Today’s episode features two entrepreneurs who have created a product that has saved more than 5,000 lives. Seriously. 

Eric and Evan Edwards are entrepreneurial twins who created pocket-sized auto-injectors that help those suffering from a severe allergic reaction or opioid overdose. Their ingenuity is changing the game for easy-to-use, accessible healthcare, and they’re on the frontlines of the current battles facing the American healthcare system. 

Recently, a new Company Eric has co-founded was awarded a contract from the Government for over $300 Million to lead one of the country’s efforts to build up our ability to respond to Covid. Tune in to hear how they’re working to help America—and the rest of the world—response to our current crisis.

Useful Links:

Kaleo

Twins Create Life-Saving Allergy Device

Elite Entrepreneurs - Eric and Evan Edwards

Episode Transcript

*Some listeners have found it helpful to have a transcription of the podcast. Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it. The FDE movement is a volunteer-led movement, and if you’d like to contribute by editing future transcripts, please email us.

 

Henry Kaestner: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur, our special edition today, because it's the first time we've ever had twins on the program. And I love a number of different themes that are at stake here. Eric and Evan are working on a product and project that really saves lives. And I think that's particularly cool. We talk a lot about the importance of family. And obviously, any time you have twins, family is going to come up to get to their family background here. And second, but also a thing that we really like to see are entrepreneurs that have a partner. We really believe that that's a preferable method of entrepreneurship. God sends us off in twos. In my entrepreneurial background now, three times I've been gifted with amazing God-knowing God-honoring partners and these guys have had that built in and the relationship from the get go. So Eric and Evan, thank you very much for being on the show with us today.

Eric Edwards: Pleasure.

Evan Edwards: Thank you.

Henry Kaestner: So we want to start off by hearing a bit about your personal story. What was life like growing up in the Edwards home?

Evan Edwards: Yeah. It was busy for sure. We're the youngest of four boys and, you know, all of us were active in sports. We always felt like we were somewhere on the weekend. This family was really soccer saturated. So we played soccer our entire lives. But also church was a big part of our life. We were really blessed with parents who instilled a strong foundation of faith in us really early on. So, you know, Sundays were made up with church and youth group. But it was busy heaven for boys, you know. I see now with me having three boys and Eric having three kids as well. I look at my parents, I'm like, man, how do you do that. Yeah. It was a busy time growing up. And then combine that being chronic allergic asthmatic. There were some challenges for sure.

Henry Kaestner: So you guys, you're twins, as you're growing up and then as you start businesses together. What's that like? Do you have a special language, do you find yourself finishing each other's sentences? Or is it one of the things, I'm a dad of three boys,aAnd I know that on occasion there can be some creative friction. Was that look like as you guys were growing up and decide, hey, we're going to go ahead and go into business together?

Eric Edwards: Well, this is Eric. We're mirror image twins. And what that means is we are opposites when it comes to handedness. So he's left handed. I'm right handed. He's left brain. I'm right brained. We compliment each other in a lot of different ways. But the bond between identical twins in particular, as some of your listeners who might be twins can be appreciate. It's very special. And there are certainly times where, as we're growing up, we absolutely knew how we were going to approach a topic or approach a situation. And we know how each other is going to respond. And, you know, looking back now, as we started working together, we separated in college. But looking back as we came back together in business, it has had a profound impact on us being able to execute and compliment each other in so many different ways. So it's a special relationship for sure. There were definitely times where, you know, he would say something and I knew exactly what was going to come next and vice versa. So that holds true for sure.

Henry Kaestner: We've got a podcast called Faith Driven Athlete. And so we've recorded some of those today. It's kind of top of mind. I understand. And athletics has been a big part of your life. And I understand your mirror image twins. Does that mean that on the soccer pitch, one of you was a forward and the other one's a defenseman? What does it look like? You know, because of that dynamic, did you make each other better athletes going up?

Eric Edwards: Yeah. Evan, I don't know if you want to weigh in, but then most the times we were we were definitely complementing each other.

Evan Edwards: Yeah, I was faster.

Henry Kaestner: Exactly. And Eric is better looking.

