Lourdes Felix Interview

And back in the early days it was a company or a doctors’ practice that that was there to help individuals that were suffering from alcohol use disorder, and that’s initially how I became involved. I quickly became intrigued because of the use of medication involved and that was combined with coaching and I soon found out that the concept or back then the program with the use of medication and coaching to help individuals was very successful and I say successful because I saw individuals first-hand that would come in and seek out treatment from the doctor and got to know them very well, as well as you know whether it was their spouse or their relatives that came in and accompanied them in asking about the program and eventually would commit to go through the program after the doctor had conducted their health and physical and the doctor deemed them a good candidate for the program.

We soon found out and I say we because I think as employees of the doctors’ practice as well as the executives of BioCorRx, we soon found out that these individuals were well into their way into recovery-whether it was the first three months whether it was six months or even up to a year. And we quickly, it was a feel good or feel great moment I would say in my professional career, when these individuals were in sobriety after three months, after six months and came back and were, you know, very upset in in the best way possible that they were in recovery and they were very grateful after having decided to go through the program and wanted to know anyway that they would be able to give back and I think the perfect example of one of these individuals is a former child actor by the name of Jeremy Miller. We met him in 2012 after his mother had found the program after he had tried unsuccessfully to get into sobriety with other programs, you know, fortunately for him and great for our program is that he is still sober today and he attributes that to our program so that was one of the reasons why I stay involved and have stayed involved. He’s one of many stories. You can take a look at our archives and our testimonials on our website and you’ll see stories of not just Jeremy Miller, but Jordan Denes as well, and other individuals that have gone through the program and are still in sobriety after five years, which is such a huge milestone with individual that are either suffering from, you, know from opioid use disorder or even alcoholism. It is something that is near and dear to my heart.

I speak a lot on, you know, alcohol use disorder and substance use disorder right now but you know there are co-occurring disorders that touch on mental health as well as drug abuse or alcoholism. You know you when you deal with one more than likely you deal with the other, so the unique thing about our program and how it’s evolved is the use of medication by the doctors as well as the behavioral component, because a lot of these individuals are battling both, both of these issues.  You have the substance use disorder and then also the mental health issues.  And I say near and dear to our heart because a lot of us here at this company, executives and employees, we have loved ones that have both co-occurring disorders or one or the other, so to know and to have this first-hand experience from the company side, to have seen individuals go successfully through the program has been such a feel good for myself professionally and personally to be involved with this company.

And that’s what we set out to do seven years ago. So the program was opened up to opioid use disorder and we started building relationships and gaining credibility in the addiction community. I think one of the biggest you know I would say, trying to use the right word here, but one of the best things that we’ve been able to achieve is the credibility portion of our program and not just the program but of our company. We do have a world renowned scientific Advisory Board, which is something that we’re very, very proud of. We have world renowned individuals in the addiction community that are on our Advisory Board and that is something that we don’t take lightly. These are individuals that have spent you know, 20, 30 plus years in the addiction industry, and to have these individuals attached to our company and believe in what we’re doing it just it just adds more fuel to our fire as far as continuing to do what we do every day that we come in here and that’s what keeps me going. That’s what’s kept me involved with this company.

Those medications are naltrexone, methadone, and suboxone.  And so, in the early years of the company, the medication revolved around the use of naltrexone, along with coaching. Now in the early years, not a lot of doctors or medical professionals were well versed or had heard of naltrexone. And I think that that was because it was not as widely used as methadone, and as Suboxone. Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist, whereas methadone and Suboxone are both agonists, partial agonist and full agonist. And what that means in scientific terms is that methadone is a full agonist, which is a synthetic opioid and Suboxone is a partial agonist with regard to naltrexone that’s an antagonist.  It actually blocks the opioid receptor.  So it works quite differently than the other two medications, but there is no one size fits all when it comes to medication and the use of medication for individuals that that have become addicted. So it is often obviously, it is a doctor-patient relationship, as far as what is best for that individual patient. But what we have seen as I mentioned in the previous video, is that naltrexone is one of these medications that is very unique as far as helping individuals get into sobriety and works very, very well.

As the years have gone by, we initially had offered the recovery program combined with coaching with life coaches and not just life coaches but individuals that have gone through or battled addiction and are there to support patients going through the program.

