George Gunn has – and please pardon the pun I can't resist it – certainly got his finger on the trigger over at Novartis. The company has clocked double-digit growth for the last two years running – making it the fastest growing animal health company in the top ten, and moving it from number eight to number five in the global rankings – just above Fort Dodge we believe.

Mr Gunn could well have an acquisition in his sights (apologies again ..). I wonder, considering he's loaded with a significant ammunition of Swiss Francs, which animal health division could well end up on his trophy wall. Funny how things turn out sometimes.

It's always nice to be right. Our big story this week is Elanco finally launching its companion animal division – Lilly Companion Animal Health. Interestingly, one of the products that the company is getting ready to launch is a drug to treat separation anxiety for pets, as predicted in my previous post (below).

Anyway, this week is Animal Pharm's 25^th anniversary, so we all went out for a nice quiet drink, as you will be able to see from the picture of myself and our publisher Helena.

For the special supplement I wrote an article looking back at the last 25 years of mergers in the Animal Health industry. This was a nightmare – I was up until 2am on press day finishing it off.

It's amazing how many of the major companies have completely disappeared – once-famous names like Pitman-Moore, Coopers and Hoescht-Roussel, and how many remain. Intervet, Pfizer and Boehringer-Ingelheim to name a few.

Animal Pharm made a few predictions along the years about what would happen to these companies, and some of them were way off the mark.

The best one was in 1996, when we predicted that Schering-Plough was the company most likely to sell off its veterinary division. Instead, it bought Mallickrodt – a company more than twice its size – and SPAH has been among animal health's biggest companies ever since.

It just goes to show what a dicey business making predictions is.

"Cuddly" canines have got their podgy paws all over this week's animal health news, after Pfizer announced the approval of Slentrol, an obesity drug for dogs.

The ambiguously worded Pfizer release ("FDA approves first medication to combat canine obesity") led to a flurry of inaccurate news reports that Pfizer had gained the world's first approval for this new indication.

This provoked a rightfully angry response from Janssen, who did in fact get the first approval for a canine obesity drug Yarvitan in the EU last year.

And anyway, what sort of society are we that we care so little for our pets that we mistreat them by overfeeding and under-exercising? What sort of dog owners don't have time to take their pets for walks regularly? And should they be condoned? It's disturbing that, according to Pfizer, 40% of dogs are considered obese.

Who knows what will come next, a drug that will stop pets from feeling lonely so you only have to spend time with them when it suits you?? I wonder if that already exists (DAP??).

Disturbingly, one of the side effects of Slentrol is that it can cause canine anorexia. "No, you don't look fat, I promise Rover …"

And anyway, what about obese cats? There are a few well rounded cats rolling around the streets in my neighbourhood.

You'll see from the picture that Animal Pharm's Max Thomas was keeping an eye on things during the festive partying, making sure that nothing got out of hand.

There were some pretty major developments in animal health over the holidays, not least Bioniche receiving approval at last of its E coli vaccine. This is a major breakthrough in the industry and could clear the way for a whole new range of animal health products.

This has particular resonance for me as I managed to get food poisoning while I was away in France. This was horrible, but I'm sure you can imagine how bad it was so I'll spare you the details.

I'll prefix this next comment by saying that as the Animal Pharm France correspondent, I am definitely a Francophile and there are lots of things I like about France. However, why is it that I always seem to get food poisoning in France and Belguim??

I have lived in the UK for much of my life and never had food poisoning, but I have had it several times in France, and I know of quite a few people with similar experiences. I also visit the US and other European countries regularly and I have never had a problem. What is going on with retail food hygiene regulation in France?

Anyway, not the best start to 2007, but in the words of a UK political party's election broadcast song: "Things can only get better."