Indian Innovators (3 page)

Mrinmayee Bhushan

Nanotechnology-based Herbal Cream to Inhibit Hair Growth

Mrinmayee’s journey towards innovation began when she enroled for an MSc (Microbiology) program at Pune University and started working for her thesis on Protein Synthesis Inhibitors. One of her female relatives suffered from abnormal facial hair growth and had to face embarrassment because of that. Mrinmayee began to wonder if the solution lay in protein synthesis inhibitors, whether they could be used to retard the growth of unwanted hair.

“Hair is fibrous protein that is produced at the hair root and pushed upwards through a tube,” Mrinmayee explains. “When hair is removed by various shearing methods like shaving or waxing, a new hair strand starts to grow in its place. Therefore, regular shearing is required, which may be painful and time-consuming, and may also lead to rashes, skin loosening and other problems.”

She adds that most permanent hair-removal methods, such as laser treatment and electrolysis, are very expensive and have side-effects. Moreover, these methods may not be equally effective for everyone, depending on their skin and hair color.

Furthermore, the topical (cream-based) products available in the market for hair removal may sometimes lead to skin darkening or thicker and faster hair regrowth. The chemicals in the creams may also cause allergic reactions in some people.

Mrinmayee envisaged a solution that would stop hair growth altogether, rather than just removing hair periodically. The solution would use naturally occurring ingredients, so that there were no side-effects, and would be affordable and easy to use.

After completing her MSc in 1994, Mrinmayee married Bhushan, a childhood friend. Bhushan, who is an engineer, had completed his MBA from Symbiosis institute of Business Management and was working as a Deputy Manager at Essar Steel. He encouraged her to keep working on her idea rather than take up a job.

“Bhushan has been my pillar of strength. I would not have been able to achieve anything without his support. Even in the most difficult times, he stood by me and had full confidence in what I was doing.

Though I continued my research and experimentation from my home laboratory, the pace was very slow. We had to keep moving to a new city every couple of years due to Bhushan’s job. In this period, I also did a Diploma in Pharma Management, obtaining a gold medal. Meanwhile, we had two kids and other priorities of life took most of my time.”

After four years with Essar Steel and another four with Tata Steel, Bhushan quit the steel industry to become a Director at the Indian operations of an Australian water treatment company. The family then relocated to Pune, which was of great help to Mrinmayee.

She got back in touch with her guide at University of Pune, who helped her connect with Dr Kishori Apte, an expert on animal testing at the National Toxicology Center, Pune. Dr Apte, who has 25 years of experience in toxicology and pharmacology and is also associated with the APT Research Foundation, Pune, helped Mrinmayee to further her research at the APT Research Foundation and carry out toxicology studies at the National Toxicology Center.

Mrinmayee worked toward formally incorporating her company, Mindfarm Novatech in 2003. The product was not ready, but the research work was in its final stages. She also met several experts in the pharmaceutical industry and explored various aspects of the patenting and commercialization process.

Initial toxicology and efficacy studies were completed in 2004 and Mrinmayee filed for her first patent in 2005 – an Indian patent titled ‘Topical composition for inhibiting the growth of mammalian hair’.

“Unfortunately, our patent lawyers in India did not do a great job. That meant that I had to do a major part of the work, despite paying the hefty fee.

We then filed for a patent under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which enables the innovator in any country to file for a single patent for protecting his/her intellectual property across multiple geographies.

If you are considering filing a patent application in five or more countries; if you intend to apply for foreign patents on your invention, but are not sure where; or if you will be applying for foreign patents, but would like to delay the substantial expense of filing many applications, you would be well advised to do your foreign filing through the PCT. You can then eventually file for country-specific patents, as and when required, for additional protection.”

Mrinmayee’s experience of filing for a US patent was nightmarish. “We hired an American patent lawyer, and filed for both the product and process patent together. The patent examiner called up the patent lawyer and asked which of the two should be processed first. Ideally, the lawyer should have consulted us before taking a decision, but he proceeded without doing so and chose the product patent. As it turned out, there existed some prior art on the product patent; thus, it was rejected. Patent lawyers are very expensive in the US; so, we lost a lot of money without any results to show for it.”

Because funds were in short supply, the company had to abandon their plans for the Canadian and European patents.

“Some countries allow you to file the patent on your own, without going through a patent lawyer. I halted research work and devoted all my energies to studying the patent law. After that, I successfully filed the South African and Australian patents on my own.

In order to get some protection in Europe, we then decided to file a patent in the UK. We chose the UK, because we did not have to bear the expenses of a translator for filing the patent in the local language. Language is very critical in a patent. The way the idea is portrayed is almost as important as the idea itself.”

