Medical Nutritional Products
Health & Wellness (non-internet/mobile)
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Trovita develops and commercializes products that offer a unique nutritional profile for both medical use and for use among athletes and general consumers.
Its flagship consumer-facing brand is ENU. This is a non-GMO, high protein / high calorie complete meal replacement shake that is also low in total sugar content, and uses no sucrose or corn syrup.
Healthcare professionals have begun to recommend ENU over the traditional products in the category (Boost and Ensure) because it offers higher overall quality and far less sugar.
Trovita is also launching a new medical food product for enteral nutrition (tube feeding) which will be sold under the brand name Ultrient. This new product has a patented method of administration — which will be life changing for people fed through a tube — and will also provide the same quality of nutrition as ENU.
In July 2015, it sold 2,455 cases of ENU, up 785% vs. July 2014. 2015 expected sales are $890,000.
At scale, blended gross margins are expected to be greater than 50%.
Trovita’s objective is to become the #3 company in its space (behind Abbott and Nestle) by offering better products and safer administration of enteral nutrition.
It filed a patent in June 2014 for Nutritional Formula, but it has a lower risk of regulatory barriers as compared to traditional life science companies.
Its co-founders are proven commercial leaders in specialty health care and life science organizations.
Mr. Brown’s life science career spans nearly 20 years, and during that time he has held commercial leadership roles with increasing responsibility in several organizations, including Helsinn Group, Targanta Therapeutics, and MGI Pharma.
Mr. Brown currently holds a board seat with Chemo101, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving patient education in oncology. Across all of Mr. Brown’s various roles, he has worked on the launches or pre-market development of 17 new products, and has built strong performing teams with proven success. Prior to his first pharmaceutical sales position with Parke-Davis, he served in the U.S. Army as a Field Artillery officer.
He earned his BS in Human Factors and Systems Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and holds an MBA, specializing in Marketing and International Business Management, from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Mickey Baker co-founded Trovita Health Science and serves as Chief Operating Officer.
After beginning his career in a sales role with Coca-Cola Enterprises, Mr. Baker transitioned to the life sciences industry. His career spans 14 years in a variety of commercial roles with increasing responsibility. Mr. Baker has held leadership positions in companies such as sanofi-aventis, MGI Pharma, and Entellus Medical.
Most recently, Mr. Baker served three years as a management consultant focused primarily in oncology and supportive care in cancer, which served to highlight the need for optimized nutritional products.
He earned his BS in Marketing from the University of Minnesota, and holds an MBA from the University of Florida.
Mr. Pigneri is a seasoned healthcare professional with 27 years of experience in a variety of Sales and Marketing roles, including leadership roles with Sanofi-Aventis, MGI Pharma and CareFusion.
He has won multiple awards during his career, including Sales Manager of the Year with Sanofi-Aventis, where he demonstrated success leading sales organizations. His leadership transformed a last place sales district into the #1 district in under 2 years.
Mr. Pigneri has 12 years of oncology experience, including the successful launch of a market leading pharmaceutical product in cancer supportive care.
Over the past 5 years he has led CareFusion’s Product Marketing teams in the hospital medical supplies category, with responsibility for the market leader in surgical skin antisepsis.
Mr. Pigneri holds a B.S. in Biology from William Jewel College, and while advancing his career, he earned an MBA with an emphasis in Marketing from Edgewood College.
inventor of the first IV Infusion Pump and numerous optical surgical instruments. He developed the Trovita Enteral Nutrition delivery systems based on his experiences caring for his wife while she battled ALS