Henry Schein animal health business merging with Vets First Choice

Henry Schein Inc. and Vets First Choice announced plans April 23 for Henry Schein to spin off its animal health business and merge it with Vets First Choice to create Vets First Corp.

Vets First Choice, founded in 2010, has approximately 750 team members in the United States and manages prescriptions for more than 5,100 companion animal and equine practices. The company is based in Portland, Maine, where the combined company will be headquartered.

Henry Schein Animal Health distributes animal health products and provides related services. HSAH has approximately 4,300 team members, and active customers include about 75 percent of U.S. veterinarians and 70 percent of veterinarians in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. More than half of U.S. practices use Henry Schein's software platform for practice management.

HSAH will combine with Vets First Choice to form a new publicly traded company. The company would have had combined 2017 sales of about $3.6 billion.

Parent company Henry Schein Inc. will focus on providing products and services for human medical and dental practices. Henry Schein's total 2017 revenue for the remaining businesses would have been about $9 billion.