Today, INVO Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ: INVO), a medical device company focused on commercializing the world’s only in vivo Intravaginal Culture System (IVC), INVOcell®, announced the appointment of tenured women’s health & fertility solution marketing professional, Meryle Lynn Chamberlain, as Director of Marketing, a newly created position within the company. Chamberlain joined INVO Bioscience to spearhead and expand INVO Bioscience’s global marketing and brand management strategy for INVOcell, fertility care that is accessible, inclusive, and affordable to the more than 90% of couples in need of fertility treatment that currently go without care.
Chamberlain brings over 15 years of marketing experience in the women’s health field including her most recent role as a Product Marketing Manager at Wildflower Health, a digital health company focused on women’s health and pregnancy and the Marketing Manager at The Emergency Nurses Association, an international healthcare organization, where she led integrated marketing strategies for all products, services and events. Ms. Chamberlain has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University and the Integrated Marketing Certificate from DePaul University
Meryle Lynn Chamberlain, as Director of Marketing of INVO Bioscience (NASDAQ: INVO)
“INVOcell is a revolution for patients suffering from infertility. This is the only fertility treatment that allows fertilization to take place in the woman’s own body, eliminating the need for expensive lab equipment. I’m thrilled that I have the opportunity to help millions of women and couples realize their dreams of parenthood,” stated Meryle Lynn Chamberlain, as Director of Marketing of INVO Bioscience (NASDAQ: INVO)
Steve Shum, CEO of INVO Bioscience (NASDAQ: INVO)
“We are excited to have Meryle Lynn, an experienced women’s healthcare marketing professional join the INVO Bioscience team. This is an exciting time in the history of the Company as we look to expand INVOcell’s adoption within the fertility industry through our planned INVO centers and global commercialization partners and provide affordable, expanded care to patients. With the recent addition of Rebecca Messina to our board of directors, who comes from an impressive global strategic marketing back-ground as the former Global CMO of Uber, Beam Suntory, and a 20+ year global career with Coca-Cola, along with the appointment of Meryle Lynn to lead our internal efforts, we have substantially strengthened our marketing capabilities to support the INVOcell-only centers and our growing number of distribution partners. I look forward to Meryle Lynn’s contributions to the team,” stated Steve Shum, CEO of INVO Bioscience.
Rebecca Messina, Senior Advisor McKinsey & Company & New INVO Bioscience Board Member
Messina has broad international experience in leading marketing for elite brands and businesses including Uber Technologies (UBER), Beam Suntory and The Coca-Cola Company (KO). She is currently a Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company focused on advising internal teams and firm clients in the areas of marketing as a growth lever, including data driven marketing, brand building, and strategically shaping and transforming marketing agendas.
Messina has also served as Global Chief Marketing Officer of Uber. As Uber’s first-ever CMO, Messina focused on executing Uber’s first global marketing organization, building a world class marketing network, with the mission of helping the company define a strong brand in the hearts and minds of all Uber stakeholders – furthering a movement around the possibilities of “progress for all” in a shared economy.
In 2016 Messina was appointed Global Chief Marketing Officer of Beam Suntory, responsible for the company’s global brand strategy development and communications, product innovation, research and development and consumer insights for Beam Suntory’s world-class portfolio of brands.
Messina joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1994. She spent the next 22 years in roles of increasing responsibility and leadership, including five years at corporate headquarters in Atlanta with numerous global media and marketing roles before expanding her career in Chile, Australia, France; and ultimately, back in Atlanta, where she was Vice President, Global Marketing Capability and Integration.
Messina has been the recipient of a number of accolades, including: Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs, 2019; Ad Age, Women to Watch 2016; Business Insider, Most Innovative CMOs in the World 2016; as well as serving on several boards including the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Vista’s View
INVO Bioscience (INVO) is an emerging company that owns the INVOcell system, an FDA cleared patented medical device that is one of only 3 ways today that a couple that is struggling with infertility may choose to use to try to get pregnant and that offers a more economical and natural way to proceed. Depending on what statistics that you review today, Industry forecasts suggest that no more than 10% of the estimated 150 million infertile couples worldwide are currently being treated. After further research, this severely underserved market has been created and left unaddressed primarily because of capacity constraints, access to care & the associated cost issues which the INVOcell system is believed to be in prime position to address.
INVO Bioscience has been transforming over the last couple of years & relatively recently, under the relatively new leadership of CEO Steve Shum (joined as CEO Q42019), successfully conducted a public offering in November 2020, raising net proceeds of approximately $11.6 million at $3.20/share, while uplisting the company onto the NASDAQ market. These moves strengthened their balance sheet & their position to execute on their commercialization efforts in the US and around the world and helped improve the adoptability of investors and Wall Street alike.
INVO has also transformed their board of directors adding a couple of powerful global thought leaders including Barbara Ryan, a Corporate (Public) Board Member with expertise in Healthcare and Life Science Capital Markets – Audit -Strategic Counselor to CEO/C-Suite within Biopharma & Med-Tech with 31 Years of experience working on Wall Street as Pharmaceutical Analyst and Managing Director and a frequent guest expert on CNBC. INVO also added respected global marketing expert, Rebecca Messina, currently a Senior Advisor at Mckinsey and Company and the former Global Chief Marketing Officer at Uber Technologies (UBER).
INVO has also recently developed a Scientific Advisory Board of four members with deep industry knowledge, where 2 of of them have become joint venture partners seeking to open INVOcell-only clinics in the US and Mexico in the early part of the second half of 2021.
INVO is continue to push forward with a combined distribution partner and joint venture model to grow their business worldwide. They now have structured distribution agreements in eight countries located within Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. INVO has also structured additional joint venture agreements to open their first INVOcell-exclusive clinics in Birmingham, AL (March 15, 2021) & San Francisco Bay Area (April 19) and Mexico (September 30, 2020) where they will share not only in the sales of the INVOcell system, but also in the greater revenue derived from the cycle procedures that would be performed to implement their solution.
INVO’s upcoming milestones include establishing more distributor & joint venture agreements and opening INVOcell only clinics in US (Birmingham & San Francisco Bay Area) and Mexico in 2021. INVO’s stated goal is to open of 3-5 INVO-only clinics in 2021 with existing partners in the U.S. and abroad, making progress with existing relationships the various countries.
INVO is also seeking to successfully receive the nod from the FDA for 5-day labelling, which alone would allow INVO to achieve a milestone payment of $3 Million from their U.S. partner Ferring Pharmaceuticals and is believe to further cement their place at the table when physicians are presented with infertility patients. This FDA nod may lead to a further expansion of the devices availability in the US. Indeed, it is believed that the OBGYN community (~20,000 in US) would begin to consider adopting the procedure within their own offices. Many believe that OBGYN’s are the ideal implementers of the INVOcell solution as they are in the first line in treating women and they could implement within the same office footprint that they already use on a daily basis thus increasing the access to affordable care not only in the major metropolitan ares but rural alike.
INVO’s stock closed trading at ~$3.77/share. The 52-week range of $2.90- $12.30. The current 3-month average daily volume is 2.04 million shares.
Learn more about INVO Bioscience (NASDAQ: INVO) at our VP Watchlist page.
