Interviewer (2:51)

And so just to go over the course of time, from what I understand, it just continued to spread. There was nothing they could do. It came back.

Bradley Burnham (3:02)

I would say I'd call it more recurrent. It definitely did spread six days after my first emergency surgery, which took four hours, and there was not even an anesthesiologist on staff that day. Like we had to rush it that quick. This was all under local. I mean, I must have had or 60 nerve block injections throughout. I was there again within a week for another abscess. And that just became a recurring theme of the next four to five years of my life.

Interviewer (3:27)

So medical science did not, as far as you knew, have the ability to stop this, fix you?

Bradley Burnham (3:33)

I will say that the physicians I was working with did not have the tools in their bag. The pills that they were giving me, you know, dozens upon dozens of antibiotic courses, IV antibiotics. At one point, the surgeries, you know, the scraping, the cutting, nothing was working. I don't blame the physicians. These were great physicians. They just didn't have the tools to stop this.

Interviewer (3:57)

Most people, that's probably not. Maybe that virus itself or whatever that was, is somewhat unique. But a lot of people have stories about not being able to be cured by modern medicine. What made you think that, that maybe you could develop something that would cure yourself?

Bradley Burnham (4:16)

When I was in the pacemaker industry, I remember that Europe always got things a few generations before us, and that was just always in my mind. When I wanted to see what we were going to get next, I would look over there. So I had the thought, at least the initial inclination. When you're lying on the couch eating antibiotics like Tic Tacs all day long, I mean, you don't have much else to do. Just getting your wound dressing changes as your daily routine. And I looked over there and I saw that there was something that they had that we did not have yet, which is no surprise, because Europe tends to be three to five years before us on products like wound care that might help me. And when you're that desperate, you go off script. Maybe I can get this ingredient. Maybe I could do something with it. Maybe I could give it to my doctor. So I didn't necessarily even know where things were going at that point. I love where They've gone. But I just wanted to help myself at that point.

Interviewer (5:11)

So what did you do?

Bradley Burnham (5:13)

So it actually makes me laugh when I think back on this story because there's a great Joe Walsh quote that I often say that when you look back on your life, it feels like a bunch of chaotic events, but then it actually sort of feels like a novel later on. And I think of that quote, I started ordering ingredients on Alibaba.com, and chemical websites, and they were shipping to my garage. I mean, so. And I've got. Then I got a barrel of petrolatum because I wanted something greasy, you know, because when they were packing the wounds, it hurts really bad. And when the stuff dried up, I didn't want it to stick to the wound. And then I got pots and pans, literally from like Bed Bath and Beyond. I probably used a coupon when I got them. And a barrel of petrolatum. A 55 gallon drum just delivered to my garage. And I'm convinced to this day my neighbors probably thought I was working on something else, which is why I got this industry nickname of Breaking Brad, ironically.

Interviewer (6:05)

The Breaking Brad.

Bradley Burnham (6:07)

Yeah, the parody on the show.

Interviewer (6:08)

And petrolatum is sort of like Vaseline.

Bradley Burnham (6:10)

It actually. So Vaseline is 100% petrolatum and actually got corrected on this a lot in the beginning. Petroleum is sort of the unrefined version of. It's got more oils and waxes in it, makes it more flammable, too. So it is Vaseline. And I got a $69 mortar mixer from Amazon that turned. I turned a new homogenizer. I started just trying to whip these ingredients together, and about 100 tries in a chemical burn or two later, I figured out a way to fuse this liquid ingredient into this petrolatum, this Vaseline consistency without an ingredient in the middle, without an emulsifier, which, thankfully, I have a friend who's a patent attorney. He said, hey, you just mixed oil and water together and made it stay. And I made it stay. It became stable. And then it was stable again and stable again. Once I got to a recipe, I guess I could call it, that wasn't actually injuring me. I decided to look at the FDA guidances and, you know, look for vendors and how are people figuring out if these products work and what was the.

Interviewer (7:10)

Secret ingredient that mattered?

Bradley Burnham (7:12)

So it's called polyhexanide pHMB, which I've sat at the head of major government agencies in the US with division chiefs, and it's very similar to chlorhexidine, which is the stuff that they usually scrub you with before surgery. But they hadn't heard of this ingredient. And in the uk, this was a consensus document, which means they'd sort of decided as a group we should use this consistently from 2010 for resistant wounds, for every wound, for antisepsis. They use it as a food preservative. They use it as it's safe, it's strong, and it's standard of care there.

Interviewer (7:51)

So you are using some trial and error stuff going on, I guess, in your garage. You could say that you applied this to yourself. And when and how did you realize it was working?

Bradley Burnham (8:01)

So after I found out from the lab that it actually worked on the organism that was causing my problems, I gave it to the doctors because they have freedom to use things, you know, as they wish. And I showed them the data.

Interviewer (8:11)

But you didn't just rub it on your.

