SanMelix Lab Courts StartEngine Investors with Honey Wound-Care Products

Since ancient times, honey has been hailed for its medicinal healing properties, able to help everything from sore throats to upset stomachs. Some types are even used to speed wound healing and to treat inflammation and pain.

Now, a Florida-based company is poised to release BEECure, a line of products that use a type of honey — buckwheat honey — that appears to have superior healing properties. SanMelix Laboratories, based in Hollywood, Fla., has developed patent-pending formulations that have caught the attention of the U.S. Air Force and investors.

“It’s going to be a slam-dunk winner,” says Dr. Jason Green, a dermatologist who has tested one of the products designed to treat radiodermatitis. “It’s almost equivalent to someone saying, ‘I’m thirsty and here’s a glass of water.’ It’s like nature’s way of putting that into a bottle and making it available to patients.”

In June, the company launched an equity crowd-funding campaign to help propel BEECure forward, and it quickly caught the attention of investors on StartEngine. Pending market clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the first of SanMelix’s products is scheduled to be released next year.

There are two pathways for BEECure — bioactive wound-care products to be used for advanced wound care, and a line of over-the-counter skin-care products such as ointments and creams designed to help skin and breast cancer patients and also to help heal minor burns, scrapes and more.

SanMelix StartEngine Campaign from SanMelix on Vimeo.

BEECure is largely the brainchild of Dr. Kenneth Sabacinski, a Harvard-trained podiatrist who has spent more than 30 years focusing on wound care for his patients. In his years of practice, he says he was always on the lookout for something that would heal better, faster and more naturally than the traditional products available. Chronic wounds, or wounds that are slow to heal, affect 6.5 million people in the U.S., according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. And the numbers are rising.

So several years ago, Sabacinski began researching buckwheat honey, came up with a treatment and tried it out.

I had some patients ready to lose their legs” because of wounds, Sabacinski recalls. “I tried this, and it healed. These wounds were down to the bone, gangrenous, and they healed. And quicker than I expected. So we kept developing it.”

Sabacinski, now SanMelix’s chief medical officer, co-founder and co-inventor, sees BEECure being able to not only help patients with advanced wounds, but also be of use to the military as well as medical crews answering emergency calls in the field.

The patent-pending wound-care products are currently being tested by the Air Force as part of the necessary pre-market clearance process. Those expected to use and benefit from the formulations include medical supply companies, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

The military had already been studying honey as a platform for wound treatment when SanMelix began working with Trauma Insight, a company that facilitates the development of biomedical technologies that can help both the military, including veterans and their families, and civilians.

BEECure was of interest to Trauma Insight because the product is very clearly applicable to the warfighter for the treatment for a variety of wounds and burns, the company says.

How it Works

Buckwheat honey is gathered from the nectar of buckwheat flowers. There is actually no wheat associated with buckwheat, which is neither a grain nor a grass, but a triangular-shaped fruit seed. The plant first appeared in Central Asia before being introduced into Europe and North America, where it’s found in the northern U.S. and Canada. Honey produced by bees that pollinate the buckwheat’s tiny pink and white flowers has high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which not all honey has.

One study of 19 honey samples from 14 different floral sources found that buckwheat honey, a darker-colored honey, has the highest level of antioxidant activity. Taken orally, buckwheat honey has been said to help lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol and prevent stroke and cardiovascular diseases as well as help treat fevers, stomach ailments and ulcers.

Buckwheat honey also has been found to be useful in killing bacteria and regenerating skin cells. SanMelix’s bioactive wound dressings have been fortified with additional antimicrobial compounds, which results in even stronger antibacterial activity, according to the company. The dressings, as used for wound care, control odor, reduce pain and lessen treatment time. The products are also designed to prevent side effects and adverse drug interactions that can occur with synthetic drug treatment.

While there are products on the market for wound and skin care that use other types of honey, including manuka, there aren’t any other products with FDA clearance in the U.S. using buckwheat honey, says Diana Sabacinski, SanMelix’s chief executive officer and president.

Simply put, “We think ours is better,” she says. “We truly believe buckwheat honey is nature’s preferred healing remedy.”

The first product SanMelix expects to release is its radiodermatitis cream, which will soothe burns, scars and inflammation caused by radiotherapy and laser therapy. Laser therapy is typically used to remove non-melanoma skin cancers, while radiation therapy is used for targeted therapy, such as that used for breast cancer. Since radiation destroys cancer cells without having to do any cutting, it can cause a condition called radiodermatitis, in which the skin gets red and very irritated.

Green, founder of Green Dermatology and Cosmetic Center in Deerfield Beach, Fla., volunteered to help test BEECure and had patients willing to try it. He says he’s had nothing but success.

“It relieves tenderness, itchiness and inflammation as well as redness,” says Green, who now is the director of SanMelix’s advisory board. “It basically soothes the skin. It definitely works and it definitely helps.”

Green says his patients were particularly receptive to trying a natural product, which BEECure is. Having a natural product was, and remains, one of SanMelix’s goals, Dr. Sabacinski says.

“We found a way to combine nature and science,” he says. “And it can really help people.”