URI Students Launch Pharmaceutical Company
By: Tim Studebaker
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Twitter: @TStudebakerABC6
Email: tstudebaker@abc6.com
KINGSTON, R.I. – Anyone who has known a cancer patient knows that treatments can be difficult. Three PhD students at URI are trying to help. They’re working to develop potential new medications. They’re grad students by day and executives by night.
The company’s Chief Scientific Officer Kenneth Rose says, “We’re focused mainly on what’s called BRCA1 and [BRCA]2 mutations. These are cancers mostly of ovarian and breast type. They’re very deadly, and we’re looking to make therapeutics to improve survivability.”
Their focus is a group of drugs often used as a last resort. The goal is to make drugs that are more tolerable so they can be used earlier in cancer treatment. They’re using computers and big data to do their research.
Chief Technology Officer Benjamin Barlock says, “Everything we used was free, online, open source programs where we could generate a drug to fit a specific part of the protein perfectly.”
The students are early on in the process, but they’re hoping to develop a product and bring it to market with some help.
Chief Executive Officer Nick DaSilva says, “We’re just trying to get to the point where a larger company, let’s say your Merck, your Pfizer, your Amgen, is really going to try to sponsor us and take this drug to the market.”
And, they hope to do it all right here in Rhode Island.
If you are interested in learning more, visit their website at https://www.alcinouspharmaceuticals.com/
©WLNE-TV / ABC6 2017
