A Topical Secret Mission that is Disrupting the Pain Relief Industry

In 2017, the owners of Troy Healthcare set out on a top-secret mission to develop the best topical pain relief solution for hands-on healthcare professionals (and their patients). They determined through the counsel of industry leading bodywork technicians that the ‘topical’ needed to perform well with the therapist’s hands and enhance other therapies in a clinical setting like soft tissue tools (HawkGrips), vibration and percussion devices (Hyperice), and Kinesiology Tape.

From Contract Manufacturer to Industry Innovator

For the 20 years preceding this mission, Troy built and refined its formulation and production of high-quality gels.

You may ask, why Gels? The short answer is that the stars aligned early-on with a 10-year run as the contract manufacturer for Performance Health, the owner (at the time) of Biofreeze ‘gel’. To this day, Troy remains as one of the select few in the world that own a brand (Stopain® Clinical) as well as the R&D, manufacturing and packaging of topical pain relief products. Most brands have to outsource to external firms and contract manufacturers.

This unique position provided Troy with the opportunity to control practically all aspects of development and production of this new, innovative gel for hands-on healthcare professionals.

On this top-secret mission, they checked all the boxes

• Determining the ideal concentration of the active ingredient for their clinical (professional) formula. Menthol was an easy and obvious choice. Menthol has a long, successful track record for safe and effective pain relief. The combination of its ability to comfortably cool the area (cryotherapy) and function as a counter-irritant (Ronald Melzack and Patrick D. Wall’s Gate Control Theory) makes it the ideal active ingredient for topical pain relief.
• Evaluating other formats like lotions and creams to ensure gel was the best solution for the objective. There are certainly nice lotions and creams out there, but gel provided the ideal properties for performance. Gels typically have little to no oil while lotions and creams will have a higher oil to water ratio. Gel it is!
• Identifying current pain points and gaps with topical pain relief solutions. The Troy team dug into all the Pesky Pain Points --the relief is not lasting, the sensation is too intense, too cold, it ‘pills’ up or rolls of the skin when applying, it is green (contains dye), the smell is too strong and it lingers, it negatively effects the kinesiology tape, too oily or too sticky, it leaves a residue that is tacky or greasy, and so on.
• Scouring all ends of the earth for the highest quality ingredients with the ideal benefits to address those pesky pain points and ultimately provide the best experience for the professional and their patients – This one took a while as it is never as simple as ‘adding a dash of this and a pinch of that’. It is a balancing act, and the ingredients must enhance the effectiveness of the product while working well together as a ‘product’ for the entire useful life of the product. The Troy team determined that Glucosamine, MSM, Eucalyptus Oil, and Peppermint Oil were the optimal teammates for Menthol – together creating a comfortable cooling followed by a soothing, therapeutic sensation.
• Delivering with the latest technology and challenging the status quo – asking questions like ‘are we able to enhance penetration’, provide sweat resistance, and my favorite… provide a superior solution at a lower cost. Stopain® Clinical provides answers to all of these questions.

Mission Accomplished

After checking all of the boxes above, the Troy team got really crazy and added one more. They looked at where most of the topical pain solutions were being purchased -- thought back to those early days and asked the question…what if we only made our product (Stopain® Clinical) only available from Healthcare Professionals? This way the individual could not only experience the product before purchasing but perhaps work with the healthcare professional on determining the underlying condition that is causing pain. Sounds like the ultimate combination! – especially when considering that growing importance of safe, effective, and non- addictive alternatives to NSAID’s and opioids.It is this point that fuels the Troy team to this >day – partnering with Healthcare Professionals on providing the World’s Greatest Pain Relief.

Well, this mission is certainly no longer a secret, and the Troy team is really just getting started. Stopain® Clinical Topical Pain Relief products are currently available through Healthcare Professionals across the US and focus on promoting the benefits of visiting a chiropractor, massage therapist, physical therapist, and other healthcare professionals. They even provide a clinic locator where anyone can enter their address and find clinics in their community that offer Stopain® Clinical.

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