Kayla Graff, Sweetbio - Honey-Incorporated Wound Care Product | LSI USA '24

Kayla Graff  0:04  
Good afternoon. Good afternoon. We're so close to cocktail hour. Now I'm thrilled to be here. I'm Kayla Rodriguez Graff. I'm the CEO and co founder at Sweetbio. We're a biotech company out of Memphis, Tennessee. But really we're human empathy company that believes everyone deserves access to a healthier tomorrow. We spent the last nine years in the wound care industry, designing products that help people get better faster, especially from tough wounds, like diabetic ulcers and skin cancer surgical sites. But it's really been our ability to take a top tier technology down to the lowest cost bracket and push it through an underutilized channel that unlocks access for the 90% that don't get care. That's been our latest innovation. So I'll tell you a little story about where we've been and where we're going. How's it sound? Good. Let's do this. Decades ago, my great grandfather passed away from diabetes. It started with a wound on his foot that led to an amputation. And months later, he was gone. A few years ago, I met a man in Memphis named Laurel, family, hardworking man struggling with a wound on his foot. Same prognosis. Yesterday, I'm coming from the airport with my Uber driver, and he tells me a harrowing story of his toe amputation because of a diabetic wound on his foot. Now in the last generation, hundreds of advanced wound care products have been created, and many work to close wounds, but they're priced so high that 90% of our population can afford them. And with wounds occurring at record rates, because of all the trends we know the rise of diabetes, the ballooning of our 65 and older loved ones, the rise of the occurrence of skin cancer and growing health disparities. The $50 billion wound care market is more like a health care cost crisis. We have to find a better way to get people better faster. And that's our sweet spot. Whether it's stalled wounds like diabetic ulcers, or created wounds, like skin cancer removal sites, our first product Varus gives doctors a simple way for patients to care for their wounds at home. Now, I'll unpack each aspect of that. But it starts with our technology, which we think is pretty sweet. That's because it's made with collagen and manuka honey. Now it's not just collagen dipped, or slathered with honey, it's combined at a molecular level to create a new biomaterial that we've patented in 17 countries around the world and more patents coming. Now this technology is proven and peer reviewed clinical publications to have two times faster wound closure than the standard of care. We did a clinical trial with Vanderbilt University showing lower pain scores for patients. Now why? Why is our technology performing? It's because we designed it to tackle the root cause issues of a wound. And that's bacteria, inflammation and growth factors. That's the wound healing cascade. We reduce bacteria 99.99% in 24 hours, including Mersa, we're able to reduce inflammation two ways and remove harmful MMPs in the environment. And we've shown to help the body trigger the release of growth factors, getting them into regeneration and remodeling and ultimately a close to him. Now it's one thing to have the performance, it's second to make it easy for everyone to use. So we're the first non sticky honey product, which sounds like a juxtaposition. But it's easy. It's robust in your hands that anyone can use, and it dissolves so you don't have to remove it. So performance is the last component is affordability. And we've been able to take this technology down to the single digits. It's covered by Medicare and commercial insurances. And now we're getting ready to get it out there. So Varus is FDA cleared for a wide variety of wounds. And it's Medicare covered for a wide variety of wounds. And if here we go, and our largest size right now is a one inch by one inch patch that covers quite a wide variety. You don't have to cover a wound to close it, you can see it in the wound bed and it makes a significant difference. Now, the wound care industry is quite interesting because it crosses every site of care from the operating room down to the patient's home, but there's no degree and there's no one governing body. So as a small company, we need to figure out where we can when and where we can tackle this market to make a significant difference. And what we learned was wounds that are directed by clinicians, diabetic ulcers, skin cancer sites, but apply by patients at home and managed by those patients. That is the biggest unmet need. And here's how that process works. A doctor will see you say it's a skin cancer wound. They removed it and they say Kayla you're You're going to have a wound, and I'm going to prescribe you various, it's going to come to your house in a couple of days, and you'll have the supplies you need to change your bandage daily, and come back and see me in a couple of weeks. patient goes home, a box arrives with patient friendly instructions on how to do it. And they're off to the races. Now, the markets that have really attached to this model has been dermatology, because the current standard of care is Vaseline and a bandage, believe it or not, and wound clinics and podiatry centers that are treating diabetic ulcers where they don't qualify for those $1,000 treatments that require multiple to get the wound better. And it's working. We're starting to see adoption. The reasons patients love it is it's unbelievably easy. You peel open the pouch, you hydrate it with a couple drops of saline to help create the moist environment that helps them get better. They put it on and cover it with a bandage that we all provide. And they change it daily. Not only are they thrilled with the results, but we have 70 year old patients doing this themselves. Now clinicians are thrilled because it's easy for them. They know how to write pharma prescriptions, and we make it as simple as clicking a couple of boxes, and it goes to their patient, no inventory to carry no cost to them. But the huge value we bring to the table is happier patients. And that satisfaction matters, especially in the first market of dermatology. But why everyone is happiest because it works. I can show you other balloon pictures. This is the nicest one I got promised you. These are two lower leg biopsies, and these typically take 12 weeks to close. This patient came back after two weeks of no progress and extreme pain. 65 year old Medicare patient prescribed our product, the bottom closed in three weeks and the top wound closed in six weeks, again, typically taking 12 to close for routine biopsies thrilled physician that the patient wasn't calling saying hey, my wound is painful for weeks to come and the patient was obviously thrilled. Now there are other products that are on the market. But none with this level of performance at this price point paid by insurance companies. And we're off to the races and go to market. I'd love to share more on how we've started with product market fit launched into our initial pilots to learn how big the dermatology spaces and now we're targeting the 1000. Most surgeons that do 1 million procedures a year. And we can immediately tackle 25% of them with 30 Day supplies. It's a sizable market that nobody is going after and we can't wait to get there first and have a defensible position. Now Varus is just the beginning. And I can nerd out on science with anybody who wants to but we have multiple products already FDA cleared, including a physician product that has Medicare coverage as well. And we just recently got clearance for over the counter, which kind of busts the last barrier of access to getting access for these patients that needed the most. Now that's where I love to come in. Before my decade in the space I worked at Target corporate building brand experiences understanding friction in the shopping and in pain points at the customer's experience. That's what I love to do and what I get to carry forward for the next generation of sweet bio. Dr. Isaac Rodriguez is our technologists inventor, well respected in the industry and leads our science and publications. Santina was the head of one of the largest wound care groups Organogenesis for sales, and we have deep regulatory expertise with Carolyn. Now we're building our clinical team and thrilled to have a partnership with Schweiger dermatology, which is 100 practice clinic with a million patients. Now, I can't wait to take sweet bio to the next level because it's stories like Laurel, I told you at the beginning, where now he's proudly standing on his own two feet because we got his wound to close and stop that amputation. Not only does he have a healthier tomorrow, but he has a happier today. So I would love to talk to you on how we're changing the trajectory for generations to come. Kayla from Sweet bio can find me I'd love to meet you. Thank you