Eric Edwards: There you go. You know what, I will say that, you know, it's interesting as we look back and how we worked towards is kind of entrepreneurial spirit. Right. And working to look to do things together and start new initiatives. We complemented each other in a lot of different ways, whether was on the soccer field or even in the start of high school. One of the first things we took initiative and did together as we helped to start a four part acapella Christian quartet. If you could believe that it was called Brothers Entering a Mission called BEAM. And so I don't know about many of your listeners, but, you know, back then when people. Hey, you want to start a group, you want to start a band? I'm pretty sure the last thing on most people's minds as teenagers in high schools where let's start a four part acapella Christian quartet. But, you know, that was something that God called us to do. And we were very blessed and fortunate to have amazing experiences through that. And Evan was a bass and I was a baritone. And we had amazing Christian friends who joined us. And our parents played a major role. We had some amazing experiences that God provided for us to get his message out and his word. And so I guess that's kind of where if I think back where the entrepreneurial spirit connected with identical twins who are trying to just do something, look for where God was leading.

Henry Kaestner: OK. Fast forward a little bit for our listeners who don't know. Can you explain the pocket size auto injectors that you guys invented and the purpose they serve?

Evan Edwards: Yeah. So what we invented are credit card size auto injectors. So they're length and width of a credit card, thickness of a cell phone. And they also include an auto retractable needle. So a needle that retracts automatically. And one of the most unique things about these auto injectors that was first of its kind is that we invented what's called an electronic prompt system, which is essentially a voice instruction system that guides users through the entire injection process for emergency use auto injectors. That became pivotal because many of these products, these drug delivery devices, are used in case of emergency. And people with allergies or maybe suffering from you would overdose. They may not have been trained on the use of this or maybe they're diagnosed when they were seven years old and then had their first anaphylactic reaction when they are 15. And it's just one of those things that you don't use everyday, you don't train on every single day. And so the voice prompt system really was a key element of our products. And we continue to innovate in other areas as well in drug delivery, culminating in being listed on over 200 patents.

Henry Kaestner: So that's a lot of that's based out of your own personal experience. You grew up with life threatening allergies. And what was that like? What are the different things about your experience of having allergies that informed the creation of the product?

Evan Edwards: Yeah, spot on. Right. You always hear necessity is the mother of invention. And that definitely holds true in this case because as identical twins with severe allergies and asthma. We really did struggle growing up. We have pictures of us watching our two older brothers during pollen season, playing soccer outside, and we're just staring out the window because we could not go outside. So there are many, many times when we are young especially, that we couldn't participate in outdoor activities during certain seasons. We are the only two kids at our elementary school sitting in a peanut and tree nut free table long before the existence of allergy school policies. Now, you can't walk into an elementary school without there being food allergic children. But we were really kind of labeled as those weird kids in school growing up with severe allergies. It wasn't as prevalent. And, you know, that really we kind of said to ourself, you know, God's calling us to do something. It's interesting when you start to reflect on individuals that may have been given a challenge. Right. Or in our case, severe allergies, where at the time I remember having my first anaphylactic reaction when I was around 10 years old and how scary that was. And you don't know. Sometimes you ask yourself, why am I born this way? And now that I reflect on it, we genuinely believe that God was blessed us with these severe allergies in order to help others like us. And that's was the genesis for inventing Auvi-Q.

Eric Edwards: Yeah, that's well said. The only thing I would add to Evan response there is, you know, seeing how God can use a challenge such as that and then seeing how he also directs that pathway for us. Evan became an engineer. Right. And then I became a paramedic, then ultimately led me into medical school and became a doctor. Those compliments and allowing Evan to go down that pathway on the invention and design and then me go down that pathway in emergency medicine to then come back together and unify all centered around this personal issue. It is unique and it's pretty special and very much a calling.

Henry Kaestner: So, for our listeners that aren't familiar with the specifics in the medical lingo. Tell us about the basic problem you were solving when you started Intelliject, and it's now called Kaleo, is that right? And what is the product that you're replacing?

Eric Edwards: Sure, yeah. So many your listeners may have heard of a product called the epi pen. It is a life dose of epinephrine or adrenaline that you are needing to inject yourself with or have someone else inject during an allergic emergency. It helps your breathing tubes open and it helps your blood pressure stay high because during anaphylaxis you can have life threatening low blood pressure or you can have difficulty breathing. And that product, when it was originally invented, it was never designed or developed or intended to be used as a platform for allergic individuals. It was originally designed and developed for the Department of Defense, for the military, and then they put epinephrine in that. And then when it was originally approved, it had never gone through a single human clinical trial before getting approved by the FDA and was grandfathered in. And so there were some challenges that were inherent with the product. In our experience, it was large and cumbersome. It was difficult to use. It wasn't intuitive at the time. It did not have any needle protection. So a needle stuck out of the product. Even now, there's a safety sheath, but the needle still, you know, you have to jab it into your thigh in order to activate it. And so we felt like there was a need for another option. And our personal experiences led us to believe this. And we felt like we needed to invent a product that literally was developed by patients for patients. That's what led to intel eject. And then ultimately, we changed our name to Kaleo, which is ancient Greek. It means to have a calling or a purpose. And we felt like our calling and purpose was developing life-Saving medicines that can empower patients to gain freedom and control over their medical conditions. Starting with this one and anaphylaxis. So that was our vision. That was our mission. The company has done very well and we've navigated a very challenging environment to try to get this new drug approved. We had to raise the capital to not only develop the product, but to get it through clinical studies. And it was going to be regulated as a new drug by the FDA. So there's a lot of challenges that are associated with that. When we originally built the product, we thought we're building a medical device. We never imagined in a million years we were actually going to be building a new drug. So it's been a long road, but now the products out there and it's helping save lives.