In 2006, MindFarm launched the first version of its product, named Romantaque (pronounced as Rom-an-tak), which literally means something that puts an end to hair (growth). Bhushan and Mrinmayee were doing everything on their own so far, with Mrinmayee handling the technology and Bhushan handling everything else. Therefore, they decided to outsource the production to Sri Ganesha Ayurvedic Pharma, Pune. The distribution of Romantaque was awarded to a leading pharmaceutical distributor and the product was sold at various retail chains and pharmaceutical shops.

“The product received a very good response from customers. After using it, they came back for more. This confirmed the need for such a product and the ability of our product to meet customer expectations.”

However, unanticipated problems with the distribution came up soon.

“We made a big mistake by awarding an exclusive distributorship. The distributor was not putting in enough effort to drive sales and the contract prevented us from using any other distribution channel. It was frustrating to see that despite demand from customers, the product could not reach them. As a result, we had to discontinue the sale of Romantaque after selling about 200 kg of the product.

We had invested a lot of our savings into the product. It was a big disappointment.”

As they say, every dark cloud has a silver lining. The visibility from the launch of Romantaque got them an invitation to the Inventors of India forum at IIM, Ahmedabad, where they met Dr AS Rao from the Department of Science and Technology (DST). He urged them to apply for the Technopreneur Promotion Program (TEPP), but Mrinmayee was reluctant because she didn’t trust government schemes.

“There is usually a lot of red tape. But we really needed money to take the work forward and the choices were few. So, we applied without much hope.”

They turned out to be among the chosen few to receive the
10 lakh TEPP grant that year, with the first installment arriving in just four months. “It couldn’t have been timed better. It saved us from a lot of financial trouble.

“We used the TEPP grant to further improve the product. In association with IIT Bombay, we developed a nanotechnology-based formulation for more targeted delivery of the plant extract to the hair follicle. We then filed for a new set of patents.

In 2009, we were invited for a conference organized by the The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). Some investors there showed interest in the technology and offered support for scaling it up.

There were very strong negotiations. We thought that instead of holding on to a small pie, we would be better off with a small piece of a much bigger pie. So, we bent to the pressure and gave away more than we should have.

Investors suggested that a new company be floated and the patents, which were in my name, should be transferred to it. Apart from investing the money, they were to add value via their contacts, experience and knowledge of the market. They also promised to bring in bigger investors for the second round of funding. However, things did not move at the anticipated pace.

A bigger investor did come in, but that proved to be our undoing. He initially offered to invest an additional
3 crore in the company, so that the product could reach the international market. However, just when the deal was in the final stages, he backed out, without even bothering to explain the reason.

Once he opted out, other investors followed suit and the company had to be closed down. Thankfully, the patents were yet to be transferred to the new company. So, at least our intellectual property was still unharmed.

We were planning to revive the process of filing for the US patent, but once again, we were short of funds.

DST came to our rescue once more in this tough time. We applied to the DST–Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Program in April 2011.

We were declared the winners and received a lot of media coverage. Through it, we got in touch with office-bearers at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and IC
²
Institute, an interdisciplinary research and technology incubation center of the University of Texas. They offered us help in finding a partner in the US. Thus encouraged, we started working toward launching the new, improved Romantaque by December 2011.”

However, just when things were starting to look up, another tragedy shook their world. In July 2011, Bhushan met with a life-threatening accident when his motorbike was hit by a speeding car driven by an underage driver. Bhushan sustained serious head injuries and 36 fractures on his body. His rib cage was broken and lungs were punctured at several places. Fortunately, the site of the accident was near a hospital and he could get timely medical help.

“His good karma, prayers of well-wishers and his strong willpower saved his life. He spent about two months in the ICU and many more months for a complete recovery.”

Because of the accident, Mrinmayee and Bhushan could not attend the expositions organized by the Lockheed Martin Innovation Growth Program to connect the innovators with experts, mentors and interested investors.

However, despite the physical, financial and emotional setbacks, they continued working, and finally, Romantaque was re-launched on July 1, 2012.

“Owing to our bad experience with the distributor earlier, we decided to use online retail channel this time and sell the product directly to users. Romantaque is now available for direct purchase at our website,
www.romantaque.com
.

Romantaque is the only clinically proven herbal product that inhibits hair growth,” explains Mrinmayee. She mentions another clinically proven hair-growth inhibiting product, Vaniqa (pronounced as Van-i-ka), but says that unlike Romantaque, it is a chemical formulation. “Vaniqa can be used only on the face, not on other parts of the body. And unlike Romantaque, it does not work well for everybody.”