ORAHEALTH in the News Press Releases

October 8, 2004

Local medical invention hits drugstore shelves

Heidi Dietrich
Staff Writer

A small Bellevue health-care company believes it has found a cure for the common canker sore, and stores across the country are starting to sell it.

The cure, or more precisely, the treatment, is the brainchild of inveterate inventor Jeff Haley, who says he is a chronic sufferer of canker sores and wanted to do something about the pesky, painful wounds that afflict millions of people's mouths.

The patent attorney and scientist created a canker sore healing disc and launched Orahealth Corp. to sell the product. Now, two years after Orahealth formed, Cankermelts are being sold for $6.99 at Bartell Drugs, Amazon.com, and Hi-School Pharmacies. Haley is in discussions with chain drugstores in other parts of the United States and expects Cankermelts to be in New England soon.

Cankermelts are small, medicated discs about the size of a dime that stick to the gum or teeth to protect and heal the canker sore in one to four days. Since 20 percent of the U.S. population gets canker sores, Haley said, the market for his product is substantial.

Haley says he created Orahealth after growing frustrated with the lack of adequate treatments for canker sores. Existing products numbed or covered canker sores, but none cut down the healing time from the typical seven to 14 days, according to Haley. Louis Watanabe, a small business counselor with the Bellevue Entrepreneur Center, said some of the most successful inventions are products people develop for themselves.

"We know what the customer wants because they're so like ourselves," Watanabe said.

Orahealth now has eight employees and office and manufacturing space in Bellevue. Haley plans to return to the lab to improve Cankermelts and develop new canker sore products once he hires a high-level salesperson. The discs are currently dark brown, and Haley would like to develop a clear product.

Since Cankermelts just arrived in drugstores, Haley does not predict profitability for this year. He says he plans to license the delivery method for Cankermelts — a slow dissolving, slowly adhering medical disc — to other drug companies.

Cankermelts may be Jeff Haley's first marketable product, but the man has been an entrepreneur and inventor his entire life.

Haley's grandfather co-founded the Brown & Haley Candy Co., which makes Almond Roca, and Haley has served on its board of directors for more than 20 years. Though Haley didn't work for the candy company as a young man, he shared his grandfather's entrepreneurial spirit. At age 16, he bought a cotton candy maker and sold the treat at school and church fairs.

After obtaining degrees in chemistry, mechanical engineering and law, Haley founded the patent firm Graybeal Jackson Haley LLP. Haley used his scientific background to help other inventors start businesses. Haley says that though he enjoyed his practice, he secretly envied his clients.

"Rather than consulting and advising others, I wanted to be the decision maker," Haley said.

Haley used his scientific background to help other investors start businesses. Haley says that though he enjoyed his practice, he secretly envied his clients.When Haley wasn't at the firm, he tinkered with his own inventions. An avid ski mountaineer, Haley invented a self-arrest pick for mounting on a ski pole and boots that could be stiff when skiing down and soft when hiking up. At the time, there were only about 50 ski mountaineers in the state, Haley said, so he didn't market his products.

Haley's household product inventions, such as a cat toilet used by all four family cats, met a similar fate. Though useful for the Haleys, he said, the inventions wouldn't support a company.

"I'd been inventing things myself all these years, but I never had an idea good enough to take it to market," Haley said.

When Haley began working on Cankermelts, he converted half of his garage to a lab with filtered air. For two years, Haley spent days at the patent firm and nights and weekends alone in his lab. He tested 250 versions of Cankermelts on his own frequent canker sores before coming up with an effective product. Between practicing law and toiling in the lab, Haley worked 100 hours a week.

"Once I try to solve a problem, I think about it all the time and in my sleep," Haley said.

In January 2002, Haley launched Orahealth to sell Cankermelts and began cutting back on his patent practice. At first, his wife had her doubts.

"She was skeptical because up to that point, nothing I'd invented had market value," Haley said.

As a patent attorney, Haley had seen countless failed inventions and was realistic about his product's potential — which often is not the case, said Louis Watanabe, a small-business counselor with the Bellevue Entrepreneur Center.

"A lot of times they're so passionate about what they're doing, projections for their inventions amount to wistful thinking," Watanabe said.

But Haley was well aware that a product needed extensive testing before being offered to consumers. Though Haley at first thought an early version of Cankermelts was a go — and even bought manufacturing machines and hired design and product consultants — he realized he wanted a better shape and consistency for the product.

In January 2003, he canceled manufacturing, let his employees go, and went back to the lab for six months. When Haley finally found the solution he was looking for, he couldn't believe how obvious it was.

No longer watching fellow inventors start companies from the sidelines, Haley intends to make Orahealth his full-time job. Though he has a few remaining clients from his patent practice, he says he will finish work with them over the next year or two.

— HEIDI DIETRICH