Henry Kaestner: So having followed you guys a bit. One of the passions you have isn't just developing this user friendly experience born out of your own backgrounds and medical condition. You're also working hard on access to medical care. What do you mean by that? Why is that so important?

Eric Edwards: Yeah, I tell you, you know, it's one thing to spend a significant portion of your life to invent a new product, to ideate, then operationalize that into an actual tangible product that you then get through the clinical trials, get through FDA approval, scale up manufacturing and then launch into the marketplace. So that's one item. It's another to then try to figure out how do you get it into the hands of patients and how do you make sure it's accessible and how do you deal with the pricing and reimbursement environment? And I think what Evan and I have learned in our careers is that unfortunately in America, as many of your listeners can appreciate, the pricing and reimbursement environment for medicines in this country is broken. We have a broken distribution strategy. We have a broken insurance system. Unfortunately, it's a system that does not always reward innovation. So our goal at Kaleo and through the team that we hired and the strategies that the team implemented was to make sure that our products were always going to be accessible and affordable for patients in the midst of a highly competitive space where other manufacturers and other entities did not necessarily want us to be able to be on a formulary and would enter into agreements to make sure that we weren't accessible. So we had to innovate and disrupt in multiple areas with that goal of making sure patients could access the product and they did not have to have a high out-of-pocket costs. And we have lived up to that promise up until today.

Henry Kaestner: So along the way, I think you guys have saved like 5000 lives through the device. This is before the new company. But with what you have done before. What's that like? And what are some of the stories coming back on that? In my entrepreneurial career, I helped save people money on their telecom bill. And so we never really had those types of letters coming back and saying thank you so very, very, very much. What's it like for you guys?

Eric Edwards: I'll start and then have Evan tag in. Because I just remembered a story. You know, you go into this hoping that you'll have significance in people's lives and successes and really for us isn't defined by how much money you're making or your job status. To us, it was about being significant because we felt God was calling us to do that. And there's nothing more significant than knowing that you can impact patients. But, I mean, one of the moments that was special to me is when I found out my own daughter had life threatening allergies and she had our product. And a product that her dad invented helped us save her own life during an emergency. And that's pretty powerful. So, you know, those are the ones that have been reported to us. We don't know how many lives that we have touched, but we've had some amazing stories come in. I remember a letter and Evan might remember this one that came in one day and it showed a picture of these two brothers and they were very young. And it said, Dear Eric and Evan, your product saved our life. Love Eric and Evan. These brothers had the same names. It was just absolutely amazing.

And sometimes you have these God winks, right. That occur in your life. And we've just experienced a lot of that. It's just been amazing. And it keeps us going. You have to have that drive and passion and you all know as entrepreneurs yourself, you have to have those affirmation things occur that say keep on going. Stay resilient. Keep pushing. Amidst a lot of challenges and uncertainty.

Evan Edwards: Yeah. I mean, I think also just seeing how Kaleo continues to grow with employees as well. I mean, it's it's not just us who have saved these lives. I mean, the company itself and the many employees that were involved in creating the products. There are many employees that have severe allergies or they have children with severe allergies as well. But I also agree with Eric. I mean, we have letters that are still framed on our walls that really just remind us the impact that that's made. And it's humbling.

I think it's really important in this day and age where there are a lot of idols that can be placed in your life. It's important to understand that success has to be redefined and a lot of ways. And you have to ground yourself, especially as an entrepreneur when you're going a million miles an hour to know that we can look at our children. And both Eric and I have children with allergies, which is just incredible when you think of that faith element of it alone. That when we are inventing a product, we had no idea that we were going to have kids that may have to use the product. So I think that legacy for our children, knowing as we were working hard at Kaleo and leaving for some long weeks and sometimes for me, I traveled a ton. But they knew what we were doing could potentially make an impact and save someone's life. And that's very rewarding, knowing that we are leaving a legacy for our children and hopefully our children's children to hear about their grandparents and what they were able to invest back in the day.

