Nov-2017

32 33 ePedigree is extraordinary and we’re the only compa- ny in the world doing this; no other pharmaceutical or nutraceutical company is tracking and tracing every bottle. It provides us the opportunity to shut down anybody who violates our no-internet sales policy.” Although many people believe that the nutra- ceutical industry, as opposed to pharmaceuticals, is under-regulated, Blackburn dismisses the notion. “That is so far from the truth,”he asserts.“We’re highly regulated by the FDA.We have to have a certificate of analysis, and assays, on every one of our formulas. Theywere here, one time, for two weeks and they test all kinds of products.We have 1,200 ingredients and we have 400 products. So, you can see how signifi- cant maintaining all the data and certificates of anal- ysis on all of these ingredients and finished products can be. In fact, it’s much more thorough than the drug industry.One reason is pharmaceuticals are so easy to make; they’re synthetic chemicals, so they’re the same every time,whereas natural products vary in their density, and so every time we get natural in- gredients in, they could be much different than they were before in terms of blending and mixing and maintaining label claim. So, it’s a much more difficult process to ascertain that you have exactly what the label claim is. Plus,we use expiration dates,which the FDA does not require, but we do choose to use two-year expiration dates,which means we have to prove to them that the product still has full label claim at two year’s date.” Recently,Xymogen made an interesting pivot when Blackburn acquiesced to widespread suggestions that the company figure out a way to make its prod- ucts more widely available,without sacrificing its fealty to practitioner exclusivity.“We get over 130,000 unique visitors to our website everymonth, and up until this September,we turned them away,”Black- burn admits. “These people come to our website, typically, because they’ve heard about one of our XYMOGEN products that they feel they can benefit from, and in our first 13 years,we turned them away; we wouldn’t make our formulas available to them.” “We polled our medical board advisors,”he con- tinues.“We have 40 consultants; we called upon the practitioners, and we polled them.And it was, literally, unanimous.We were withholding these extraordinary formulas from people who could benefit from them. Somebody needs one of our formulas to optimize their health and we wouldn’t provide any way for them to get it outside of having to go visit one of our practitioners,when, in fact, some people don’t live near a practitioner or don’t have the wherewithal to get there. It was hard to do, but everybody agreed that the right thing was to make these extraordinarily effective formulas available to more people.” So, the company created Xymolink, a drop down box on the Xymogen website that lists top practi- tioners and their zip codes. Consumers can choose one close by, but they are required to meet, in person. The practitioner provides a code that allows the individual to order product, directly, from the com- pany with the hope that a relationship will blossom and that the user will contact the practitioner with any questions.“It’s really good to get the direction of a practitioner who knows the formulas, knows how to use them, and when to use them,”Blackburn says. “The ultimate goal is for them to go to a practitioner and have a workup and ascertain that they have not just the right formulas, but the right diet, and the right exercise that would best serve them.” With 130,000 unique visitors, linking these poten- tial consumers to the company’s practitioners should also provide significant growth opportunities for both Xymogen and the practitioners, and Blackburn is not unaware that the company’s altruistic motives also provide a welcome economic upside.“But we wouldn’t do it just for that,”he demurs.“We’ve spent