Bradley Burnham (8:12)

No, I was. There was always. I didn't want to touch that without the doctor's at least permission. So they put it in there and the wound started to close. And these abscesses used to take months to close.

Interviewer (8:24)

How soon did it start to look better?

Bradley Burnham (8:26)

Weeks. And you can tell quickly on these really deep, you know, chronic abscesses, when the tissue that looks healthier, when it starts to actually look better, it was quick.

Interviewer (8:35)

So an ingredient that existed widely used in Europe, relatively unknown in this country.

Bradley Burnham (8:41)

Relatively is sort of an understatement. I would say almost entirely unknown. It's been in like a contact lens cleaner as a preservative at one point, but that's about it.

Interviewer (8:50)

So you make it into a product that can be used on wounds.

Bradley Burnham (8:53)

Yeah.

Interviewer (8:53)

What's next? Now that you know it works for you, you probably want to tell other people.

Bradley Burnham (8:58)

What's next was I wanted everybody to have this as soon as I found out Neosporin had never been FDA approved, which is sort of the. In the initial search for information. What is all this crap they're using on me? Sorry? What is all this stuff they're using on me that isn't working? And I found out Neosporin was never FDA approved. 75 years old, doesn't work. I wanted other people to have this Neosporin consistency product that actually worked to help them, because I know I'm not the only person who goes through resistant wound infections. So I said, hey, I've got an iPhone and a 401k I can take on pharma and big device. So I started running the test to get it in FDA clearance. I wanted that stamp of Clearance from the fda. I ran all the tests, paid for it myself, took it through the FDA from Kinko's, actually was working from Kinko's. And I put together the binder there and I got it cleared at the end of 16 and things just sort of went from there.

Interviewer (9:56)

People talk about the process of getting a drug approved by the fda. You said cleared, not approved. So this is over the counter type thing.

Bradley Burnham (10:04)

This was a. So medical devices are considered cleared and drugs are considered approved.

Interviewer (10:09)

But people talk about, in any event, this is so complicated and expensive to do what's required. Why was not that the case for you?

Bradley Burnham (10:18)

Oh, it was not just complicated and expensive, it was antiquated. So I just read and read and read. There are very lengthy, very boring guidance documents out there for how to do this. And I just thought to myself, I've got to do this. So I taught myself the process. I mean, there were so many steps along the way where you could see where the FDA has not been modernized since the last Modernization act of 1997. The last time they got a full legislature or legislative overhaul was in 97. Even the Adobe files that you had to send in had to be numbered with a correct form, like 001-002. My first four attempts got kicked back like you failed. I couldn't even send them the information. So the instructions are out there. The process is so analog in a digital era and so nuanced and so convoluted that I think people just, they end up just going to the consultants and the legal experts and that's when they find out they can't afford it.

Interviewer (11:24)

How long did this take you and how much money did you spend for.

Bradley Burnham (11:28)

The initial FDA clearance? I spent, including the review fee, $24,000, which I know is a lot less money. But it also shows you how much money is going into consultants pockets, lawyers pockets, internal waste. Because this product got the same tests from the same or better vendors as everybody else. It went through the same regulatory process, it went through the same agency. And so what's the difference?

Interviewer (11:55)

You could bring a medicine to market for $24,000.

Bradley Burnham (12:00)

This was. Well, in theory, if I wanted to make it like Neosporin, I could do it for no approval, because products like that, you can just. If you had a Dun and Bradstreet number, we could go to a computer right now and actually start making Neosporin with a contract manufacturer. You just register it under a website called DailyMed, which is where all the drugs are registered. But to actually get the blessing to Give this to patients with serious indications like diabetic ulcers, venous ulcers, burns. I did it for $24,000.

Interviewer (12:27)

You think this could work on people with radiation burns from cancer treatment?

Bradley Burnham (12:31)

We actually have a clearance for radiation dermatitis.

Interviewer (12:34)

This works for people with those persistent diabetes leg wounds, for example.

Bradley Burnham (12:39)

Yeah. There's been publications about how effective it is. In fact, it was as much of a shock to me that it worked so well on the chronic wounds as it was to anyone. Because in the beginning I was just sort of going. And it was the doctors who informed me that it was working so well at preventing amputation, healing chronic wounds. And also they informed me of other stuff they were using it for. Things like severe eczema. We're running drug trials right now for the same formula and eczema, things like toenail fungus that I never would have thought of. These doctors are clever and they'll try new things, especially because they've run out of new things in certain areas.

Interviewer (13:13)

What doctors are even learning this is available. People, you know that then are spreading the word or how is it getting out?

Bradley Burnham (13:18)

I know at this point I was a one man Salesman. I flew 500,000 miles in two years on a credit line that my mom coached. Signed for true story. And I just put on the sales rep hat and I said, what do you have to lose? I got 20,000 samples made and with the label was homemade. It was one of the worst labels you've ever seen, but it was compliant and registered and they tried it and it worked.

