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Bio Business 的报道很有意思:
“I was always curious: ‘What is in these medicines?’ The herbalists couldn’t explain it—they could tell you what herbs are in there, but they couldn’t tell you how it actually worked. The lack of scientific research and documentation for herbal medicines means that they could never be accepted in today’s medical world. That bothered me,” says Shan, adding she also wanted to look at medicines from a prevention point of view. “We have made huge strides in modern medicine and have created many drugs. But somehow we have been focused on the curative and not the preventive side of drugs.”
Armed with a PhD in pharmacology from China (and still tackling the English language), Shan moved to Edmonton in 1987 to pursue doctorate studies in physiology at the University of Alberta. “Pharmacology is how drugs work, and physiology is about how the body works. I saw that if I had the knowledge of both how drugs and the body function, then I could get into some uncharted areas with herbal medicines, using a pharmacological research approach,” she continues.
It was at U of A that she met co-founder Dr. Peter Pang, and together in 1992, they spun out CVT. The company, which quickly grew to include a group of 25 scientists in different disciplines (including phytochemists and pharmacologists), aimed to find safe and effective natural (evidence-based) remedies for cardiovascular problems (hence the company’s name: ‘CV’), among others areas.
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In May 2003, CVT was about to lose its offices and in the process of laying off staff, she says. Weaned on government grants and private investors, the company had hoped to one day sell its IP to big pharma. Such a venture, however, was usually deemed too risky because CVT did not fit the traditional therapeutic model, adds Shan.
Though she had always wanted to keep her focus on the science and applied research, Shan reluctantly took over as CEO that year. She immediately put any available money on ColdfX, opting to commercialize independently, and hiring public relations and advertising experts to develop an official marketing strategy—and ultimately boost sales.
The approach re-examined the company’s past word-of-mouth success among hockey players and athletes who used the product, and leveraged their testimonials in the media. In 2004, CVT signed celebrity spokesperson Don Cherry, a frequent cold sufferer who reportedly found relief using the product. The ad campaign that followed helped kick things into high gear. [CVT agreed to direct a percentage of future earnings to Rose Cherry’s Home for Kids, a charity founded by Cherry for his late wife .]
Among other milestones, 2004 marked the first year ColdfX was carried by national retailers (more than 4,000 of them, including Shoppers Drug Mart and Wal-Mart)—the brand was formerly only available in smaller, often independent retail outlets and pharmacies. It was also the first profitable year in the company’s history. |
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