That's awesome. So obviously, the scale of what you get to isn't nearly as important as being able to be involved in some of these individual lives to including the lives of your children. But you guys also did get to some pretty significant scale as entrepreneurs. What was that like? I mean, your company, get one hundred million dollars in sales. Give us some context about the size. And then also as faith driven entrepreneurs before Justin takes us through, which made this particularly newsworthy right now during this Covid 19 season. What's one lesson that you guys learned as you took Kaleo to scale that you learned about faith or leadership?

Evan Edwards: Yeah, I'll start there. Eric can talk a little bit about the company business growth, which we've been really blessed, both in employees as the company has had over 300 employees and significant revenue. But I think from a lesson standpoint, since I have been on the engineering side, you know, our CEO used to say the bumps aren't separate from the road. They are the road. And I always love that phrase simply because it helps you. With respect to understanding, perseverance. Right. And we think about perseverance can build character and how from a faith standpoint that's so incredibly important. Scaling up is extremely challenging. It's one thing to invent a product. It's another thing to make millions. And Kaleo has been able to ship millions of products of patients. And there are going to be significant challenges. And I have a very specific memory. When we moved our family to Indiana to support manufacturing and there was a very specific design challenge that occurred that I had a phone call and I'll never forget when that happened, I thought the world was broken because this was before the product was approved.

It was going to cause significant delays and it was a bump that I thought was a wall that we were never gonna overcome. And I was very emotional and tearing up, pacing, kind of hypomanic, very busy, pacing up and down the street. And my wife comes out and she goes, you know, why are you crying? Why are you upset? And I said, you know, we had a design issue. It's all on me. And she looked at me and she said, Who cares? What are you talking about? She goes, Who cares? You have me. You have, at the time, my first son. If it all ended today, you still have your family and you've been blessed on this journey up until this point. So, you know, I think perspective is incredibly important. And also having people in your life that can humble you at the right times to really change your vision and kind of get you back up and get you back going.

Eric Edwards: I mean, I think, you know, when you start a company and you go from two to ten to one hundred to several hundred and the same thing on the revenue side, you know, you're not profitable at all. And then all of a sudden you're profitable and then you're you know, you have several hundred million dollars in sales, whatever that looks like when we experience that. There are a lot of lessons in that scaling and equally as important as entrepreneurs. One of the most challenging lessons that Evan and I both went through was when it was OK to say we're ready to move on to our next thing. I mean, I never would have imagined in a million years that we would have stayed at Kaleo for 18 years. I thought I was maybe 10 years, 12 years, who knows what was going to happen. But Evan and I both felt like we were ready to move on to our next venture and ready to innovate again in a different way and trying to come to terms with that and figure out what that looked like. And even with our management team and the board and through that transition, because we left together and transition together. That was very, very tough. That was a tough challenge. And when once we were out, you know, for the first few months. It's almost like I just lost my right arm. You know, what happened? And then you realize God's calling you somewhere else. And it is time to look at something different. And so now I look back and say, wow, as challenging as that was, look what God's doing now.

Justin Forman: So Eric, keep on that. You talked about transitions. I'd love to give our listeners some insight into the new company that you guys have there with Phloe. It sounds like the work that you're doing. Extremely timely. But could you walk us through kind of what you were doing the months and time leading up to and then which you guys are focusing on now?

Eric Edwards: Yeah. So when we left Kaleo, both Evan and I kind of went into a consulting role. First and foremost, we focused also on our families and serving them and serving them well and our children and spouses. And then I was just waiting to see, you know, where was God going to lead me. And in the midst of just an unexpected conversation. I met up with a mentor and friend of mine. His name was Frank Gupton. And Dr. Gupton and I, we'd been close for years. There was a lot of times that we'd come across each other or be in the same room or on the same committee or help with a startup together. But he was a leader in what's called continuous manufacturing or manufacturing of active ingredients, and was working on a program for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and had figured out how to reduce the cost and improve the quality of generic medicines for the developing world.

And he asked that I come in and figure out how I could potentially look at that platform for the U.S. domestic market. And so I started working with him actually on pediatric and rare disease medicines. And he introduced me to a guy named Marshall Sommer at a Children's National Hospital, one of the thought leaders in rare disease drugs in all of America. And I put back my white coat on and shadowed his team. And I watched as a neonate died from not having access to a drug that was just available three years ago in this country. And it kind of lit a fire beneath me of looking into why is it that in America today we have several hundred drugs in shortage on the FDA drug shortage lists? I mean, we're one of the best countries when it comes to pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical innovation in the world. Yet we can't get these simple compounds, simple as central medicines built. How did that happen? And that's when we started looking into how over a period of two decades, we had shifted our supply chains and manufacturing our industrial base for making these ingredients and medicines overseas, primarily in China and India. And so we started developing a plan to build this company.

