Adam Torres and Jennifer Johnston discuss Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
Listen to Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Jennifer Johnston, Founder at Elle, MD, explore Elle, MD and Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum.
Watch Full Interview:
About Jennifer Johnston
Family physician and founder of Elle, MD Biotechnologies. With an interest in optimizing hormonal health across the lifespan, I’m focused on empowering individuals to take control of their health and longevity
At Elle, MD, Jennifer Johnston is a leading research initiatives in women’s health, supporting gender equality and reproductive autonomy.
Striving to improve access to safe, user-controlled contraception and collaborating with The OPTions Initiative and Grand Challenges Canada to develop next generation methods for conception interruption.Beyond my professional pursuits, She’s a proud mother of four spirited children who serve as constant inspiration.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I am in Irvine, California at the Medical innovation forum powered by octane and my guest is jennifer johnston who’s about to go on stage shortly But jennifer first off welcome to the show.
Oh, thanks for having me. All right, so this is my second octane conference First off have you been to an octane conference before is this your first? I have not this is my first Oh what so i like talking to a newbie. What do you think so far? Oh, so far, it’s it’s been great. It’s been fun. And yeah, I’m probably going to be here a little longer today and doing my thing.
So yeah, it’s exciting. Awesome. So you’re going on stage in a little bit. I was able to snag you before. What are some of the things you’re going to talk about? So we’re going to talk about our company. We’re developing a non hormonal contraceptive. And we’re hoping to raise a little money while we’re out there and kind of tell them how we’re doing and what it’s all about.
So, so the name of your company and really and talk about a little bit about how I got founded. So the name is LMD Biotechnologies. It’s a nod to women everywhere, L, being in charge of their own health, being their own MD, if you will, as well as a nod to my eldest daughter, whose name is Ellie. And so basically a few years ago, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Turns out my long term use of hormonal contraception may have actually increased my risk for developing the disease. So I’m a family physician and we don’t talk about nearly all the risks that actually can happen with the, with the hormones. And so when I, was diagnosed. I also had four young Children really needed some effective contraception again and looked around and realized there is nothing that I really want to take right now that is available.
And there’s nothing that I’d want my own kits to be using. I mean, there’s things like vasectomies, tubal ligation. Those are permanent, of course. So not as helpful for someone younger. And in Nova Scotia, where I’m from, the wait list is in the realm of years. Then there’s condoms, which are actually only 86 percent effective with typical use, which It’s also terrifying.
There’s the copper IUD, which works really well, but unfortunately causes really heavy, more painful periods for women, which is kind of a non starter for a lot of my patients. So I was just looking around thinking, this is ridiculous. I I’m just winging it here because I don’t like any of the options.
So I thought it’s really time we do better for women. For women, for our daughters, for everyone. So you have this idea and now you’re at your position. So how do you get from idea to, okay, this is going to be a company. Like, how did that happen? Yeah. Great question. I started talking to some engineers, like friends that I knew, and they pointed me in the direction of an innovation hub in our area in Nova Scotia, and that really got the ball rolling.
is very excited and so helpful to sort of point me in the right directions. And, and you know, they knew everyone in the space. So it really started us off and the more I did, the more excited I became about it. What was it when you started telling people about your idea that can always be like, like tricky because you’re like, it’s almost like you’re letting people into like your, your mind, your baby, right?
Like this new idea you have, like, what was that like getting your idea out into the public and like really testing it? So it depends who I’m talking to. Yeah. If I’m talking to a female who’s ever used contraception, they’re like, yay, instantly get it. They’re like, Oh my God, I need this. My daughters need this.
Everyone needs this. When can I buy this? Right. If I talk to someone who’s not used hormonal contraception, it’s a little harder to get Get it through like that. You know why people say why do we need another contraceptive there? We have a million, but this is It’s one that I hope will actually have both high efficacy and the safety, the lack of, you know, impact, negative impact on your life because basically everything out there, it may work, but it affects your life in some way, shape or form.
And it’s not just these big things like blood clots and, you know, You know, breast cancer, you can get, it can increase depression and increase your risk of suicide, all of these horrible things. But it’s also the day to day things. In general, a lot of people’s moods are affected just there. They can become a little more apathetic, worsening libido, all these things that we wouldn’t tolerate for so many scenarios.
But because preventing pregnancy is so important, we basically kind of sweep it under the rug a lot of the time. And and say, well, it’s It’s worth it because the alternative is so life changing that, you know, we, we take the risk as it is and don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting anyone go off their contraceptive because it’s super important to be protected and all of this should be discussed with your own provider.
But I just think in this day and age, we shouldn’t have to compromise so much. So final question here, where’s the company at currently and like what are plans for the future? So we are in the preclinical stage. We are doing some sheep studies, which are Sheep is sort of the go to animal for a lot of folks who are testing these things out.
And we are just starting to raise our first round of outside capital. We’ve been lucky enough to receive a fair amount of non dilutive capital, but now it’s time to accelerate that a little bit so we can do some of the bigger studies. Exciting. Yeah. So if somebody’s watching this to listen to this, and if they want to learn more about LMD and follow the journey, how do they do that?
Yeah, so you can go to LMD, so ELLE md.ca and take a look at the website and you can also find me on LinkedIn, Jennifer Johnston. There’re probably a zillion of us , but she can probably narrow me down and yeah, I hope to sort of put more and more out there as we get further along. Amazing. And for everybody watching, just so you know, we’ll put the links to the website and all that good stuff in the show notes so that you can just click on ’em and head right on over.
And. Speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Jennifer, thanks again so much for coming on. Hey, thanks for having me. My pleasure.