Charleston Regional Development Alliance

Berkeley, Charleston & Dorchester Counties

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Pilot Therapeutics begins test marketing new asthma product Airozin

Apr. 1, 2003
Charleston Regional Business Journal
By Dennis Quick
On April 7, Charleston-based biotech company Pilot Therapeutics Inc. will begin test marketing an over-the-counter gel that comes in a packet, tastes like a creamsicle and could help bring relief to the nation’s 27 million asthma sufferers.

The product is called Airozin and will appear in 80 pharmacies and supermarkets in Charleston and in Asheville, N.C., where the “medical food” will be test marketed for six months before being launched nationwide. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which approved Airozin, defines a medical food as “a substance used for dietary management of a disease.”

Floyd Chilton, Pilot Therapeutic’s CEO, president and founder, claims Airozin is the only over-the-counter asthma product of its kind and could create a new field in the respiratory products market, which exceeded $14 billion in 2000 and is expected to reach $23 billion by 2005. That, plus the product’s very existence, attracted financial backing for Pilot’s venture—a rare accomplishment for biotech companies.

“Most biotech companies usually won’t have a product until many years down the road, and that tends to put investors off,” says Chilton, who founded Pilot in 1998 in Winston-Salem, N.C. The company moved to Daniel Island last January. “We said ‘we have a box, we’re about to launch our product’ and our investment banker said, ‘yes, we’ll take you on.’”

Chilton began laying the groundwork for Airozin 20 years ago, while performing molecular medicine and biochemistry research at Wake Forest University and later at Johns Hopkins University, where he worked with asthma doctors. Some of these doctors, whom Chilton says are internationally recognized for their asthma research, will attend Pilot’s April 10 Charleston Asthma Summit at the Mills House Hotel.

Of the 203 physicians surveyed by The Lewin Group of Quintiles Transnational Corp., 92% said they would either recommend Airozin or not discourage its use for the dietary management of asthma, claims Chilton. He says such support “adds tremendous credibility to the product,” which has undergone five clinical trials.

Airozin’s test marketing campaign will be coordinated by ACNielsen Market Decisions, a subsidiary of marketing information giant ACNielsen. ACNielsen Marketing Decisions will distribute the product, which is manufactured in Greenville, and collect and report weekly sales data. The marketing company also will monitor and report trade and consumer reactions based on actual sales after completion of the test period.

After studying the test marketing results, Pilot will do whatever tweaking is necessary before launching Airozin nationwide. In the meantime, Pilot sales representatives in Charleston and Asheville—cities with high incidents of asthma—are educating physicians about Airozin.

“Part of our business strategy is to get out in the community and talk with physicians and consumers about Airozin,” explains Pilot COO Frank Sajovic. He says the product will be introduced through health fairs, print and television ads, brochures and a public relations drive.

Sajovic says Pilot is poised for Airozin’s success and for the company’s growth. Pilot has 21 employees in Charleston and plans to have 50 by the end of the year. Additionally, the company soon will break ground in Orangeburg for a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.

Airozin can be squeezed straight from the packet into the user’s mouth or mixed with orange juice, yogurt or other foods. The product consists of fatty acids from borage plants, which are found mainly in the United Kingdom and Australia. Airozin inhibits the production of leukotrienes, which cause inflammation of the lungs’ bronchial airways, thus giving rise to asthma—a disease whose prevalence has doubled during the past 20 years, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. After it is ingested, the anti-inflammatory product takes effect in seven to 10 days.

The product, to be taken daily as part of the asthmatic’s diet, comes 14 packets to a box and costs about $20, with separate versions for children and adults.

Chilton believes Airozin’s success could make Pilot a flagship for the Lowcountry’s burgeoning biotech industry. “This is an exciting time for us.”
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