Qualyst

To hear Dhiren Thakker talk about the place of Qualyst at the Innovation Center, listen here.

Just because a certain chemical works on disease cells in a test tube doesn't mean that it will have the same effect in patients. Much careful, time-consuming, and expensive trial-and-error testing in non-clinical studies and clinical trials must be done to find out if a chemical has what it takes to become a successful drug.

But what if a drug developer could use technology - perhaps a handy test kit - to identify the chemical compounds most likely to succeed as drugs? That was the premise behind the creation of Qualyst, a company founded in 2001 by Dhiren Thakker, and two other UNC pharmacy professors, Kim Brouwer, and Gary Pollack. "The technologies that Qualyst is marketing actually are very innovative," Thakker said. "Drug companies did not have these test-tube based technologies that allow us to predict how these drug molecules will behave in the body when given to patients."

Why would three pharmacy professors want to enter the pharmaceutical marketplace with their tiny company? Partly because the big drug companies have less agility when it comes to discovering new drugs and partly because the big companies are more focused on the profit motive for the products they do bring to market, Thakker explained. He spent 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry, working at Glaxo, before coming to UNC. "The desire to start a company has nothing to do or very little to do with money or financial reward. It has everything to do with 'How can I take my research and make an impact on the society?'" Thakker said. "If we can't make that impact, then a part of our mission is not accomplished."

Qualyst, its office now located in Raleigh, recently expanded its scope to include the manufacturing of a patented kit for predicting how potential drugs would be cleared from the human liver. For this expansion, the company needs more people and more space, or to create new alliances.

Thakker's company could be a prime tenant in the proposed Innovation Center at Carolina North. The business accelerator, to be built in partnership with Alexandria Real Estate Equities of Pasadena, Calif., is designed to house start-up companies with direct ties to UNC research. The University will provide the site for the 85,000-square-foot building, while Alexandria will build the center and retain ownership and hold leasing rights for 40 years. As the first building to be constructed on the new mixed-use academic campus two miles away, and situated at its main entrance, the Innovation Center will set the tone for Carolina North.

"I believe our faculty need this facility and they need it now," UNC Chancellor James Moeser has said. "Many faculty working on start-up companies have had to find space outside the University.

Faculty like Dhiren Thakker and his pharmacy colleagues. "Having an incubation/accelerator facility such as the one that is conceived in the Innovation Center is absolutely critical for UNC," Thakker said.