Well, if he’s Om Goel, he doesn’t ride off into the sunset. He launches his own company, develops products, and then teaches himself manufacturing, packaging, marketing, advertising, and business practices so he can sell them.
A native of Old Delhi, India, Goel, seventy-three, earned his doctorate in organic chemistry at Carnegie-Mellon University and landed a job with Parke-Davis in Detroit as a pharmaceutical researcher. In 1970, Warner-Lambert bought Parke-Davis; when the Detroit operation closed in 1981, he transferred to WLPD’s Ann Arbor lab, which in time became Pfizer’s. When Pfizer skipped town in 2008, he retired–and then opened his own company, Jiva Pharma, Inc.
“But pharmaceutical research is expensive,” Goel says. “I was funding it myself, so I decided to try to market a product that I found personally beneficial to help underwrite my costs.”
That product, which Goel calls Spoon O’Prune, is a nutritional supplement that addresses a problem forty-two million Americans share: constipation. According to Digestive Health Magazine, the condition means “fewer than three bowel movements each week or … bowel movements that are hard and difficult to pass.”
A devotee of prune juice, Dr. Goel was inspired to create a packaged alternative after suffering with irregularity on a business trip to London. When a popular European product didn’t offer relief after twelve hours, he decided he would develop “portable yet healthy relief for constipation.”
Within two years, he succeeded.
He studied inulins, tasteless white fructo-polysaccharides produced by more than 36,000 plants, and identified a non-caloric fiber that could be extracted from chicory roots and Jerusalem artichokes. “This inulin is not absorbed in the upper GI [gastro-intestinal tract]; it ferments in the colon, causing it to contract and evacuate,” he explains. It also feeds “the good bacteria living in your gut that are helpful for several chronic digestive disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease. Clinical studies have shown these beneficial bacteria assist with digestion and the absorption of foods, promoting regularity as well as colon and immune health.”
The Spoon O’Prune packaging lists the contents as prune concentrate, the inulin fructooligosaccharides, sorbitol (a sugar substitute), purified water, citric acid, and natural flavors. Surprisingly tasty, it provides sixteen grams of fiber per serving, as well as vitamins B and K. Goel calls it a dream supplement: calorie free, soy free, lactose free, and gluten free.
Developing the product was only the first challenge. Goel next worked with a Minnesota company to manufacture the liquid formulation in single-serving packets. And he is now a one-man sales force, marketing Spoon O’Prune under the label Jiva Now, LLC.
“I worked backward in starting the business,” he admits. “I had a product and a manufacturer but no business plan and no experience in the business world.”
Amazon, Google, and other online ad programs can charge as much as $10 a click–which might or might not lead to a sale, he found, to his dismay. So the scientist began making sales calls on local companies. A year ago, Clark Professional Pharmacy agreed to carry the product, followed by Whole Foods, which sells individual packets for $3.25, or a box of seven packets for $21. Goel frequently offers demonstrations there. “I actually like doing the demos–you meet interesting people and they tell you interesting stories,” he says.
He says he has “almost decided to hire a marketing person.” Meanwhile, he has developed nut butter health snacks (almond, peanut, pistachio) and a line of “SennaBiotics” (fast-acting laxatives), though neither is yet available commercially.
“This keeps me out of trouble, but it’s an expensive hobby,” he says, smiling. “I have too much energy to sit still. My mission is to contribute to people’s health–if I can do that, it will be a nice lifetime’s work.”
He recommends trying Spoon O’Prune on toast, in yogurt, in smoothies, or right out of the pouch. “It’s better than prune juice,” he promises, and “a tasty addition to your favorite foods.”
