Promisia flexes for 2017
Dietary supplement company Promisia Integrative wants to raise $1.3 million,
There used to be a time when older people just accepted the fact they were getting old and dealt with the pains that came with it.
But Promisia Integrative chief executive Charlie Daily believed, and hoped, times were changing.
Older people wanted to remain active, and it was really anybody over the age of 45 beginning to have joint problems: in fact, he thought it was affecting everyone.
‘‘This market of people with joint problems, it’s just unbelievable,’’ Daily said.
‘‘I had no idea it was as big as it was.’’
The New Zealand market for people suffering from osteoarthritis was about 310,000 people, but Daily thought it was much bigger.
He had some skin in the game: Promisia produced an arthritis dietary supplement called Arthrem.
Arthrem was made with a herbal extract from the medicinal plant Artemisia annua, which has been used in Chinese traditional medicine and for malaria.
The NZX-listed company has ticked off milestones in the past year, and last week went to shareholders seeking $1.3 million.
‘‘We need some more cash to carry the momentum that we started in 2016, with sales growth here in New Zealand.
‘‘We also need to launch the canine product here in New Zealand, and then probably the largest chunk of the money will be used to gain access and get some traction into Australia.’’
Promisia exceeded sales of $2m in the first ten months of this year, up 574 per cent, while also breaking $300,000 in monthly sales for the first time in October.
Daily puts it down to the coming together of ‘‘aggressive’’ advertising backed by research.
Last month, a six-month study of Arthrem, conducted by Otago University, was published in the the New Zealand Medical Journal.
This followed a 12-week trial last year, which showed it had ‘‘potentially life changing’’ benefits for osteoarthritis sufferers.
The results of the full study were extremely positive and labelled a ‘‘major breakthrough’’ by the company’s principal scientist, Sheena Hunt.
‘‘Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease, so people gradually get worse, but everyone that participated either stayed the same or actually got better,’’ Daily said.
‘‘In layman’s terms, it would appear that Arthrem is potentially a long-term treatment that can slow down that degeneration.
‘‘That’s the really exciting thing.’’
The research was also valuable for the company’s push into Australia, expected in the middle of next year.
This was because of the way the product was categorised: in New Zealand, it was either medicine or a dietary supplement, but in Australia, there was a third called listed complementary medicine.
Promisia could therefore make greater therapeutic claims in Australia.
‘‘We appreciate Australia is Australia and they are very protective of Australian companies so finding a partner there and a distributor there is going to be key.
‘‘So many New Zealand companies have had to come back home with their tail between their legs.’’
The company was still chipping away at the United States market, after Daily had spent a year in his homeland a few years ago, before coming back because it did not get decent market penetration.
‘‘It’s a dangerous market, it is so big and so competitive.
‘‘The digital model potentially can eventually pay off, but we’re not going to burn huge sums of cash to try and find out if it can.
‘‘Not when we’re having such success here in New Zealand, and the potential of Australia as well.’’
This market of people with joint problems, it's just unbelievable.