Dr. Paul Kinsinger, Washington resident and co-founder of Illini Family Medicine in Washington, is a self-proclaimed “idea man.”
Many of his ideas come to him during his family’s long annual drive to Panama City Beach, Fla.
“I have my wife write down ideas about school board issues, medical practice issues and possible inventions so I can act on the ideas when I get home,” Kinsinger said.
It was on Interstate 65, just outside of Huntsville, Ala., in April 2007, when Kinsinger had his latest idea, which just recently made it all the way from his wife’s notebook to the shelves at Lindy’s
Downtown Market in Washington and now Metamora Pharmacy and Roanoke Pharmacy.
“Several years previous, I had read in a medical journal that you soak toenails in a white vinegar and water solution for five minutes daily for four months to treat toenail fungus,” Kinsinger said, adding patients found this treatment too time-consuming and messy.
Kinsinger consulted a local pharmacist when he got home about putting the vinegar solution into a penetrating gel that would make application easier.
“People can apply the gel, put a band-aid over it and go on with their day,” Kinsinger said.
Three weeks after consulting with the pharmacist, Kinsinger had his first 20 tubes of Dr. Paul’s Piggy Paste.
“I asked him where he came up with the name and he told me about the guy who invented Butt Paste for diaper rash. And that guy was so successful, he doesn’t have to work anymore.
“I just think it’s a fun name,” he said.
Beyond the quirky name and blue and orange box picturing a doctor in a lab coat with an Illini “I” on it, Kinsinger said the best thing about the product is that it actually works.
“I can’t claim that it treats fungus or is an anti-fungal because it’s not clinically proven yet. So, right now, it is considered a cosmeceutical product rather than a pharmaceutical product.
“But results speak for themselves, and observation shows it gives clear, healthy nails,” Kinsinger said.
According to Kinsinger, the two advantages of the concentrated gel of his patented formula is that it is non-systemic, meaning it is applied topically rather than ingested, and it is an over-the-counter product.
“Common fungus treatments are ingested and can cause kidney or liver damage. Patients have to have their blood tested before they go on it and while they’re on it,” Kinsinger said. “The ingredients in my product are close to a recipe for Italian dressing. There’s nothing in it that will hurt you.”
From concept to shelves
With Piggy Paste in hand, Kinsinger visited the local CVS, Kroger grocery store, Wal-Mart and Lindy’s to see who would be willing to sell his product.
He was promptly given a lesson in retail practices.
“They told me shelf space is called “real estate,” and any use of their shelf real estate has to come from their corporate offices.
“But the local managers can decide what to sell on the shelves right by the registers, and many of them have told me they want to carry the Piggy Paste,” Kinsinger said.
Shelley Parrott, a pharmacy technician at Wal-Mart in Washington, was working when Kinsinger came in to pitch his product.
“I told him I had problems with my toenails and he gave me a tube of his stuff. It is good stuff, it works great,” Parrott said, explaining she had tried many other over-the-counter products that did not clear up her toenails.
Although a go-ahead from a Wal-Mart district manager expedited the process and kept Kinsinger from having to make a trip to Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., Kinsinger still found the process a bit complicated.
“A guy called me and said they needed a history of my financials for the product. Well, I don’t have financials because I haven’t sold the product yet. But in order for Wal-Mart to carry it, I have to show that Wal-Mart sales will account for less than 30 percent of the overall sales,” Kinsinger said.
Still in negotiations with corporate offices with the larger retail stores, Kinsinger said, right now, Lindy’s Downtown Market, Roanoke Pharmacy and Metamora Pharmacy are the only places to buy his product.
“I went there the other day and Bob Linsley scanned the UPC code and sure enough, it popped up on the register as Dr. Paul’s Piggy Paste,” he said. “It was a big rush and a really nice moment. I thought, ‘This is really happening.’ It was a big thing for me after all this time. It’s taken a lot of energy and time.”
Kinsinger said he hopes Piggy Paste will be in Wal-Mart, Kroger and CVS by about March 2010.
In the meantime, he jots down marketing ideas whenever they pop into his head and plans to eventually film a few commercials to go on Youtube.com.
“I’m really just having fun with the whole thing,” Kinsinger said.
And if millions of dollars come his way from this product, he said he knows exactly what he would do with the money.
“I’d love for the Piggy Paste to make a lot of money so I could use it to build recreational trails along the ring road in Washington.”
For more information on the product, go to www.piggypaste.com.