Justin Forman: Can you give us a scale of just how much it shifted? Because that's been a topic that we've all talked about, like, hey, it's shifted. It's been maybe a political football. But give us perspective on how much of that shift?

Eric Edwards: It's amazing. So when you look at these, what I will call a central generic medicines, these are essential medicines necessary to sustain life. There's something called the World Health Organization, a central medicine list. When you look at those priority generic medicines and you start back at the key starting materials, the chemical precursors we're talking over 90 percent of them are foreign made, over 80 percent of the active ingredients. And then roughly 40 to 50 percent of the finished products are all manufactured overseas, including over 97 percent of our penicillin manufacturing is done just in China. So we started looking at the vulnerability and saying, whoa, how did this happen? And that's what led to this focus on building Phlow.

Justin Forman: So talk to us a little bit about the piece of the problem that you guys are trying to fix. Is it bringing the compounds, bringing the early stage of the supply chain, the end of the supply chain? What piece of the puzzle are you guys tackling them with?

Eric Edwards: Yeah. So as I mentioned, we started out focusing on these pediatric medicines in shortage and we figured out that we needed to really try to build an end to end solution here. So starting with chemical precursor, then active ingredient and then finished dosage form and particular, we were focusing on what's called sterile injectable drugs, drugs that are in vials and syringes, prefilled syringes. And then COVID-19, happened. And we were some of the first ones in the country to let the administration know HHS, as many as we could in the federal government that these are the medicines you're going to run out of. They were already in shortage before COVID-19, and they're going to be used heavily for patients who are in critical care settings. Hospitalized settings completely pivoted our model and strategy to start focusing on those essential medicines. So what we did was we filed for a federal government contract through BARDA, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is a division of HHS. BARDA is one of the groups that have been focusing heavily on getting these vaccines rolling for COVID-19. But they also work on other therapeutics as well. And we were basically waving our hands saying, don't forget about these essential generic medicines. They are in shortage, they're critical shortage. And we really got their attention when India shut down the export of twenty six essential active ingredients and essential medicines and refused to let them out of the country. And that's when we basically were saying, look how vulnerable our supply chain has become. And so Phlow's solution is to bring all of that back to the United States. We start with a rapid surge response. So we're making medicines right now through contract manufacturers on U.S. soil. And then we have a longer term strategy to rebuild the infrastructure and this contract awarded by the federal government affords us that opportunity to do that right here in Virginia.

Justin Forman: So quite sizable contract. I think some of the press clippings was $340 million dollar contract. Give us the scope. Is it a couple of specific COVID-19 focused medicines that you guys are working towards? Or is it kind of a broader scope than that?

Eric Edwards: Yeah, it's a broad scope. So the full contract's up to eight hundred, ten million with three hundred fifty four million guaranteed. And what that affords us is the ability to bring back this infrastructure right here to the US. You know, I have to tell you, everything about this has been providential, providential relationships, providential timing. You know, I'd never in a million years imagine that this would be that next company that I would be working on. So for us, it involves two things. One is how do we get as many medicines as possible into the strategic national stockpile to support hospitalized COVID patients? How do we make these active ingredients that haven't been made on U.S. soil for, in some cases two decades? And then how do we build infrastructure to ensure long term sustainability? So this involves all of those components. And we've already delivered over one point six million doses of medicines to the strategic national stockpile that involved about a half a dozen medicines. And every single day we are working feverishly to manufacture more and get more into the stockpile. We have active calls with the United States government daily to try to achieve the mission and vision of the company and to help support patients in case there is a second wave so that none of these medicines end up becoming a headline.

Justin Forman: So talk to us about the speed of pivoting, because when you're talking about the first entrepreneurial venture that you guys run together, you reference the idea of just so much of the red tape and bureaucracy. But the hoops and the things that you jump through to that, it seems like the pivot here obviously under different circumstances in our country. It's been rapid. It's fast. Lot of providential opportunities there. But compare and contrast what you guys were operating under right now versus what you experienced in your first venture.

Eric Edwards: So, I mean, the first venture, you are inventing a product and it is taking seven years to get through FDA approval of that product. And then you build a commercial customer base and you get it launched. So you go into that knowing that you're going to raise a ton of capital. You're not gonna be profitable for years. You're going to be burning cash like it's a big oxygen tank that just got turned on and you're just watching that oxygen escape the tank.

