The Food and Drug Administration has green-lighted trilostane to treat Cushing’s syndrome in dogs, and at least one DVM expert considers the move beneficial to veterinary medicine.

The drug, branded as VETORYL and manufactured by Dechra Veterinary Products LLC, received designation status as a Minor Use Drug for treating hyperadrenocorticism caused by adrenal tumors. It’s the first drug to receive an approval for this indication and the first drug to receive a Minor Use designation in dogs, the company says.

Veterinarians can source the product through distributors starting in January, says Mike Eldred, Dechra’s president of U.S. Operations.

That’s good news, says endocrinologist Dr. Mark Peterson, because it will save veterinarians from having to import the drug from the United Kingdom, where it’s been used for more than a decade, or rely on an old human anti-adrenal medication (Mitotane, o,p'-DDD), which is rumored to be slated for market removal due to slow sales in human medicine.

Most veterinarians have the drug compounded, which is illegal, strictly speaking, Peterson adds.

“This approval ensures that we’ll have one drug for dogs that’s out there from a veterinary company in the United States that we can trust,” he says. “Otherwise, we could be in real trouble. Most practitioners will diagnose at least one or two cases of Cushing’s a year.”