Cambrooke Therapeutics Inc.

 

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May 25, 2015 Issue

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Clinically Based Therapeutic Nutrition for People with Rare Diseases

 


Howard Lossing

CEO

 

Cambrooke Therapeutics Inc.

www.cambrooke.com

 

Interview conducted by:

Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – May 25, 2015

 

CEOCFO: Mr. Lossing, what is the idea behind Cambrooke Therapeutics?

Mr. Lossing: Cambrooke Therapeutics is a company focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing clinically based therapeutic nutrition for people living with rare diseases who cannot get their nutritional needs met from a normal diet.

 

CEOCFO: What does clinically based mean?

Mr. Lossing: There is research validating that the product is efficacious in providing the nutritional needs of these patients and that our ingredients have been proven safe.

 

CEOCFO: Is that a big consideration in this industry?

Mr. Lossing: It is imperative for the lives of the patients we help. I will tell you a story. The company’s name, Cambrooke, is a combination of two names, Cameron and Brooke, who are the children of the founders of the company. They have a disease called phenylketonuria (PKU), which is a genetic disorder. For life, people with this disorder must carefully manage their protein consumption, as they are deficient in production of the enzyme required to metabolize a portion of the protein. It is an amino acid called phenylalanine (Phe). If those with PKU were to eat unrestricted levels of normal protein, their body properly metabolizes 19 of the 20 amino acids in it, but does not know how to handle the amino acid Phe. The Phe gets into their bloodstream and ends up in their brain where it eventually decays into a neurotoxin. Unregulated, this leads into a slow descent into severe, irreversible mental retardation. The only way to avoid this is to severely limit consumption of normal dietary proteins. Of course, we all need protein in our diets. Cambrooke makes a special protein replacement for people with PKU and other similar protein metabolism disorders. Given who our founders are, we have a unique connection to the patient population and are uniquely committed to doing all we can to ensure their well being.

 

CEOCFO: Are there many companies that are working in this industry or are there many pseudoscience nutritional approaches?

Mr. Lossing: There are probably half a dozen companies, which is sort of interesting, given how small this space it. In North America, there are approximately 220 babies born each year with PKU and it is the most common of these very rare protein metabolism disorders. Some solve the most basic problem of providing ‘safe’ protein replacements but fall well short of doing more for the patients overall nutritional care. Cambrooke goes well beyond providing for basic needs and seeks to deliver a higher order of nutritional care and proactive health benefits.

 

CEOCFO: What do you understand fundamentally about creating products that are appropriate and life saving that perhaps others do not?

Mr. Lossing: Cambrooke’s approach starts with a belief that it is not enough for our products just to remove the offending aspect of nutrition. For PKU, we provide a significant part of our customers’ daily protein requirements – and use this as an opportunity to provide them additional superior nutrition plus value-added ingredients to make their diet better than normal. Striving for our products to replicate a ‘normal’ diet is not enough as frankly, a normal diet is not all that great in this country. For Cambrooke, good is not good enough. This mindset, as demonstrated by our nutritious and tasty products, is making us a leading medical nutrition company.

 

CEOCFO: What else are you working on?

Mr. Lossing: We will never launch a me-too product. There are so many people with conditions requiring highly specialized nutrition for whom the available options are simply not good enough. We will focus on elevating the level of nutritional care in those areas. An example - we recently entered a category providing specialized nutrition for children with intractable epilepsy. Intractable means these kids have seizures that cannot be controlled with medicine. Regardless of how many different anticonvulsive drugs they take or the dosing level, these kids still have dozens of seizures a day. It was discovered many, many years ago that if you starve an epileptic, in many cases, their seizures will meaningfully subside. Of course, starvation is not a great long-term strategy. What really happens during the early stages of starvation is your body gets the energy it needs from your body’s fat reserves. This led to the idea of feeding those with epilepsy a very high fat diet. Lo and behold, in doing so with a diet based on 90% fat, many will have meaningful reduction in their seizures. This approach is called ketogenic diet therapy. As you can imagine, it is very difficult through normal foods to have a healthy diet composed of 90 percent fat. The available options for this nutrition therapy had shortcomings, so we consulted with leading medical authorities in creating a unique, breakthrough product called KetoVie. We use healthy fats, high quality protein, vitamin, minerals and several specific value-added nutrients to help these kids thrive and better enjoy life.

 

CEOCFO: Why the decision to look at the epilepsy solution? How do you decide where to focus your efforts?

Mr. Lossing: For the ketogenic diet therapy, it was clear to us there are shortcomings in what was currently available and that with insight from the medical community, we could make a better family of products. This fits well with our mission of helping improve lives through specialized nutrition. And, of course, the more people we help with superior solutions, the better we do as a business.

 

CEOCFO: Would you tell us about Cambrooke Foods?

