Stokes Pharmacy & Bova Group: A Partnership Transforming the Landscape of Veterinary Medicine
Stokes Pharmacy and the Bova Group have almost parallel stories—pharmacies with retail roots that expanded into compounding to better serve a larger audience with the highest quality medications possible. Each organization has made a significant impact in the countries they serve—Stokes in the US and Bova in Australia and the United Kingdom—and they’ve both raised the bar for quality of care in veterinary medicine. The two organizations added to their industry-changing reputations when they announced they were teaming up to bring life-saving treatment for cats with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) to the United States. Since the announcement in June 2024 and the availability of the treatment, GS-441524, shortly after, Stokes Pharmacy has successfully treated thousands of patients. This partnership is changing the lives of pet owners and veterinarians alike, giving both a safe and trusted treatment option for cats with FIP. How did such an impactful partnership between two veterinary compounding leaders happen? And what’s in store next for the Stokes and Bova teams? Brett Davidson, former Bova National Sales Manager in Australia and new Stokes Healthcare (Stokes and Epicur) National Equine Sales Manager, gave us an insider’s perspective on how these organizations are changing the landscape of veterinary medicine. Brett, tell us about your previous work at Bova and a brief background about the company. So, I worked at Bova for 16 years in Australia. I launched the expansion of the company with Nick Bova, the owner, so you could say I was employee number one, I suppose. Nick took over in 2008 after finishing his pharmacy degree. I started the same year, and we built the business in Australia from there. And then in 2017, Nick went to the UK and started that office, focusing on specialty medications for UK veterinarians. Emma Jones, Sales Director for Bova UK, was one of the first ones to help him there. And now, Bova has grown to what it is today. Because I knew the company so well, I was a jack of all trades, but my main role was organizing my sales team and our customer relationships. I worked with a lot of corporate accounts, buying groups, larger hospitals, and specialty centers. I supported my team however was most valuable to make sure we keep our clients. And now you’ve joined the Stokes Healthcare team! Tell us how that move came about and your new role. It’s great here, and I’m thrilled to be part of the team. The story of how it all happened isn’t particularly exciting, ha! I noticed that Stokes Healthcare was advertising for an Equine Sales Account Manager, so I reached out to Michael Tursi to discuss the role and his vision for it. True to form, Michael was very open and accommodating, making it easy to have an honest conversation about the opportunity. Given my experience with some of the equine products that Epicur and Stokes are launching, I’m hopeful that I can help the team break into the equine market here in the U.S. I’m really enjoying this new challenge, learning a lot, and having a great time working alongside such a dedicated team. Back to your start at Bova and the expansion – what was the vision for expanding Bova into compounding and the veterinary market? Bova chemists had been around for years, with Nick’s dad starting the business in 1968. In Australia, a pharmacy can only be owned by a pharmacist, it can’t be owned by a group or corporate, so Nick took over the retail pharmacy after graduating from university and Bova started compounding at the same time. At first, it wasn’t specifically for veterinary medicine, we were just doing compounding for human medicine, but we had a lot of the big box retail pharmacies starting to take over. They would buy a number of pharmacies in different locations, and then reduce their margins considerably. Being that Bova was an independent, we would have had to compete with these larger corporate types of pharmacies that are known for cutting prices. So, instead of trying to compete on a retail pharmacy level, Nick explored what else might be available. That’s when he came across compounding and decided that would be the direction he’d prefer to go in rather than trying to compete on price. What sets Bova apart from other compounders? In Australia, Bova built its foundations on the quality of what they do and innovation. To be honest, they are the only compounder in Australia that has continued to release new products for the veterinary industry. So, whether it’s a long-acting injection or a combination of medications for behavior or anxiety, Bova has always been first to the market with a new product. Competitors will usually follow after a year or two and release the same products. Bova is always trying to find new ways to help treat veterinary patients, that’s how they’ve really built a reputation for innovation. I think the GS tablets are a perfect example of that. We were the only ones in the world, for a long time, that had that product, and we worked with a lot of international KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) to get it right and release it. It was amazing to be a part of. And then, in Australia, it’s a differentiator how we focus a lot on quality. There are no kind of regulatory agencies actively monitoring pharmacies with compounding as much as they do in the US or the UK. Obviously, you still have the pharmacy councils and boards, but there’s no system in place where pharmacies or pharmacists can acquire certain licenses or approvals, like 503A or 503B in the US, to make certain products their facilities don’t have. At Bova, we implemented our own kind of quality assurance program based on GMP guidelines, or good manufacturing practices, which is the same as the pharmaceutical standard that Epicur has to reach. So, in Australia, Bova is the only one, that I am aware of, that adheres to GMP in