In a brand new ‘Science of Business’ podcast interview with podcast host and serial entrepreneur Louise Grubb, Chanelle McCoy the founder of McCoy Health shares her insights on growing a global business and her plans to roll out a 10-minute finger prick test to check if an individual has had COVID19.
Chanelle McCoy shares her career insights 
The All-Ireland Business Champion Award winner and Dragon’s Den funder Chanelle McCoy tells of key moments in her incredibly successful career, which saw her bring the family pharma business into 96 countries around the world and secure over 2,500 product licences and most recently building McCoy Health which focusses on developing pharmaceutical-grade cannabidiol (CBD) and the rights to distribute the ground-breaking ‘SugarWatch’, a needle-free glucose monitoring device for diabetics, across Ireland.
Taking Chanelle Pharma global
Speaking of her time in taking Chanelle Pharma global Chanelle says,
“Pharmaceuticals require a lot of capital expenditure with investment in R&D as it takes a minimum of four years to see a return on generics, so if I wasn’t making the sale my budget would be cut. I was out in the market to make the sale in order to hire another person or get another product into research and development, and you learn very quickly in a business like that to focus more on cash flow than on profit. A lot of companies actually ‘grow broke’ during a growth period. So setting a budget and sticking to it is so important.”
Launching a new CBD product
Speaking of her new business,
“I was really inspired by listening to Vera Twomey in 2015 and all of the other mothers who really struggled to get access to a good CBD product because at high dosage it is really good for seizures in children and severe epilepsy. I thought to myself, I am in a good position to bring to market a clinically proven CBD product to market so the journey really began there.”
Chanelle says that there is a stigma attached to CBD because as of yet people are not aware of the vast difference between CBD and THC. But more awareness is being published now and people are learning that CBD has only healing properties and it is not addictive.
Creating a 10-minute finger prick test for COVID19
In true entrepreneur style, Chanelle and her business partner have established a new business in relation to COVID19 where they along with VIDA CARE will be rolling out a proven 10-minute finger prick test which checks if an individual has had COVID19. The test will be available from October 1st in Ireland.
Advice for start-ups
Chanelle also shares some business insights from her vast experience from life in the business-to-business world of pharma sales to establishing a new business in the food supplement category and moving into business to consumer sales via sales through pharmacies.
Speaking of her time on Dragon’s Den, Chanelle says,
“It was a fantastic experience; it’s a very real scenario and it’s very exciting to see and hear the pitches from young entrepreneurs.
And discloses that her rule was to “never invest in a business that you know nothing about.”
Just some of the extensive advice in the podcast interview that she shares for start-ups in the podcast interview is to ‘commit your time’,
“you need to know that you will need to work every hour to get the business off of the ground, you need that work ethic and you need the passion because you will meet challenges along the way that you will need to overcome.”
About the Science of Business podcast series
The Science of Business podcast series is hosted by the multi-award-winning serial entrepreneur and founder of Q1 Scientific and Trivium Vet Louise Grubb. The series features interviews with some of the key people behind Ireland’s global success in pharma, life sciences, health and biomedical sectors. Louise brings her twenty years of experience within the sector to the table and her own knowledge of what is required to establish a pharma success story.
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