Fort Wayne company gets patent for dog dental product
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowFort Wayne-based Saint Roch Veterinary has created a weapon designed to destroy the bacteria that accumulates on dogs’ teeth and gums, which leads to gum disease.
The company, a subsidiary of Topikos Scientific Inc. in Fort Wayne, has earned a patent for its GingiGuard Gel, a monthly treatment that targets the bad bacteria that form a biofilm on teeth.
More than 140 Hoosier dogs were part of the startup’s field trial, which applied the gel after a standard dental cleaning.
“The plaque on the teeth after the dentist cleans them begins to regrow in four to six hours and it steadily attaches and grows,” Topikos Scientific President Dr. William Cast told Inside INdiana Business. “We prevent it from regrowing and hold it in abeyance for anywhere from a month to two months.”
Cast, a retired physician, and Veterinarian Dr. Kevin Cawood developed the technology with other collaborators and are now looking to partner with an animal health company to take GingiGuard to market.
“Now we’re marketable under FDA rules for companion animals, and we’re able to talk to marketing companies that we all know in veterinary circles—Elanco and Zoetis and Merck, people like that,” Cast said. “
GingiGuard also has a benefit for the dog’s human; it eliminates doggie breath.
“That is maybe a major selling point if not the selling point, because if you go back in the history of Colgate and Crest, it was advertised as ‘cleans your teeth as it cleans your breath,'” Cast said. “It sells a lot of toothpaste because it’s a benefit. And having the dog up close or on the couch with you or close, everyone knows when the breath is bad and the gums are infected.”
Saint Roch says it’s also developing other products with a focus on canine oral health.