Yesterday, drug developer Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) commenced marketing on perhaps the most ridiculous pharmaceutical drug to ever be approved by the FDA.

Lilly announced the introduction of a drug named Reconcile to treat "separation anxiety" in dogs, which supposedly can occur when Fido is left alone apart from his owner for even a short period of time.

The drug's aim is to reduce "inappropriate behavior" when a dog is experiencing separation anxiety. Some of the alleged potential afflictions associated with separation anxiety that the drug may help treat include excess vocalization (a.k.a. barking), anorexia, and depression (how they scientifically check for this is beyond me).

While Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer, might disagree on the need for a drug to treat separation anxiety disorder in dogs, all jokes aside, there is a big market for pharmaceutical drugs to treat animal health issues. Last year, sales for Lilly's animal health segment were $876 million.

Some of the biggest pharmas, like Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Wyeth (NYSE:WYE), have very profitable and large animal health and veterinary divisions. New drugs to treat doggy illnesses are coming on the market all the time. For example, in January Pfizer was granted marketing approval for a drug to treat obesity in dogs.

How meaningful will Reconcile be to Eli Lilly's top and bottom lines? Probably not very, considering that the company recorded $16 billion in revenue last year. In addition, pet owners are probably not going to be terribly willing to pay for this supposed separation anxiety drug, which is a recipe for low margins on the compound. Regardless, now there is a new drug on the market for pet owners who can't take care of their dogs to use to overmedicate their animals.

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Pfizer is an Inside Value pick.

Fool contributor Brian Lawler hates cats, but loves dogs and spatzis with a passion. He does not own shares of any company mentioned in this article. The Fool has a disclosure policy.