Will consumers favor a non-burning pain relief product, like Swiss Medica’s (OTC BB: SWME) O24 instead of Icy Hot or Ben Gay? Richard Weise, inventor of the patented O24 pain relief product talked to us about how O24 came about, how it works differently than other pain relief products and why O24 might just become a success story during its North American rollout to retail stores.

Interviewer: How did you come about developing the O24 pain relief formula?

Richard Weise: I started the O24 development thirty-five years ago, with studies in natural medicine. When you have chronic pain, people want to take some pharmaceutical product, which gives side effects. I don’t like that. I was studying to get a product that I could use, which would have no side effects. Previously while I worked in Germany, I developed environmentally safe cleaning products. I had studied Chinese medicine. I studied all the medicines for years: natural medicines, Indian medicines, European medicines and all the herbs. The Europeans, over a longer time, have been using more natural products.

Interviewer: How did this product advance from your studying medicines to its commercial distribution?

Richard Weise: I had this product in Europe and used it for myself, but it was not for commercial use. I tested it on myself. In the United States my first testing was on my English teacher. She broke her foot and had pain. I told her I had something for her pain, and I put it on her foot. She stopped having pain. She called me the next morning and told me that after six weeks, this was the first night she could sleep pain-free. A couple of months later, she came back to me and said, “Richard, I need two hundred bottles of this stuff you gave me.” I wanted to know why she needed two hundred bottles. I had offered to make her some product if she needed more, but two hundred bottles? She told me she had so many people she had given them a little of the formula to, people were asking her for more. That’s how this whole thing started in 1992 in the United States. Where it started commercially.

Interviewer: How was your reception, at first, with O24?

Richard Weise: When I first started with this, in the United States, people thought it was ‘snake oil’. I’m not a medical doctor. I studied natural medicine as my hobby. I don’t make claims. The claim I am permitted to make is that this product can be used for temporary pain relief for aches and pains, muscle spasms, arthritis. The FDA told us this in 1995. Before that, it was considered snake oil. I have customers who have been using this product for thirteen years. They are using it and they are happy. They will not use anything else.

Interviewer: Why doesn’t O24 give people the burning sensation one suffers from most other pain relief lotions, sprays or gels?

Richard Weise: Let’s take Ben Gay®. It uses menthol and capsaicin. Capsaicin is very heating. It is made out of (chile) peppers. When you use too much, you can burn your skin. They put menthol in to equalize the temperature a little, but it’s still burning. When you work out, and you put this on, your skin gets red. Tiger Balm® is a product made of camphor and menthol. Menthol gives a cooling feeling. When you have inflammation of your nerve, sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s only cooling.

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