Interviewer (13:43)

So where are you today? You started your own company on the basis of that one medicine?

Bradley Burnham (13:49)

Yeah. So when I got a call from the largest medical distributor in the world saying, we want to carry your product, and I was still one person and the back of the package went to my cell phone for customer support. I thought maybe I should build some infrastructure at this point. So actually was able to raise some capital to build the company. I had never done that before. I'd never heard what a venture capital firm was at that point. And the company has grown since then. You know, now we've got three cleared products, a fourth in process. We've got two drug trials in process. We're doing a biodefense project with a nonprofit. Company's growing.

Cheryl Akison (14:25)

What's the name of the company, the.

Interviewer (14:26)

Name of the product that we're talking about, if you know all these things about how much it sells for, if someone's buying it over the count, is this available at like a pharmacy or a doctor has to give it to you.

Bradley Burnham (14:37)

So at the point it's, at this point it's prescription because it turns out it's easier to get. So the consumer market is really difficult to break into because you're dealing with hundreds of millions of marketing and, you know, battling Johnson and Johnson on the shelves and stuff like that. So it's actually easier to start in the prescription market, get the doctor's blessing, and then move to otc. That first product is called Hexogen. It's been cleared in multiple different forms for everything from atopic dermatitis to chronic wounds. But now we're working on, you know, severe eczema and toenail fungus. And I don't know what those indications will cost because I have to let the experts weigh in on that.

Interviewer (15:15)

But if somebody watching has a persistent skin disorder or wound, they should ask their doctor about the possibility of using this product.

Bradley Burnham (15:24)

They should definitely look the company up and see what we're working on.

Interviewer (15:27)

Do you say hexagon? Hexagon, yeah. And can you say how much money have you gotten your $24,000 back by this company?

Bradley Burnham (15:37)

So the, the company has gotten millions of dollars in funding because once you have a bunch of patents and FDA clearances and distribution contracts, people tend to believe in you more than when it's an idea, it turns out. So the company's in really good shape at this point. We've even got a 70 plus million dollar license deal for a wound product I developed and licensed to a public company.

Interviewer (15:58)

So your product cured yourself?

Bradley Burnham (16:01)

My product cured myself and I felt it was my duty. I feel like it's a cliche word, but it feels like the right word to use. I had to get it to other people because my story is romanticized a lot and I love that it brings some people hope. But it was a miserable five years.

Interviewer (16:21)

You lost part of your ear. You must have had reconstructive surgery.

Bradley Burnham (16:24)

About half of those 21 surgeries if you can't cut it in half, but I'd say about approximately were reconstructive. I have an amazing surgeon. I mean, he was doing stitching inside the ear canals and my scalp looks like a roadmap if you look at all the scars.

Interviewer (16:38)

What would you say is the takeaway lesson from this for people watching after your whole experience that you went through?

Bradley Burnham (16:45)

The takeaway lesson for me, I mean.

Interviewer (16:47)

To me one of them is kind of like, never give up. Don't accept an answer that doesn't solve your problem. I don't know what are, but there's bigger ones involving FDA and all I'm sure that you can talk about.

Bradley Burnham (17:00)

The takeaway lesson for me is that there are things out there that we can't have in this country because they're too hard for the innovators to bring here. And I find that distressing. I find it distressing that there's very safe regenerative medicine treatments in places like Panama and Costa Rica, that Europe is three to five years ahead of us because they partner with innovators and invest in the future of healthcare. And it's time for Congress to let the FDA modernize a bit to join us in the modern age. It's been 30 years since they've had a legislative overhaul. It's an analog process in a digital world which we have no excuse for. We have AI now. They shouldn't make every product, no matter what it is. Go through the same 10 year steps.

Cheryl Akison (17:52)

To see and hear more from Brad Burnham I hope you'll watch Full Measure on Sunday, October 12th. If you happen to be listening to this after October 12th, don't worry, you can always go to FullMeasure News and watch a replay or go to our unadvertised full measure YouTube channel and watch it there. I hope you enjoyed the podcast and that you will consider sharing it with your friends, leaving a great review and subscribing to it. And I hope you will also check out my other podcast, the Cheryl Akison Podcast. My national bestseller Follow the How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails recently was on an Amazon bestseller list. Again, this book is chock full of amazing, incredible, formerly untold stories that explains a lot about why we as a nation have become so sick, even as we've never spent more on hospitals, doctors and insurance. It has to do with scandals and cover ups and the medical establishment as well as the media's role in all of it. And anytime you can go to cherylakisson.com and click on the store tab to find some products designed exclusively for independent thinkers like you. Before long, you're going to need to find some original gifts for those hard to shop for friends for Christmas, think about the Cheryl Akison Store. Store proceeds support independent reporting causes, and the products have great slogans like I need to find some new conspiracy theories. All my old ones came true. And do your own research. Make up your own mind.

Interviewer (19:25)

Think for yourself.