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Updated
HEALTH AND SCIENCE
Video

Beef Cravings
Outflanked?


Casper, WY,

Lancer-Bovinia Laboratories, Inc., a Casper, Wyoming-based biopharmaceuticals company, has announced an alliance with premium hamburger purveyor Fuddruckers to market the Beef Relief Patch, a unique negative-ion dermal patch, which has demonstrated efficacy in moderating extreme beef cravings.

The patent-pending, negative-ion dermal delivery (or NIDD) technology, in combination with a multivalent casomorphin pentapeptide, is being promoted as "the most significant development in the science of moderating severe beef cravings developed to date."

"In early, proof-of-concept focus groups, we worked directly with select Fuddruckers customers," said Lawrence Lancer, MD, CEO and Founder of Lancer-Bovinia Laboratories. "These customers were identified and screened by restaurant managers who noted telltale anxiety and irritableness among those who were waiting in line to order hamburgers."
Beef Relief
"Frankly, we were caught up in the notion of helping people with a serious condition. We weren't thinking like scientists at that point in our development. And we really didn't know the significance of what we were working on," added Lancer.

The results from the focus groups, though anecdotal, were compelling enough for Lancer-Bovinia to secure a significant round ($17 million) of venture funding in 1999 to finance further research, to complete the requisite Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III clinical trials and, ultimately, to submit a New Drug Application to the FDA as of July 2004.

larry "I've been using the patch now for a couple of months. It just takes a little of the edge off. My wife and kids, coworkers, folks down at the bank, neighbors, the guy at the service station--and, heck, even my pastor--have commented about how much happier and calmer I seem. Maybe I've been a little more stressed than I realized."

Larry Andrade, Fuddruckers customer, Houston, TX

"He needs it. He really needs it!" says Emily Dunn of her husband Brad. The Dunns are featured in the Beef Relief Patch promotional video.
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edwin
"My weekly two-hour commute to the nearest Fuddruckers in Dallas is actually tolerable now," says Edwin McGill, an Oklahoma native. Edwin was in the original Beef Relief Patch study and has found relief through consistent use.


FDA Approval in January 2005

After an FDA request for further information regarding, oddly enough, animal testing results, the company received notice of FDA approval for the Beef Relief Patch on January 15 of this year.

When asked why Fuddruckers was teaming up with Lancer-Bovinia on a product that might actually suppress demand for the company's hamburgers, Lancer-Bovinia's Lawrence Lancer explained, "The fact of the matter is, when you review Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of someone enjoying a Fuddruckers hamburger, you see the pleasure and addiction centers of the brain lighting up like Christmas trees. Our current working theory is that hamburgers from Fuddruckers actually engage the brain's endocannabinoid system; however, this hypothesis will have to be tested. Bottom line: Civil society dictates that we control or moderate powerful, potentially disruptive urges. And the Beef Relief Patch does just that. I view Fuddruckers participation in this as a rare example of farsighted and progressive corporate citizenship."

Val King, Product Director of Fuddruckers, could not be reached for comment.