Elanco completes $120 million expansion of its Kansas biologics plant

Elanco Animal Health has completed a 25,000-square-foot expansion of its biologics manufacturing facility in Elwood, Kansas, a $120 million project that increases production capacity more than 4 times and establishes the site as the company's center for monoclonal antibody (mAb) manufacturing, according to an announcement issued August 26, 2026. An additional $30 million is planned through 2028, bringing the total investment to $150 million.

The build-out adds upstream and downstream processing equipment, a pilot plant for process development, a quality control laboratory, and additional support space. A second phase will add warehousing capacity. The Elwood site manufactures Trutect, formerly Canine Parvovirus Monoclonal Antibody, and Befrena (tirnovetmab), an anti–interleukin-31 mAb for canine allergic and atopic dermatitis, both regulated by the USDA Center for Veterinary Biologics.

Elanco acquired the Elwood, Kansas site from Kindred Biosciences in 2021 with intent to leverage the untapped potential of the mAb technical platform in animal health.

"The site had no commercial products on the market at the time we acquired it but had tremendous potential for scale,” Grace McArdle, executive vice president of manufacturing and quality at Elanco, told dvm360 during a tour of the plant. “We’ve made the necessary investments at the site so that we can not only bring products to market today but have positioned ourselves to be able to support our next generation pipeline as well.”

Elanco is 1 of only 2 animal health companies with mAbs on the market — and it owns the plant that makes them. "That was a deliberate bet on supply reliability,” said Bobby Modi, executive vice president of US pet health and global digital transformation.

"Having our own facility for a platform that we believe is the future for animal health gives us greater control, greater reliability, and allows us to control supply as well as investments as we think about platform expansion. We know that when a dog reaches remission on an itch therapy, it must maintain access or the dog goes right back to itching, which is why we have invested in the Elwood site and are committed to scaling capacity to meet consumer demand" Modi told dvm360.

He said the platform's value is its precision: "What's really special about monoclonal antibodies is their ability to be really targeted, and that ability to be really targeted results in high efficacy and high safety." By his account, mAbs represent roughly 25% to 30% of available treatments in human health but less than 10% in animal health — a gap he called an opportunity in both companion and production animal medicine.

What the added capacity buys

"Capacity is really important to allow us to expand to the full customer set," Modi said. "What I can say is the demand for Befrena is two times above expectations right now, which is a really good place to be, and that's why we need to keep investing in capacity to make sure we can support veterinarians with the innovative solutions that we're bringing to market going forward. Befrena has already shipped to nearly 1,400 U.S. clinics to date and we expect unconstrained supply in early 2027"

The demand signal tracks the caseload. "It is the number one reason people take their dogs to the vet, and it's also a very common reason why people leave their veterinarian if their veterinarian can't give them a solution that gets their dog itch relief," Modi said of pruritus. Extended duration, he argued, changes the workflow as much as the outcome: "Convenience drives compliance, which is ultimately a good thing for both the pet and the veterinarian."

The parvovirus case

Modi called Trutect transformative for clinical teams as well as patients. "Prior to the treatment, it was a huge burden, both mentally, emotionally, and physically," he said of parvovirus management. "What I love about this drug is we're giving puppies a much better chance of survival. The data in the market has shown that puppies treated with CPMA (now Trutect) spend 1.87 less days in the hospital and 93% of puppies survive in real-world usage.”

He also addressed the cost conversation that often precedes euthanasia in parvovirus cases, noting that Elanco has developed protocols for settings without isolation capacity, including shelters, and that the product recently received a prophylactic claim for in-contact puppies. "Although the drug cost is expensive, the standard of care over time is actually cheaper," Modi said, once days of hospitalization and staff labor are counted.

Building inside the animal health corridor

McArdle called the site's position in the animal health corridor an operational asset rather than a competitive liability: a cluster of similar manufacturers builds a shared ecosystem of academic institutions, suppliers, and available talent that an isolated plant cannot draw on.

The construction itself was executed inside a live manufacturing environment. "Designs like this are complex. You’re also doing it in a facility which you're manufacturing, and then you take it down to do the construction, and then you bring it back into operation as well," McArdle said, crediting her site team, Elanco's global engineering group, and design-build partner Burns & McDonnell. "There's a pride. There's a huge amount of pride here with the team."

Headcount has grown from about 30 employees 5 years ago to more than 200 today with new, high-demand manufacturing roles continuing to be added to the site, according to McArdle.

What practitioners should take from it

When asked what practitioners should understand about where their biologics originate, both executives returned to supply integrity.

"I want you to know that we have invested heavily both in people as well as capital, and what's important to us is making sure we continue to deliver reliable supply for the products that you need and that your pet parents want, and we do it not just reliably, but we do it at the highest quality, and we take that very, very seriously," Modi said.

McArdle expanded, saying “As we continue to draw insights from monoclonal advancements in human health, we believe that antibody-based therapies have untapped potential in animal health. More than 8,000 U.S. clinics are already served by the monoclonal antibody products manufactured at our Elwood, Kansas site. The expanded monoclonal antibody capacity ensures that as Elanco continues to pioneer breakthroughs in animal health, we are ready to meet pet owner and veterinarian demand with a safe and reliable supply.”

Reference

Elanco Scales Biologics Capabilities with Expansion of Kansas Manufacturing Facility. News release. Elanco Animal Health. August 26, 2026. Accessed September 4, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/elanco-scales-biologics-capabilities-with-expansion-of-kansas-manufacturing-facility-302860005.html