CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF
HoneyLab has created honey products that treat a range of skin conditions.
A decade after it was set up, healthcare company HoneyLab is on the cusp of going global, co-founder Dr Shaun Holt says.
A clinical study recently proved the company's flagship kānuka honey jell, Honevo, is as effective in treating cold sores as well-known pharmaceuticals.
It was the second big win for the product, which has also been proven effective in treating rosacea, and growing international interest is keeping Holt busy.
After a whirlwind trip to the United States where he packed 25 meetings into seven days, the pharmacist, doctor and serial entrepreneur admits having "a bit" of jet-lag.
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"My voice is starting to go, so I'm not a total machine," the British native says.
Originally from Burnley, north of Manchester, Holt is now based in Pauanui in the Coromandel.
He is an adjunct professor at Victoria University, a researcher, company director and the author of 11 books, including the bestseller, Natural Remedies That Really Work.
As he talks, it quickly becomes obvious he thrives on fresh challenges and in a fast-paced environment.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF
Dr Shaun Holt is co-founder of Tauranga-based HoneyLab.
His path to HoneyLab began in Nottingham, where he qualified as a pharmacist in 1992 before moving on to study medicine at the University of Sheffield.
He describes a compulsory year working as a junior doctor in Britain's National Health Service as "absolutely brutal beyond words".
"We'd do 100-hour shifts – not weeks, shifts – starting at 7am on Friday and finishing about 7pm on Monday."
Opportunities to sleep were few and far between and Holt admits to collapsing on the wards on one occasion.
"I don't condone [the practice], I think it was evil, and it actually became illegal after our year," he says.
"But it does help you in the business world, dealing with pressure and situations that change quickly."
At the end of that gruelling year in Sheffield, he and his wife, Clare, emigrated to New Zealand to "take some time off".
Offered a job at Otago University's medical school in Wellington, he spent two years working on clinical trials before deciding to strike out on his own in 2001.
"I just thought, 'I'm doing this for the medical school, I could be doing it for myself', so I hired some medical rooms and got to work."
RORY O'SULLIVAN/STUFF
HoneyLab's kānuka honey product has been proven effective against rosecea and cold sores.
His first company, P3 Research, was set up to perform clinical trials for international pharmaceutical companies, contract research organisations, as well as some clinical research for individuals.
Clare, also a pharmacist, handled the books but the company was otherwise a one-man band, Holt says.
P3 was sold in 2006 and now has research units in Wellington, Tauranga and Hawke's Bay.
Holt says it's satisfying to see the company continuing to do well but he doesn't spend too much time reflecting on previous endeavours.
"Science is always progressing, it never stands still and there's always something new to focus on," he says.
It's a good fit for Holt, who went on to launch Research Review, which provides condensed versions of key articles from international medical journals to subscribers.
"That business went from being a concept discussed over coffee to established and sold within two years," he says.
"I didn't intend for it to happen that way but sometimes business throws you curveballs."
CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF
Its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties make honey an ideal dermatology product, Holt says.
Holt puts his entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to take risks on ideas he believes in – even in the face of skepticism – down to three things.
"My dad was a fantastic entrepreneur and I observed him building up his business and having huge success.
"As well as that, a thankfully false health scare when I was younger made me focus on getting on with things while you can," he says.
"And finally, working in the public health system and in universities, made me see how bureaucracy and inefficiency stifle drive, risk-taking and innovation, and setting up businesses has been a rebellion against that way of operating."
Holt and co-founder Laurence Greig launched HoneyLab shortly after the sale of Research Review.
"I'd developed an interest in natural therapies but could see that some worked and some were just rubbish," Holt says.
"Honey just seemed like the perfect dermatology product."
He recalls his dermatology rotation at medical school, where his supervisor would prescribe the same cream for a host of conditions.
"He gave it to everyone because it had antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial ingredients. Honey has all of those."
The company's successes with Honevo are vindication for Holt, who says the honey hasn't always been an easy sell.
"Drug development is an expensive business. It costs about US$1 billion [NZ$1.52b] to take a new product to market and most of them fail along the way," he says.
"I've spent about half my time trying to raise money but most New Zealand investors aren't interested."
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Honey hasn't always been an easy sell but Holt hopes his company's recent successes will win over some doubters.
HoneyLab partnered with Quayside Holdings in 2016 and it remains the only major local investor, although Holt hopes the recent positive results for Honevo will boost the number of believers.
"People said it would never be as big as pharmaceuticals, that we'd never hold our own but we've proven them wrong.
"They said we'd never get a patent but we've proven them wrong," he says.
"You could say we have a 100 per cent success rate with our product. I guess you could even say it's 200 per cent because we've proven it's effective for two conditions."
Although he rates HoneyLab his biggest business success, Holt says all the "trainer businesses" along the way had value – even the least successful.
"I had one business that was a complete failure and had to kill it," he says.
"That was based around personalised packages of vitamins and it failed for many reasons but there were lots of learnings from that."
With HoneyLab, Holt aims to show some natural products can be useful.
"There are some [natural therapies] used for cancer – not for treating the disease but for the symptoms – and things like ginger for nausea and St John's wort for depression.
"If you get the dose right, some natural therapies and products can be very effective."
He believes medicinal cannabis is one of those products and has been advocating for its use for a decade.
"Cannabis is absolutely going to dominate medicine and business for the next 10 years," he says.
However, he draws a clear line in the sand and firmly sets other natural and alternative therapies behind it.
"At the other extreme, there are things like homeopathy which you might say was 'bollocks on steroids'.
"Homeopaths dilute substances so much that there's nothing left – it's water or a sugar pill and I have a massive problem with people paying for that."
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Holt qualified as a pharmacist before moving on to study medicine.
It's a standpoint he has been open about and one that drawn the ire of some members of the homeopathic community.
But Holt is unflinching.
"Some people just don't believe what I say about homeopathy and that's up to them," he says.
"But also homeopaths can be really nice. People go to them with a problem and often there's not a short consultation time like there is at your GP's so they can talk and they feel like the nice homeopath has really listened.
"Plus, the placebo effect is really powerful but that's where it ends – they don't work over and above a placebo."
Holt's strong views have also rankled with chiropractors and in 2009 were the subject of a complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
A regular guest on TV, Holt was interviewed about the effectiveness of chiropractors and delivered a blunt assessment criticising several practices.
The New Zealand Chiropractors' Association complained, saying Holt had "a serious conflict of interest" due to his work with clinical trials and had "a direct financial motive for attacking chiropractors".
The complaint was upheld by the authority but Holt remains unapologetic and says anyone involved in science would be horrified by the ruling.
But differences of opinion are peripheral issues for Holt, whose focus is firmly on where his business is headed and the best way to get there.
"I love the science and the business of it. I love going from "I think this might work" to proving it does.
"People ask if I miss working as a doctor and the opportunity to help people but the reality is, the work I'm doing now has the potential to help millions of people," he says.
"That's pretty exciting to me."
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