying to grow the installed base and recurring assay revenue around TRUFORMA, and it has highlighted equine endocrinology as one route to do that. In its 2024 annual report, Zomedica said the equine ACTH assay helped it win its first equine TRUFORMA customers, and the company has said it now controls TRUFORMA development and manufacturing following its acquisition of QBT in October 2023. That matters because the business case for point-of-care diagnostics depends less on one instrument sale than on repeat assay use and menu expansion. (sec.gov)
Clinically, the pitch is straightforward: reduce the friction around PPID testing. Cornell’s published sample requirements underscore why point-of-care alternatives are attractive, with baseline ACTH and insulin testing tied to separated plasma handling and chilled shipping. Research presented in early 2025 by Kelsey Hart, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, at the Global Equine Endocrinology Symposium found good overall agreement between TRUFORMA’s point-of-care eACTH assay and a chemiluminescent immunoassay in both PPID and non-PPID horses across winter, spring, and summer sampling. But Hart also reported a larger negative bias in PPID horses and noted that some animals had markedly different results between methods, enough to potentially affect diagnosis. (vet.cornell.edu)
That nuance is important because PPID is common, clinically significant, and often tied to broader metabolic risk. EquiManagement reported that PPID affects about 20% of equids older than 15 years and 30% older than 30, while roughly one-third of PPID horses also have insulin dysregulation, increasing laminitis risk. Hart has also pointed to a limitation of conventional immunoassay testing: cross-reactivity with corticotropin-like intermediate peptide, or CLIP, which may complicate interpretation in some cases. In that context, a point-of-care assay that improves turnaround without sacrificing too much analytical confidence could be meaningful, but only if veterinarians understand where the technology performs well and where confirmatory or follow-up testing still makes sense. (equimanagement.com)
Industry reaction so far has been framed mostly through company and trade coverage rather than independent commentary, but the strategic logic is clear. Boehringer gets a faster testing option inside a disease-state program it already promotes, while Zomedica gets validation-by-association from one of the largest companies in animal health. The collaboration also fits Boehringer’s broader equine strategy of pairing therapeutics, education, and diagnostic support tools, as seen in other recent partnerships aimed at earlier detection and management in horses. That’s an inference based on the company’s PPID resource buildout and its other equine collaborations, rather than a stated corporate strategy in this announcement. (equimanagement.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this is less about a headline partnership and more about whether PPID testing becomes easier to do, easier to discuss with pet parents, and easier to repeat over time. If reimbursement lowers the financial friction and in-clinic testing shortens the path from suspicion to action, practices may be more likely to test earlier, monitor more consistently, and integrate insulin data into laminitis-risk conversations. At the same time, the available validation data suggest this should be viewed as a useful clinical tool, not a perfect replacement for all reference-lab decision-making. Practices will likely need protocols for when to trust an in-clinic result, when to repeat it, and when to escalate to reference-lab or stimulation testing. (equimanagement.com)
What to watch: The next signals will be practical ones: whether Boehringer shares participation criteria or uptake data for the reimbursed TRUFORMA pathway, whether Zomedica reports measurable growth in equine assay utilization or instrument placements, and whether more peer-reviewed or conference-level data, especially from fall sampling and borderline cases, narrow the remaining questions around assay bias and diagnostic agreement. (equimanagement.com)