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Midvale Journal

Local business raises $200,000 for pain-relieving nanotech patch

Apr 26, 2019 12:14PM ● By Justin Adams

(Courtesy of Kailo Labs)

Like many innovations, the potential medical applications of the technology underlying Kailo pain patches was discovered by accident. 

In 2014, a Utah inventor developing a new antenna technology got into a motorcycle crash that broke six of his ribs. While lying in bed recovering, he continued to work on the antenna. That’s how he discovered that resting the technology on his chest helped alleviate his pain. 

That’s where Stuart Fetzer stepped into the scene. Fetzer, who received an engineering degree at the University of Utah before going on to Harvard Business School, licensed the use of the antenna technology for medical purposes and formed the company, Kailo Labs. 

The Kailo patch contains “billions of charge nanocapacitors that work as an antenna, assisting the body in clear communication and reducing the signals that cause pain,” according to the company’s page on Indiegogo. The product has raised over $200,000 on the crowd-funding platform in a manner of months—quite a bit more than the company’s initial goal of $25,000. The campaign is scheduled to run through May 9 but may be extended. 

Kailo may seem like one of those products that makes big promises but is ultimately too good to be true, but Fetzer said the patch has performed very well in the company’s early testing.

According to Fetzer, 15 volunteer participants used both the Kailo patch and a placebo patch, separately, for 48 hours each. Ninety percent of respondents said the Kailo patch helped reduce their pain. 

This “double-blind” test is just the first in a long and expensive process for a product to be recognized by the FDA. The process could be even more expensive for Kailo because the product is so different from anything else out there. 

“We would have to have the FDA create a separate category for our device,” said Fetzer. 

Meanwhile, the company is set to roll the product out to its backers on Indiegogo (individuals who donate receive a discount) with shipments starting in July of this year. 

While the business potential of such a possibly game-changing device is obvious, Fetzer said what really drives him is seeing how Kailo has already helped improve people’s lives. 

“Sometimes it’s a little overwhelming, the number of people who cry after walking into my office and leaving without pain. It’s pretty life-changing,” he said. 

Visit their website to learn more.