As our company involved two and three years in from inception, we grew the behavioral portion of the program in the sense of offering 35 cognitive behavioral therapy modules, and these modules were authored by two individuals with 30 to 35 years of clinical experience on the behavioral side, these were licensed therapists and so we grew into offering the program that included medication and now 35 CBT modules that had the ability to be utilized by any licensed clinician.

They are not meant to and have never been meant to replace any of the licensed clinicians, modalities, or their way of treating their patients.  It was more of adding more tools to their tool chest to be able to utilize these modules along with the work that they were already doing with the patients and we quickly quickly noted that the clinicians that were utilizing the modules found them just great and wonderful, and not because they were using modules 1 through 35, but there was always a module or 2 or 10 or 15 or 35 that just hit on what they were addressing in in therapy with their patients.

So they found our modules to be quite unique, and were very much in favor of using them with their own modalities.

Now we fast forward up to today. Our company has been in business now for 10 years. And we still offer the medication, access to the medication, along with the CBT modules, as well as peer recovery support, and that is what is now the Beat Addiction Recovery program. And so the doctor now has access for their patient to these three comprehensive items.  It is the medication, the CBT modules as well as the peer recovery support. The peer recovery support is very very unique. Patients have the ability to correspond or to text with their peer recovery support coach any time of the day or night.

There is always somebody that’s readily available for them and that is what we like to look at as overlapping support, where you know these individuals have or do not have a clinician, there is always the peer recovery support individual that they can lean on with any questions that they might have. So that is something that that has evolved from where we were 10 years ago to where we are now.

We make an extra effort always to keep up with the trends that are going on with regard to medication-assisted treatment along with the behavioral therapy.

There are other companies- there might be very few companies like ours that take the very comprehensive approach of offering the medical professionals programs that include access to medication combined with CBT, the cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as the peer recovery support.

A lot of doctors might lean on only the medication, not knowing that there are companies out there like ours that offer the full comprehensive program. We we don’t offer this, you know, to eliminate the patients need or the doctors need there if they have access to their own clinicians, again, it’s something that they can add to their arsenal of modalities that is in addition to what they already have or already have access to, that can complement exactly what they have.

There is no cure for addiction. It is something that individuals will will work on every day, every day of their lives. There is obviously a misimpression, I would say even from the patient side that the medication especially naltrexone it works so, so well with cravings that it could give the patient a sense of “I have this licked. I feel really good.  I don’t need anything else.” but the medication will wear off and that is where the work needs to be done. That is why we believe in a comprehensive approach when you’re talking about individuals that are suffering from addiction that also might be suffering from mental health issues. It is very important that these individuals, if needed, seek help from both the clinician as well as the medication so that when the medication is no longer in their system, they have the know how they have the tools that they need to deal with triggers and individuals do not relapse.

And one of the things that has come about again and this is in the last three to four years and it is called the SUPPORT Act. The previous presidential administration, did sign that into into existence in 2018 whereby they asked CMS the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare to reduce the access to barriers and to allow patients to have access to, not just medication-assisted treatment but treatment for opioid use disorder in general as well as alcoholism and any form of addiction. That has set wheels and motion whereby CMS in turn has asked that all of the state Medicaid programs open up access and remove barriers to treatment so that individuals can actually walk into a doctor’s office and seek treatment immediately. What had been happening was that we had individuals that might walk into a doctor’s office that was ready to seek treatment and the barriers that were previously there and still are there in some cases is the the doctor’s office would say, you know, we have to verify your coverage and now we have to seek  prior authorization or prior pre-certification and that turned out to be a big ,big barrier.  Individuals if you’ve been in the industry enough or a long enough time if you’re a medical professional that has dedicated your life or your professional career to helping individuals seek treatment is that these individuals know that if someone comes in and is ready to seek treatment and they are turned away because you have to seek prior authorization or prior precertification, the likelihood that they’re going to come back in a week or two weeks while you get that approval is not likely to happen. The time to get help for that individual is now. If that person walks into your doctor’s office today, the best chance you’re going to have is today so we know that the SUPPORT Act has helped tremendously and not just removing barriers but also reimbursement from Medicaid as far as substance use disorder is concerned and treatment for addiction. So those are substantial, substantial improvements and that have come about in the last three to four years on the reimbursement of medication-assisted treatment. That includes naltrexone as well.

