Swedish Kalzyme® technology patented in the US, the world's largest pet market

The US is the world's largest pet market. The American Pet Products Association estimates that Americans spent 158 billion dollars on their pets in 2025 and expects the figure to rise to 165 billion in 2026. This is no temporary peak. Spending has grown every single year since 2009, through financial crises, a pandemic and inflation alike, and Bloomberg Intelligence expects the American market to approach 200 billion dollars toward the end of the decade. Few consumer markets of that size grow so predictably.

Behind those figures are 77.5 million American pet-owning households, up from 71.5 million a decade earlier, and together they own 87 million dogs and 76 million cats. What is changing fastest, however, is not the number of animals but where the money goes. The fastest growing areas are services around the animals along with medicines and supplies, and a growing share of owners think in terms of prevention rather than waiting for a problem. That is exactly the shift Kalzyme is built for, products that help prevent rather than repair after the fact.

Around 80 percent of American veterinary visits are for routine check-ups or preventive care, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Skin, ears and dental cleaning are part of what fills the day at an American veterinary clinic. Those are precisely the three areas Kalzyme covers with Dental Spray, Dermal Spray and Gel, and Otic Drops. The markets follow the same curve as the wider industry. Global pet oral care products are expected to grow from 8.3 billion dollars in 2024 to 12.7 billion in 2030, and ear care is growing faster still, with North America the largest region in both cases.

What the products share is Kalzyme's patented formulation of hydrolytic enzymes, which breaks down biofilm, the glue bacteria produce in order to attach to a tooth surface, an ear canal or the skin. The enzymes act on that film and allow a more targeted approach than broad-acting antimicrobial substances. For the American pet owner it means access to something other than what dominates the shelf today.

The patent covers a central part of ZymIQ's platform technology and is not limited to a single product, opening the way for both own sales and future licensing agreements. Nor is it limited to animals, as it covers applications on the human side including oral health, dermatology and wound care, which widens the addressable market far beyond pets. ZymIQ has previously secured protection in Europe, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Japan, and work to extend the portfolio to further markets continues. With the US in place, the technology is protected across the three wealthiest continents.

"The US is the world's largest pet market, and now we can play offense. The market is dominated by old chemical products that wipe out everything, the bad along with the good. We work with the animal's own biology instead of against it," says Michael Edelborg Christensen, CEO of ZymIQ.