INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business

MEDICAL
Neevo — Pamlab
Key innovation: a prenatal vitamin and folic acid alternative
intended for women with high-risk pregnancies
and older obstetrics patients
Biggest clients: obstetricians/gynecologists specializing
in at-risk births
Where they’re based: Covington
Top executive: Jim Currie, project manager
Year introduced: 2007
PHOTO BY SHANNON DIECIDUE
PAMLAB DARED TO stand up and kill the sacred cow in
their market: folic acid.
Folic acid — the synthetic form of folate, a substance
found naturally in foods — is renowned for its ability to
prevent birth defects. After it gained fame through the government’s
recommendations and the March of Dimes, folic
acid was undisputed in its prenatal properties.
But the brains at Pamlab saw the supplement had its
limitations — many women are not able to benefit from
folic acid. Mothers older than 30, women with a history of
problematic pregnancies and women with a genetic condition
that impedes the processing of folic acid into its useable
form, l-methylfolate, found the popular prenatal supplement
was not enough.
After developers in Germany began to manufacture l-
methylfolate commercially, Pamlab used this natural form
of folic acid in treatments for dementia, Alzheimer’s and
depression.
The final frontier Prenatal vitamins. Thus Neevo was
born.
Jim Currie, project manager of Neevo, said this innovation
was met with much speculation among doctors and
nurses.
“How can folic acid be bad” he said, recounting a typical
reaction. “For 30 or 40 years, it’s been a hero.”
But he said one group has been particularly receptive to
Neevo — high-risk pregnancy specialists. In the past, these
doctors would hit a wall when dealing with patients who
could not use folic acid.
“Neevo is the first prenatal care product specifically
indicated for high-risk pregnancies and older OB patients.
Almost half of all births in the U.S. are now to mothers over
the age of 30,” he said. “Now our challenge is to take this
enthusiasm (of the high-risk specialists) to the rest of the
OB community.”
Despite initial reservations from the medical community,
Neevo exceeded sales goals in its first year, and more
than 100,000 prescriptions for the prenatal vitamin have
been written nationwide.
Currie hopes Neevo eventually will influence the market
by promoting an alternative to folic acid. But the pharmaceutical
company is going to stick to selling its product to
doctors and nurses for now before it steps into the limelight.
“We’re going to stay off the Oprah show for now,” he
said.•
— Lauren LaBorde
Pamlab created Neevo as a prenatal vitamin and folic acid alternative intended for women with high-risk pregnancies.
38A 2008 Innovator of the Year