In a recent Q&A in the Montreal magazine Maisonneuve, Margaret Atwood gives
her interviewer some unsolicited advice on how to deal with a
cold. "You need to travel with a product called COLD-fX," declares CanLit's doyenne.
"It's used by hockey players. It's a Canadian product, it's
excellent. It's very potent ginseng. At the first tickle, take
three of those."
Testimonials like that are money in the
bank for executives at CV Technologies Inc., the Edmonton start-up that has
spent more than a decade and $15 million developing a herbal
remedy for colds and flu. And the celebrity converts just keep
coming forward. Michael Burgess, the Toronto tenor who starred in
the Canadian production of Les
Miserables, is a satisfied customer. As are Clara Hughes,
the Olympic medal-winning cyclist and speed skater, and any
number of NHL players, including Edmonton Oilers captain Jason
Smith and Montreal Canadiens centre Yanic Perreault.
Then there's Don Cherry. Company
officials learned last year that the voluble broadcaster had
been taking COLD-fX to ward off the chronic colds he's endured
since childhood. So CV Technologies CEO Jacqueline Shan
approached Cherry, who agreed to become an official spokesman
for COLD-fX in return for a percentage of sales revenues being
donated to Rose Cherry's Home for Kids, a charity named after
his late wife. Cherry's mug -- and mouth -- now figure
prominently in print and radio ads launched in the fall to
push COLD-fX nationwide. "We know that Don doesn't give us
scientific credibility," says Shan. "But he's someone known
for speaking from his heart."
Made from an extract of chemicals found
in North American ginseng, COLD-fX serves two functions. For
existing infections, clients are told to take a total of 18
capsules over the course of three days. To prevent infection
in the first place, a daily dose of two capsules is
recommended. (The latter strategy doesn't come cheap: a year's
supply would run about $300.)
According to Shan, a scientist and
co-discoverer, the product works by boosting the immune system
cells that help fight colds and flu. In an attempt to back up
that claim, COLD-fX has undergone seven clinical trials, an
unusually high number for an herbal remedy, the most recent
completed this fall. Led jointly by Gerry Predy, chief medical
officer for Edmonton's Capital Health Region, and
University of
Alberta biochemist Tapan
Basu, the study followed 323 adults, ages 18 to 65, who had a
history of at least two upper respiratory infections in the
previous year. Half took two COLD-fX capsules a day for a
four-month period last winter. The other half received a
placebo. While COLD-fX didn't ward off every infection, those
taking it suffered 45 per cent fewer sick days than the
placebo group, and the severity of their symptoms was cut by
almost a third. Blood tests on the COLD-fX group also revealed
heightened levels of certain white blood cells, considered key
in fighting off viral infections.
To purchase Cold FX visit:
http://www.canadadrugsonline.com/DrugMoreInfo3005.aspx
Predy admits that, like many medical
professionals, he is often skeptical of claims made about
natural health products. But he was impressed by CV
Technologies' research record, including two earlier trials
that showed 198 residents at five U.S. nursing homes
enduring much lower rates of influenza after taking COLD-fX.
Such scrutiny is possible, adds Predy, because the company's
own profiling technology, known as ChemBioPrint, can detail
the multiple components in the capsules and ensure
standardized dosages in each batch. And while Predy doesn't
see COLD-fX as a replacement for annual flu shots, he says its
ability to boost the immune system means "there is potential
for the two to work together."
For the Chinese-born Shan, 41, who holds
a doctorate in pharmacology from a university in Beijing and another
in physiology from the University of Alberta, chasing a cure
for the common cold has become a full-time job. She had some
training in traditional Chinese medicine before she immigrated
to Canada in 1987. So
she knew one of the touted benefits of ginseng is enhanced
disease resistance. "People get sick because their defence
system is too weak to fight the viral attacks we're constantly
subjected to," says Shan. "We wanted something from a natural
source to strengthen immune cells."
While CV Technologies now has a strong
core of private investors -- many of them Alberta businessmen who
swear by the product -- that wasn't always the case. Shan says
the company was often on the verge of going broke in the 10
years she has been with it and she sometimes worked without a
salary. But grants from such public agencies as the National
Research Council and the Alberta Heritage Foundation for
Medical Research kept the venture afloat -- along with no
small measure of luck.
One of those lucky turns came in 1996
when Glen Sather, then president and general manager of the
Edmonton Oilers, took note of COLD-fX, which had just come on
the market. Oilers players soon became guinea pigs for the
company's first two-year trial. Shan was excited at testing
the product on high-performance athletes, whose immune systems
are constantly under stress from extreme exercise and frequent
travel. Did it work? Well, the Oilers remain faithful clients.
As, too, are players from 25 other NHL clubs, the CFL's
Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders. One of the reasons
COLD-fX has swept the athletic world: the remedy contains no
banned performance-enhancing substances.
Athletes aren't the only ones whose
lifestyle makes them vulnerable to colds and flu. Tenor
Burgess performs over 200 concerts a year across North America and
says: "I can't just call in sick when I get a cold." Burgess
started on COLD-fX five years ago after talking to Sather, and
says it has helped keep him in front of the footlights.
One obstacle faced by the Toronto-based
Burgess was tracking down the capsules; until recently, 80 per
cent of COLD-fX sales came from Alberta. But with last
fall's marketing push, it's now available in most major drug
outlets across Canada. Gross sales
for the first three months of fiscal 2005 stood at $11.3
million, nearly double the sales figure for all of 2004, which
was the company's first profitable year.
But Shan already has her sights set on
bigger prizes. Her studies show that Americans endure one
billion colds annually -- two to four for every adult and six
to eight for every child -- and that the North American market
for cold and flu remedies is a US$4-billion-a-year industry.
Then there's the rest of the world. "My dream," says Shan, "is
for this product to be sold in every corner of the globe."
Consider it a Canadian cold front in the making.
For more information on this story visit:
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