In this case, it's a completely different level of stress and level of timing because, you know, we're being asked to put together this infrastructure and get these medicines manufactured as fast as humanly possible by leveraging creative partnerships and leveraging existing infrastructure in the US, while in parallel rebuilding new infrastructure with advanced technology to help us be competitive against foreign countries.

So one of the major reasons why we lost this industrial base in the first place was because of cheap labor and pushing all of this overseas. So we have to be competitive and creative and innovative in a different way. So instead of innovating on a specific product or products or platform, which is what occurred at Kaleo, what we're doing at Phlow is we're innovating on the processes and how we're going to make these medicines and how we're going to disrupt the supply chain and create an entire new way for us to build generics here in America so that we can ensure that any human being, any family member in the US can always have access to the most essential medicines to sustain life. That is a vision that we are trying to accomplish here, and it's going to require a lot of hard work and innovation. But it's interesting to see how God has used that experience from Kaleo. The good, the bad, the challenges, the hard things and the lessons from failure and have allowed me to apply those with an amazing team that he's put around us. I mean, I can't believe I get to come to work every day and work with these God fearing folks and for these individuals who are around us who believe that they, too, are called to this and a providential manner. And it's just amazing to see that happen.

Justin Forman: I'd love to push into that faith element here in a second. But one last question. I really want to push in here a little bit about Phlow. Health care obviously means so much. And, you know, it's a fundamental part of life, but it's increasingly even seen as a matter of national defense. You talk about the stockpile that had run low. You guys are a part of rebuilding that effort. How do you think COVID has changed the way that we view the medical industry versus technology and advancement, national defense? It seems like it's sitting at that cross-section.

Eric Edwards: Yeah, it is definitely a matter of national public health security. I think that it is a bipartisan issue. Democrats and Republicans, everyone we talk to, they all see that this is a challenge that we need to overcome uniformly. We always say, listen, we're not against a global supply chain. Global supply chain is really important for the world. But what we're for is making sure that our most essential medicines and their ingredients are available to be manufactured here on U.S. soil to protect human life. You know, a lot of these medicines, it's important to understand it's not just for COVID-19 ICU patients. These are for all types of patients. These are those agents that are used to help innovate a patient and sedate patient. These are pain management agents. So they're used for all sorts of conditions that extend well beyond COVID-19. I think what this has opened up is it's opened up the government. It's opened up manufacturers. It's opened up payers. It's opened up everyone to say, whoa, whoa, what are we doing here? How did we lose this industrial base? Why is it that we walk into an airport and we'll pick up a bottle of Fiji water and spend four dollars on water, but we won't spend a dollar 30 on the most essential antibiotics needed in order to protect and sustain human life? How did we get there? So we have to rethink everything around the supply chain, distribution, pricing, reimbursement, manufacturing, and we're hopefully coming out of this. Everyone's going to engage in that conversation. We're going to take this lesson, see where we're vulnerable and make sure that we shore up. As a matter of national public health security, those areas that need to be solidified.

Do you guys feel like you're in a race against a timeline here? Is there a deadline here? I mean, you referenced earlier, it's a unique thing where it's as soon as possible. You know, tomorrow. Great. Let's do it. What can we do tomorrow? There are certain limitations, constraints. Do you feel like you're up against a race for another wave of COVID or something else coming up here in the fall that you had your line in the sand on?

Eric Edwards: Well, every day we have conversations with key key government officials, FEMA, the strategic national stockpile folks, the U.S. government, the administration themselves, HHS and then BARDA are program managers and everyone is working around the clock. I can tell you that this administration is not becoming complacent. They are realizing we have to get things done as fast as possible to deal with the reality that a second wave is real.

It's possible we already see data in many states, I think 19 now, where the numbers are starting to creep back up in America. So then our responsibility is to work behind the scenes to make sure that we take the lessons from the first peak and see what was utilized and what was pulled out of the channel and where hospitals were running low. And we make sure that if they deal with that again or it even gets worse, they never have to ask, do I have this medicine available? It's there for them. And so that's what we're chasing. And that's what we're working hard to make sure it's handled. Again, we want to keep these medicines out of the headlines. If they're kept out of the headlines and we have enough in the stockpile and we're working as hard as possible. We know that we're doing our jobs to equip our first responders, our frontline health care workers with what they need to treat patients during this unfortunate pandemic.

Justin Forman: Give a perspective in terms of percentages. I know you talked about some that were under shortfall and we're out of running out of 90 percent of all drugs. Were they being manufactured overseas? And what is that number? And I guess where do you think that that will be when all of this might shake out?

