Zomedica, Boehringer team up on point-of-care PPID testing

Zomedica is teaming up with Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA to push point-of-care endocrine testing deeper into equine practice, with a new collaboration centered on PPID diagnostics through the TRUFORMA platform. The companies said the program will let veterinarians at participating practices perform rapid in-clinic testing with Zomedica’s equine ACTH and insulin assays, while Boehringer Ingelheim provides reimbursement for that diagnostic testing. The announcement, published March 18, 2026, ties together a diagnostics company looking to expand TRUFORMA adoption and a major equine health company already closely associated with PPID treatment and education. (pharmiweb.com)

The backdrop is a long-running clinical and workflow challenge in equine endocrinology. PPID is widely described as the most common endocrine disorder in older horses, and ACTH testing remains a primary diagnostic tool. But sending samples to outside labs can be cumbersome because ACTH is time-sensitive and requires careful handling, chilled shipment, and prompt processing. That has made point-of-care testing an attractive goal, especially when clinicians are making decisions for horses with active laminitis risk or when they need to monitor response to pergolide over time. (equimanagement.com)

That context helps explain why this partnership is more than a routine co-marketing arrangement. Zomedica’s white paper says the TRUFORMA eACTH assay is designed to reduce sample-handling complications by moving testing to the point of care, and the company says the assay measures both full-length ACTH and CLIP, a related hormone increased in PPID. Separately, EquiManagement reported on independent work from Kelsey A. Hart, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, and colleagues showing overall good agreement between the point-of-care assay and a reference chemiluminescent immunoassay in horses with and without PPID, although the researchers also noted a larger negative bias in PPID animals. (zom-dx.zomedica.com)

The Boehringer angle matters, too. The company markets Prascend, pergolide mesylate, for control of clinical signs associated with PPID in horses, and its prescribing information notes that dose titration is based on improvement in clinical signs and/or normalization of endocrine testing, including endogenous ACTH testing. In practical terms, that means a company already embedded in PPID treatment adherence and monitoring now has a formal link to in-clinic endocrine diagnostics. That could make testing more routine, particularly if reimbursement lowers cost friction for practices and clients. (animalhealth.boehringer-ingelheim.com)

Public expert reaction appears limited so far beyond the edited press-release coverage, but the strongest outside perspective comes from the recent independent assay evaluation. Hart told EquiManagement that faster ACTH results could be especially important in horses prone to laminitis, where delays are undesirable for management. That doesn’t validate every commercial claim around adoption or economics, but it does support the core clinical premise behind the collaboration: speed has value when endocrine status can affect near-term treatment decisions. (equimanagement.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this is really a story about workflow, compliance, and earlier intervention. If the reimbursement structure works as intended, equine practices may have a clearer path to offering same-visit endocrine screening and monitoring without asking clients to absorb the full friction of send-out testing. That could be especially relevant for older horses with subtle early signs, for recheck appointments after starting pergolide, and for cases where seasonal ACTH interpretation and laminitis risk make timing important. For Zomedica, it also gives TRUFORMA a disease-specific commercial pathway in equine medicine rather than relying only on general platform adoption. (pharmiweb.com)

There’s also a broader industry signal here. Animal health companies have increasingly looked for ways to pair diagnostics with therapeutics, and this collaboration fits that pattern: a diagnostic platform gains access and credibility through a large equine-health partner, while the therapeutics company potentially improves case finding and monitoring around an established disease state. Zomedica, which reported 2024 revenue of $27 million and said it had about $65 million in liquidity as of March 31, 2025, has been positioning TRUFORMA as part of a wider veterinary diagnostics portfolio, so a targeted equine partnership could serve as an important proof point for future category-specific deals. (investors.zomedica.com)

What to watch: The next questions are operational: which practices qualify, how reimbursement is administered, whether uptake is strong enough to change routine PPID screening habits, and whether the collaboration expands to additional assays or broader endocrine protocols. It will also be worth watching whether Zomedica discusses the partnership’s revenue contribution or installed-base impact in future investor updates, and whether Boehringer frames the program as a clinical support initiative tied to earlier diagnosis and ongoing monitoring. (pharmiweb.com)