In Short Order -- Steven Weil

"I met the challenge of launching a relatively unknown probiotic, Florastor® for Biocodex Inc. I trail blazed as an entrepreneur and took sales to record levels, a 400% increase in four years, without a manager. I produced the highest sales numbers of any territory out of 70 countries. Then I was rewarded with a promotion to Scientific Affairs Manager for North America.

Biocodex Inc. and I accomplished something never done before, marketed a dietary supplement (probiotic Saccharomyces boulardii, Florastor®) pharmaceutically to hospitals and conventional physicians, primarily gastroenterologists.

Physicians would “prescribe” (recommend) Florastor to their patients. The distribution chain was; pharmacy wholesalers rather than health food distributors, chain and independent pharmacies rather than health food stores.

Dietary supplements, almost as a rule, have no clinical evidence, but Florastor® has been the subject of 50 human clinical trials published in the scientific literature.

My gift was the ability to present rigorous published human clinical evidence; to the physicians in a way that physicians were used to and comfortable with, from pharmaceutical reps promoting prescription drugs."