ORAHEALTH in the News Press Releases

July 31, 2005

BELLEVUE -- As a lifelong chronic sufferer of canker sores, Jeff Haley figures he has tried just about every treatment on the market. To no avail.

Four years ago, the former rocket-scientist-turned-patent-attorney decided to try developing his own treatment: an oral patch whose active ingredient is a time-released herbal extract called Glycyrrhiza -- more commonly known as licorice root.

It took him 250 tries, but today, the treatment Haley developed, Cankermelts-GX, is available in about 1,000 pharmacies and stores across the country, including Long's Drugs, Bartell Drugs, Haggen Food & Drug, Top Food & Drug, and several East Coast chains.

Internet retailers Amazon.com, Drugstore.com and Dentist.net also offer Cankermelts-GX.

A common problem

A canker sore is an open sore in the mouth that appears as a painful white or yellow ulcer surrounded by a bright red area.

``Twenty percent of people get canker sores,'' Haley said, ``yet more than 90 percent (of those people) buy nothing to treat them because nothing works well enough to bother with.''

Haley formed a company called Orahealth USA Inc. in 2002 to produce and market Cankermelts-GX. The company, which started in Haley's home but now occupies a leased office space in Bellevue, employs eight workers.

As his company's No. 1 ``guinea pig,'' Haley developed 250 different formulas before coming up with success.

'Certainly promising'

Peter van der Ven, a dentist with the University of Washington's School of Dentistry, said patients who participated in a recent test of the product said it started relieving pain within minutes and continued to do so as long as the oral patch was in place.

Cankermelts-GX ``is certainly a promising product,'' said van der Ven, who analyzed the results of the test, which was sponsored by Orahealth.

``Like all medications or treatments, it won't help everybody, but it appears to be helpful to a fair number of patients who have tried it,'' van der Ven said.

Haley is no stranger to entrepreneurial efforts.

His grandfather, J.C. Haley, was the co-founder of Brown & Haley, the Tacoma-based candy company perhaps best known as the maker of Almond Roca. Jeff Haley serves on Brown & Haley's board of directors.

After a brief stint as a chemist at Rocket Research Corp. in Redmond, Jeff Haley decided to switch careers by becoming a patent attorney.

Upon earning a law degree from the University of Washington, Haley co-founded Graybeal Jackson Haley LLP, a law firm in Bellevue where he continues to work part-time as an attorney.

A mouthwash of his own

Haley got the idea for Cankermelts-GX after reading an article in a medical journal in India about a treatment for canker sores that involved the use of a mouthwash made from licorice root extract.

Haley mixed up a mouthwash of his own, which seemed to work, but discovered some problems: The product needed to stay in contact with the sore all day, and the licorice flavor was too intense.

In addition, swallowing licorice root extract in large quantities can lead to potential health problems such as high blood pressure and swelling, said Haley (who noted that the flavor of licorice candy, for example, is actually anise, not licorice root).

Haley solved those problems by creating an oral patch that could deliver a time-released high dose of licorice root extract directly onto the canker sore, but which would be low in concentration in the blood system of the user.

Each Cankermelts-GX disc lasts between two and six hours, Haley said. The discs are about the size of a dime.

Haley has several patents pending on his Cankermelts-GX product.

'Halfway to profitability'

Orahealth is ``halfway to profitability,'' said Haley, who in addition to serving as CEO is also the company's chief scientific officer.

Haley said his company is spreading the word about its product by giving out free samples to pharmacists and dentists, and is in the process of building a national network of independent sales representatives. The company also has recently begun running radio and newspaper ads in California.

Cankermelts-GX has a suggested retail price of less than $7 for a package of 12 discs and less than $10 for a package of 18 discs.

Clayton Park can be reached at clayton.park@ kingcountyjournal.com or at 253-872-6717.

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