Eric Edwards: Yeah. So we're focused on a very specific group of drugs. So it's not all drugs. And that's you know, you classify this into drugs that we're in shortage before even COVID-19 began and then in a central medicine list. And a lot of these are generics. A lot of these are sterile injectable drugs. So I'll give an example. When you've heard of Operation Warp Speed, you've heard of all these vaccine developers were once you developed the vaccine. Now you're going to have to utilize the capacity to get those vaccines into vials and syringes. Right. And there's only a certain amount of capacity available for that. So our job is to make sure that even when all these medicines are being manufactured and being prioritized, that we have enough available in case we need to use this excess capacity to make vaccines to serve the country and to serve the world. When you're talking about percentage of what we're talking about, of these central medicines that we're focused on, these drugs and shortage, you know, over 80 percent of them are manufactured outside of the United States.

The active ingredients are not here. So we have to bring that back. And we started turning on programs to make them on U.S. soil. And, you know, it's going to take some time. This is not something that happens overnight, but we're securing and procuring these active ingredients, these chemical precursors, to make sure that we have that supply available in case we need to convert it into finished product and get it into stockpile. So we've got plans in place and we're working feverishly, as I said earlier, to get this done.

Henry Kaestner: You found yourself on the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast. So I'm going to ask you a question about what have you learned about being a Faith Driven Entrepreneur? How's that apply itself to what you're going through? Maybe it's with your partners, vendors, customers, employees. I shouldn't prescribe or presume what it looks like, but what's a unique angle beyond being, you know, some amount of this podcast up until now, it could have been CNBC or MSNBC talking about guys that are innovating at the highest level at scale on something that's of national emergency status, but bringing into the faith part. How do you see God at work? Riff a little bit in a way that I'll share with our large audience of faith driven entrepreneurs how you see God at work in a way that might be an encouragement to them. Maybe it's a challenge to them.

Evan Edwards: I'm just listening to Eric talk about Phlow. And I know every single day when I try to get in touch with him he is going a million miles an hour as a CEO in which I pray for. Just so I have to have patience. Well, while he's doing that, you know, I've basically become an assistant kindergarten teacher locked down here in Germany. So it's completely different worlds and that perspective has been very different. So while Eric was consulting and then ended up starting this company as a CEO, that has extreme impact and significance, as we've talked about with the COVID crisis. You know, I supported my wife and we moved to Germany last year. I've been doing some consulting. But when COVID-19 hit, that all got shut down. And we've been doing distance learning from home with my three boys.

And so from a faith standpoint, especially as an entrepreneur, you know, people sometimes take a step back and they say, oh, wow, you must have it perfect. Like you move to Germany and your wife's working and you're just hanging out with your kids. And, you know, that must be just the best thing in the world, and it's interesting because the last couple months for me have been mentally challenging because as an entrepreneur and I think many individuals are listening can appreciate this. You miss that intellectual stimulation. And I've really had to turn to God when you have your identical twin brother who started another company going a million miles an hour, won this huge government contract and you're in a different country sitting there. You start saying, wow, you know, God right now is calling me to focus on my family and to also see this culture. But do you also find yourself saying, okay, we know that it's not my timing. It's your timing, Lord. So when's my time coming? And what's going to be, you know, given that I did everything with Eric?

Eric Edwards: I don't know. I told him to move right back to Richmond as soon as possible and help out.

Henry Kaestner: Yeah, that must be incredibly interesting dynamic for you guys have worked that closely together for that long. I'm sure Eric wanted you, missed you. And yet you saying as cool as my brother undoubtedly is, I need to seek God first in where He has me. Tell me more about that, Evan. Because I'm sure from Eric's perspective it's like, dude, get on a plane. As good as the beer is in Germany. I need you back now.

Evan Edwards: Multiple times he has said that exact statement and I'll be honest, it's been hard not helping him simply because I know him better than anyone. I know the stress he goes under and the highs and lows that he hits. And I also know you see the media attention that Phlow has received and they really don't understand his heart and what he's trying to do. When you see some of the negative media and I think you just have to turn away from that and see that God has a bigger plan. But there's no doubt to your point, when you have your best friend doing amazing things, you want to be right there. At the same token, you know, you also have this amazing responsibility to your family. And I've been blessed with this amazingly intelligent, beautiful wife who was called.

