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Subject:
From:
Norma Ritter <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 4 Sep 2005 13:08:09 -0400
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Posted on Sun, Sep. 04, 2005 
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/business/12550583.htm

Company markets human milk as next best to mother's
N.Y. hospital to be first customer
By Denise Gellene
Los Angeles Times

Elena Medo envisions one day selling pasteurized human milk to
children with cancer, heart conditions or AIDS.

But for now, Medo's company, Prolacta Bioscience Inc., is focused on
providing human milk to the tiniest infants born prematurely in the
United States each year.

This month, Prolacta plans to begin processing milk donated by nursing
mothers and selling it to hospitals with intensive care units for
newborns. Backed by some well-known Silicon Valley investors, Medo
aims to make milk donation as commonplace as giving blood.

Hospitals now use formula when mothers -- because of stress, illness
or other factors -- cannot supply milk for their babies. Less
frequently, hospitals tap nonprofit milk banks for donor milk when an
infant can't tolerate formula.

Medo wants to turn that low-key work into a booming business. It's
founded on her belief that human milk -- despite being sterilized and
frozen for shipment -- is the next best thing to a mother's own milk.

But her business faces some challenges. Among them is research by New
York neonatologist Richard J. Schanler, who found that infants on
donor milk in the first few weeks of life fared no better than babies
on formula. His four-year study of 243 premature babies appeared this
month in the journal Pediatrics.

Schanler, a professor at Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College
of Medicine, concluded that valuable substances that protect infants
from infection were destroyed when human milk was pasteurized.

Schanler said it was possible that donor milk conferred advantages he
didn't measure. Still, he said, "It sort of makes you wonder."

Medo, 52, however, is optimistic. Leading a tour of her factory in
Monrovia, Calif., just outside Los Angeles, she showed off two
gleaming stainless steel tanks, similar to those found in dairy
plants. The equipment can process enough milk in a year to feed
100,000 hospitalized infants for two months.

Taking a page from the dairy industry, Medo plans to produce two
breast milk formulations: regular, and high fat for babies who need
extra calories. Her products will be packaged in syringes -- premature
infants are tube-fed -- and will come with nutrition labels. Under
development is a breast-milk-derived "protein booster" to supplement
regular feedings.

Some academics, including Ruth Lawrence, of the University of
Rochester in New York, applaud Medo's efforts. In fact, her
university's Strong Medical Center is lined up to become Prolacta's
first customer.

"There have been times in the past when (donor) milk has not been
available or we have not been able to get as much as we need," said
Lawrence, an adviser to Prolacta. "Now there will be much more milk
available."

As a for-profit venture, Prolacta is causing a stir. The company has
received a cool reception from the nine nonprofit milk banks that
serve the U.S. market. Laraine Lockhart Borman, director of a
nonprofit milk bank in Denver, said Prolacta was poaching on her turf
and trying to steal her customers.

"They're being very pushy," she said.

Other observers said they were worried that commercialization could
lead some mothers to sell their milk.

"I'm very concerned about mothers not giving their babies the benefit
of their own milk," said Nancy Wight, a neonatologist at Sharp Mary
Birch Hospital for Women in San Diego.

Medo said she was eager to work with the nonprofits, perhaps by
processing their milk. And she insisted that Prolacta would not
purchase milk from mothers. But Prolacta is compensating hospitals an
undisclosed amount for the donated milk they collect.

Prolacta's business plan calls for establishing human milk depots at
hospitals. As part of the agreement, hospitals would recruit and
screen volunteer donors for disease and collect and ship donated milk
to Prolacta for processing. Prolacta in turn would provide hospitals
with all necessary equipment -- including refrigerators,
temperature-controlled shipping cartons and tracking software -- plus
payments linked to the volume of milk they provide.

Prolacta also plans to provide hospitals with a public relations
program to attract donors. Nursing mothers who agree to donate any
amount of milk would receive a free motorized breast pump, a device
for siphoning milk.

Despite all the incentives, Strong Medical Center doesn't think it
would make money from human milk. Hospital staff members must
thoroughly screen prospective donors, a process that includes a
40-minute interview.

And medical center employees would be responsible for bar-coding,
freezing and shipping the donated milk.

"We're hoping to break even," said Maureen Freedman, one of the nurses
who will manage the program.

She said the hospital was participating to benefit its community.

Medo's interest in breast-feeding began with the births of her four
children, now adults. As a nursing mother, Medo became frustrated when
she couldn't find a comfortable breast pump. So she designed one for
her own use. Encouraged by friends in the late 1980s, she started a
small company in Temecula, Calif., to manufacture and sell her pumps.

Before long, Medo found herself in a nasty tiff with Medela Inc., a
competitor. In 1994, she sued Medela and more than a dozen
breast-feeding advocates, including Marianne Eg Neifert, the author of
the popular "Dr. Mom" book series. Medo accused them of badmouthing
her product, allegations they denied, according to two people familiar
with the litigation. The suit ended in a confidential settlement in
1996, but the spat ruined Medo's business, she said.

In 1999, she started Prolacta, inspired by her visits to maternity
wards when she was selling breast pumps. "I witnessed with my own eyes
that babies thrived on human milk," she said. "I saw a real need."

Medo did some research and concluded that physicians would welcome a
fortified product because milk donated by women with healthy children
often lacked sufficient calories for preemies. She drew up an
ambitious plan to establish milk depots at every hospital with a
neonatal intensive care unit, where low-weight infants -- those under
3 pounds -- were treated during their first weeks of life.

But Prolacta -- the name derived from prolactin, the hormone that
stimulates milk production -- was a tough sell to investors, Medo
said, particularly those who fed their children formula. Her luck
changed in June, when a venture group led by affiliates of Draper
Fisher Jurvetson, of Menlo Park, Calif., invested $4 million.

David Cremin, founder of DFJ Frontier, says Prolacta is creating a
whole new market, as formula makers did a generation ago. The company
could become profitable in six months, he said.

"Parents want to give their children healthy food," he said. "This is
the way America is going."

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