Prevora, the only Health Canada approved preventive treatment of adult tooth decay at the gum line (root caries), now the number one dental disease in many dental offices, will be marketed across Canada starting in April 2009. This new, in-office prescription drug has undergone an extensive and successful test marketing program near Toronto. The novel professional and patient education programs developed for Prevora in this test market will be applied nationally.
About one third of Canadian seniors experience root caries, a chronic infection which often spreads from tooth to tooth, which is difficult to treat with conventional restorative procedures, and which has been linked to cardiovascular health. For example, in one large, prospective study conducted amongst middle-age Americans, root caries was more important to cardiovascular health than cholesterol.
The national roll-out of Prevora is facilitated by a strategic marketing partnership between CHX Technologies (Toronto), a dental pharmaceutical company and developer of the Prevora antibacterial tooth coating, and Germiphene Inc. (Brantford), a national manufacturer and distributor of branded fluoride and infection control products for the dental office. Both partners are private, Canadian owned companies. Germiphene has been in business since 1952 and operates facilities approved by Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The CHX-Germiphene marketing partnership will strive to form a Canadian network of dental offices providing more prevention to an aging population. As shown in Southern Ontario, many older dental patients want more preventive care and will purchase this extra care when it is recommended by their dental professional.
In this Canada-wide launch of Prevora, CHX will provide marketing activities as well as professional education services, including an ongoing series of webinars for dental offices on www.prevora.com. Germiphene will provide customer service, product fulfillment, sales and an ongoing presence for Prevora at all major dental conferences and meetings. Germiphene maintains a sales force of 17 representatives in Canada; it is amongst the largest dedicated sales force of branded in-office dental products in Canada, serving several thousand core customers.
Prevora has been approved in Ireland for the reduction of cavities in adolescents and adults, and is expected to be approved in the United Kingdom in mid 2009. In the U.S., Prevora is in the final stages of Phase III clinical trials. The results of these trials are expected in late 2009 or early 2010. It is estimated that each business day, there are 95,000 American adults who visit the dental office experiencing root caries; this is the largest unmet need in both dentistry and pharmaceuticals.