Many of these individuals, I believe might have been charged with certain things as far as billing out to insurances and I don’t know exactly what the outcome was, but there was so much of that going on about five years ago. And that really, really just I think if anything just caused a a big alarm with payers and insurance companies with as far as addiction treatment reimbursement. But I think now with the SUPPORT Act and all of these new, I think I would say I would say new oversight I think those players have slowly gone away either voluntarily or involuntarily. And so I just think that now it’s just, it’s opened up again as far as having the ability or the doctors and the medical professionals having the ability to treat these patients very, very quickly.

There are a few side effects that are very common with the use of naltrexone. The two most common complaints are headache and nausea, and they are very, very short lived. They, patients, relatively get over it within the first 24 to 48 hours.

So naltrexone has a safety profile that is very very safe and again has been in use for almost 40 years now.  Doctors readily prescribe naltrexone for both opioid use disorder and for alcoholism.

It’s estimated that’s when we will begin clinical studies, and it will be our very first product potentially to be FDA approved. BICX104 is a naltrexone implantable pellet that is completely biodegradable.  We just finished up our preclinical studies last year and had initiated those preclinical studies in 2019. So we are on the fast track to FDA approval there and feel that that’s going to be a big turning point for the company.

Anyone that you ask might have a different answer, but addictive disorders are associated not just with drugs and alcohol, but also eating disorders, gambling, and any other behavior pattern we are continuing to make efforts to reach out and create relationships-not necessarily partnerships, but relationships with state agencies as well as government agencies through our own efforts, through efforts and partnership with our lobbyists. So that is something that we will continue to chip away at, and is something that we’ve been doing for quite a while now.

There are efforts and there is movement as far as improving access to treatment through the SUPPORT Act, which was very broad as far as the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare.  I truly believe that it’s going to be some additional time for CMS to provide that oversight to make sure that the state Medicaid and Medicare programs are abiding by the SUPPORT Act that was approved in 2018. So as far as what additional items, what additional efforts government can make. I think continuing to provide oversight through their government agencies to ensure that these individuals have access readily available to them.  It is fairly recent. We’re just 24 months in, since we the SUPPORT Act passed, but I truly believe that that is something that was monumental, that is going to help these individuals seek treatment and get treatment right away.

In addition to that, as I mentioned, there are many other addictive disorders. There’s gambling.

There are other behavior patterns that the company can also dive into, and one of the things if you know our company that we do extensive research before we put something together and offer it to our medical professional partners. So those are definitely areas that we can look into further. And then in addition we do have our R&D division where we can look into naltrexone and seek FDA approval and look into seeking FDA approval for other indications, as the ones that I’ve just mentioned.

And lifestyle support also includes the not just the behavioral, but also the nutritional portion as well as activity and what I mean by activity is exercise. When it comes to weight loss, there are programs that have been offered that are still in existence that have been offered for the last 20 years, the last 30 years. Bottom line is that when it comes to medication and any form of addictive disorder, medications do work.

But when it comes to longevity and making sure of adopting a healthy lifestyle, what we’ve done is we’ve put together a very comprehensive program that not only combines the medication or includes the medication on its own, but it combines it with an on-demand concierge app and that would be a mobile app that is readily available to patients 24/7. That includes texting, texting that you can do with any masters level professional, whether it be a clinician, whether it be a nutritionist, or a fitness expert And it is a program that is very affordable. We took a lot of time in researching how to appropriately launch something that was going to be not only affordable to our medical professional partners, but also affordable for them to offer their patients. And this online platform on demand that we have is something that is affordable to both our customers and for doctors to offer their patients. It is crucial.

Medications do work. Patients are able to take the weight off and what we would like for them to do in a perfect world is to adopt a healthier lifestyle not only with the food consumption but also with exercise. Our app offers exercise videos, activity levels for all ages. So it can be a moderate. It can be very beginners or anywhere in between- any age level, whether you’re in your late teens, twenties, thirties, fifties, sixties, there is something there for everyone. That is something that we are very proud of. That is available to medical professionals today. And is something that medical professionals can or can offer to their patients.