Pharma Form Solutions carves out niche with contract research

Pharma Form Solutions sees a need in the pharmaceutical industry (contract research) and is making headway to meet it in Ann Arbor.

The less-than-1-year-old company was launched by a couple of locals who have more than 50 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. They saw that companies in that sector, both big and small, are looking to outsource some of their lab research work instead of shouldering the costs of maintaining their own research facilities.

"There is a tremendous need for this sort of discovery work done in the pharma industry," Barry Paxton, CEO & co-founder Pharma Form Solutions.

Pharma Form Solutions provides contract research services and offers high quality solid-state screening services, process development, and a generation of intellectual property associated with physical forms of research compounds.

The company recently won the "Most Committed to the Business Model Canvas Process Award" award at Ann Arbor SPARK's most recent Entrepreneur Boot Camp. Paxton points out the boot camp experience help his three-person firm see that it has both opportunities to get work from both big pharmaceutical companies and smaller pharma start-ups.

"The best way we found to penetrate the market is to do work with these small pharmaceutical companies," Paxton says. "It's a more direct path to get into a profitable business."

Source: Barry Paxton, CEO & co-founder Pharma Form Solutions
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.