You have to recognize that other people in your family and other people may also be being called as being entrepreneurs. My wife is starting a company here. She's been called here to be a duty contractor to create a company or a new office as an architect to work on military bases. And I remember, you know, as I was going through Kaleo, she'd look at me and be like, okay, you know, we've always talked about moving to Europe. And I had to admit to myself, it can't always be about me. Right. I have to recognize that God gave her these talents of creativity and design and architecture. And we have to work as a family unit together. And she supported me and sacrificed tremendously for over 17 years with Kaleo. The least I can do is support her and learn about that. And flipping roles, by the way, has been incredibly humbling, incredibly challenging to go from working a million miles an hour, a million hours, burning the candle, both ends to focusing on my kids. And it's completely different. And there's no question about it's being extremely rewarding. And it's showing me that you can be an entrepreneur and God can call you to do very innovative things in your homes as well.

Henry Kaestner: Eric talked about that from what you're seeing as you're looking to honor God and what you're learning from God in the midst of continuing to go a million miles an hour. What are you learning?

Eric Edwards: Well, I'll first say that I have a ton of respect and love from my brother, who I think has the harder job. My wife homeschools and I tell her that teaching is not my spiritual gift, but I'm a really good principal. And, you know, it's just I have so much respect for what Evan's doing and how he's been called to support his wife. From what I'm doing at work right now, I feel like I'm living kind of my Nehemiah moment if I had to be honest with you. Right. You know, you think about Nehemiah. This is someone who faced a seemingly impossible task and unsolvable problem and an unbelievable challenge. And that situation became his finest hour. I feel like we're facing an impossible task, a huge challenge, and trying to, you know, rebuild this infrastructure and do it as fast as possible. And we're hoping that we're able to demonstrate and show that God can do anything through people and through the right team and the right vision, which I think I see God's hands in all of that. And then the ideas that have come forward and inventions and the providential relationships and the partnerships. None of this is me to people that are around this company and who've decided to hold their hand up and say, I'm ready to do something significant. The people who've decided that, you know what, I'm going to leave retirement and I'm going to join this team because I see the significant impact it can have on this country and in the world. That's where you see God and I see it every day. And so, yeah, for me, it's living a Nehemiah a moment and trying to bring back a lost industry. And that's the generic drug manufacturing industry.

Henry Kaestner: One of the things, of course, we want to close out every one of the podcast episodes, whether it's Faith Driven Entrepreneur, Investor, or Athlete, is something that our guests are hearing from God through his word. And maybe it's this morning through your quiet time. Maybe it's over the course of the last week or so. Evan, I'll start with you. Anything that you're feeling that God is speaking to you right now through his word?

Evan Edwards: Yeah. And let me just say thank you so much for having us. It's been just a pleasure having this conversation. As I mentioned, I'm going through a season of life right now where I'm missing my family and wondering what God's purpose is for my life after seeing everything that Eric has been doing the last few months. And so what has really reached out to me, I think about Jeremiah 29:11 is a verse that sticks out to me, which as you know, "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." So I'm holding onto that, knowing that his timing is perfect indeed.

Henry Kaestner: Great word.

Eric Edwards: That's fantastic. And I'd just say that I know that when God wants to accomplish a great thing, a great work, he always equips his workers and puts them in the right place at the right time. That's why Nehemiah specifically said in his own prayer. Make your servant successful today. He didn't pray. God send a miracle. He said, God send me. He didn't pray for a miracle. He prayed for an opportunity and for me. I see that in this company. I see that with the shared values we're creating. One of the shared values that the team decided to hone in on was servant leadership. And I'm hoping that we're able to do that. And I'm able to serve our team well, serve the country well, and serve patients in America. And I feel like God is just equipping us to do that. It's a true honor, and I'm humbled to have this opportunity. But for me, it's just servant leadership is what I hope to instill as a value that is seen in everything we do.

Henry Kaestner: Good word, guys. Thank you very much for being with us, sharing your story in your heart and praying for both of you. You know, Justin, as we leave this program, I'm struck by just how valuable these lessons are and then the way the podcast episode here's ending. That some number of our audience are feeling that they, too, are going a million miles an hour. They're listening in this on 630 a.m. commute into the office. And they've got five thousand things to do as soon as they entered the office. And then others are in a period of time in which they are like Evan waiting on the Lord. And this is a unique opportunity to talk to two guys who are identical twins, best friends, and are in this spot where they're both endeavoring to be faithful with what they have and relying on God. And it's just a really interesting juxtaposition that represents so much of what an entrepreneur is as they are feeling like, gosh, I'm going to have my opportunity or I guess I'm right in the throes of it. And it's kind of like you're all on or all off. But in this story, I really get a sense that they're always just trying to be in tune with God. And that's a great lesson no matter where we find ourselves in this particular season.