Mr. Lossing: Cambrooke has been around for over 15 years and founded as Cambrooke Foods with focus on providing highly specialized low-protein versions of common foods that would otherwise be off-limits to people with PKU or other protein metabolism disorders. We are a leader in specialty low protein foods and have over 100 SKUs of low protein foods such as breads, meat substitutes, cheeses, ready-made meals, breakfast items, sauces, desserts, etc. But – low protein foods are only half the challenge for those with these metabolism disorders. They also needed a protein substitute. Before Cambrooke, all of these metabolic protein substitutes were made from synthetically derived amino acids. Basically, regular protein is subjected to strong acids, high heat and pressure to break it down into the individual amino acids. The offending amino acid is excluded and the others made into a powder blend and sold in a can like a tin of infant formula. Patients scoop the powder into a container, add water and shake until dissolved. This formula tends to retain a high acid load, tastes rather bitter and has a lower bioavailability when compared to normal protein. This formula solved the basic problem of removing the offending amino acid, but did little to help the patient stomach the need to take it several times each day. Cambrooke has a different approach that does not suffer the high acid, bitter taste or significantly reduced bioavailability. We have a novel protein source that when extracted from whey protein, has a tolerably low level of Phe, has a more neutral pH, does not have the bitter amino acid taste and has a better bioavailability. We have an exclusive, perpetual worldwide license to the combination of this special protein and other ingredients important for those with PKU. And, rather than scoop this into an infant formula sized tin, we made it available in single serve packets, a ready to drink, electrolyte enhanced sports beverage, a ready-to-drink Tetra Pak, a meal replacement bar and a sweet dessert-like pudding blend. This exemplifies who we are as Cambrooke Therapeutics - providing for the complete specialized dietary needs of patients with chronic conditions. I mentioned ketogenic diet therapy earlier. Here, too, we will provide for the complete specialized dietary needs of our customers. We make two ready to drink ketogenic diet therapy formulas and recently launched our first KetoVie Café food item – ketogenic-diet friendly bread. Whether toddlers, kids at school, on-the-go teens or adults, we strive to provide the best nutrition, the best taste and the most convenient formats for those we serve.

 

CEOCFO: Do customers typically come to Cambrooke through their doctors?

Mr. Lossing: Yes, our metabolic and ketogenic diet therapy formulas are mandated for use under the care of a medical professional. Both of these patient populations are carefully managed by highly trained, specialized medical professionals. For metabolic disorders like PKU, there are approximately 160 specialized clinics across North America. For ketogenic diet therapy, there are not quite as many specialized clinical practices. We work carefully with these clinics to support the medical professionals in their effort to educate and care for their patients. We have several medical degreed individuals in the company, a few of whom were practicing clinicians before joining Cambrooke.

 

CEOCFO: What is your business model if there are not that many patients to purchase your products?

Mr. Lossing: Indeed, we strive to provide the best in care for people with very rare conditions. For metabolics, the condition is life-long so while a small incidence, the prevalence grows each year. All of these specialty formulas are costly to make and thus more expensive than normal sources of nutrition, so the annual patient value is significant. We are confident that delivering the best products, expanding into adjacent or similar disease segments and looking beyond North America to the global market will provide Cambrooke ample growth opportunities for many years to come and earn our investors a valuable return.

 

CEOCFO: What surprised you as the company has grown and developed?

Mr. Lossing: Perhaps I am not surprised as much as I am very pleased that we have been able to retain our founders’ mission as central to what we do. I have observed that growth can sometimes breed a set of behaviors resulting in the mission losing its guiding power. The mission becomes merely a plaque on the wall or a t-shirt distributed at the annual meeting and is rarely looked at or appreciated for what it was intended to mean. At Cambrooke, I am proud that our mission continues to reside within our employees as opposed to on wall plaques or t-shirts. We recruit for people aligned to our mission; it is as important as their skill set and work experience. Fulfilling the mission every day and keeping our patients’ needs front and center in our thinking makes us a better company and fuels our business success.

 

CEOCFO: Are there new research methods, technologies and general information available today that makes it easier to come up with a solution than it might have been five years ago or is it still pretty much the same struggle?

Mr. Lossing: I think it is pretty much the same struggle, although struggle suggests it being burdensome. It takes time for us to work with the medical community, advocacy groups, parents and patients to understand the impact of living with a chronic condition and how best to manage it nutritionally. Technology helps improve analytics, but there is much more to learn than what the numbers suggest. To better understand the life of people with PKU, I decided to experience a PKU diet for two weeks. I read reports, attended lectures and spoke with countless customers and medical professionals for years before doing this. I assure you, living with PKU for two-weeks was an education unlike any other I had and nothing that technology could help me truly experience. It was humbling and hard, but only two short weeks versus a lifetime. Spending time with our customers, their families and their medical caregivers takes time and is a burden, but it is so very valuable and something technology alone cannot replace. Technology is in many ways a commodity that with a little money is equally available to all with limited effort. Cambrooke gains advantage from the effort we invest to learn beyond what is easily acquired or understood. We have a brilliant team here at Cambrooke capable of translating deep connections with our customers into better products and a better business.

 

CEOCFO: Final thoughts. Why is Cambrooke Therapeutics such a special company?

Mr. Lossing: It is difficult for this not to sound cliché, but we are a special company because we truly care about our customers with chronic conditions and their families. We have built a great business, guided by a mission to provide the very best in nutrition, taste and convenience for those with chronic conditions reliant on specialized nutrition. We work hard. I often remind my team that ‘hard is just hard and not bad’. With a clear mission guiding us and caring for those who entrust us for their nutritional needs, hard is indeed not so hard. Cambrooke is unlike any company I’ve worked for. I am proud to be a part of such a special team and am thankful for the unique rewards doing so provides me.



 

“Striving for our products to replicate a ‘normal’ diet is not enough as frankly, a normal diet is not all that great in this country. For Cambrooke, good is not good enough. This mindset, as demonstrated by our nutritious and tasty products, is making us a leading medical nutrition company.” - Howard Lossing


 

Cambrooke Therapeutics Inc.

www.cambrooke.com

 

Contact:

Howard J. Lossing

978.862.1900

HLossing@Cambrooke.com



 


 

 



 

 


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