TCH Pharmaceuticals scores $200K in loans, retains ex-Pfizer talent

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

Ann Arbor-based TCH Pharmaceuticals will use a $200,000 loan from the state of Michigan to hire four people, all ex-Pfizer employees.

"These four will be the first employees of the company," says Thomas A Collet, president and CEO of TCH Pharmaceuticals.

The 4-year-old company, currently staffed by its three co-founders, commercializes non-toxic proteasome inhibitors to be used in therapies that treat inflammatory diseases. It is using technology licensed from Michigan State University.

"We have a family of compounds we want to take into clinical development," Collet says. "They would help us do that."

TCH Pharmaceuticals (TCH is an acronym for the founders' last names) is one of five Michigan companies to share the most recent $530,000 in loans from the state's Company Formation and Growth Fund. That initiative began in 2007, shortly after Pfizer announced the closing of its Ann Arbor campus. It's aimed at keeping Pfizer's talent in-state by accelerating start-up formation and growth. The fund has made $8 million in loans to a total of 41 life-science companies in Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Jackson, Livonia, and Saline.

Source: Thomas A Collet, president and CEO of TCH Pharmaceuticals
Writer: Jon Zemke