Our Business

In the pharmaceutical industry, it is generally accepted that toxicity is the cause of failure for 40% of drugs in clinical trials. Such failures are and have been a primary contributor to the steep growth in the cost of developing new drugs to treat the maladies of an ever-increasing aged global population. The failures in drug development attributable to the toxic profiles of candidates drugs is the direct result of the current inability or lack of capacity of drug developers to analyze and measure drug toxicity in parallel with the analysis of drug efficacy in the early stages of development.

New drug development at best is a high risk, time consuming, and investment intensive process. The process begins with an assessment of millions of compounds against a target disease, generally reduces to 10,000 lead candidates (compounds showing potential efficacy against targeted diseases), only one of which is likely to be commercialized. Successful candidates brought to market generally take 10-15 years from their initial selection to complete development. The estimated, fully capitalized cost to develop an approved drug ranges from $1.5-$2.0 billion

Since 2000, the pharmaceutical industry has experienced low productivity from its investment in research and development as fewer candidates progressed through the development cycle to become approved drugs. In 2009, for example, only 26 new drugs were launched. In 2010, the proportion of total prescription sales from drugs launched since 2005 was less than 7%. In the five-year period 2000-2005, the industry received 43% fewer approvals of new drugs than in the 1990’s.

Therefore, an overwhelming majority of total prescription sales currently are coming from mature drugs - many of which losing patent protection and will become subject to the severe price cutting from generic alternatives, Existing and prospective revenue losses stemming from the drugs with expiring patents has stimulated industry efforts to raise productivity.

The business of Solidus Biosciences, Inc. offers a corrective solution for the pharmaceutical industry’s revenue losses and low productivity in research and development through its high throughput, biocatalysis-based DataChip/MetaChip platform that enables comprehensive toxicological analysis at the discovery through pre-clinical phases of drug development. The DataChip/MetaChip platform includes a portfolio of products that profiles (1) direct and metabolic toxicity; (2) P450 inhibition; (3) metabolic stability and (4) enables optimization of lead compounds.

DataChip/MetaChip 2.0, designed to assess direct and metabolic stability, is currently available and in various stages of validation by potential users. The other capabilities cited above are in development and are expected to available for use within the next 12-24 months.

Our Principals

Rayton Gerald
President and Chief Executive Officer

Rayton Gerald has more than 25 years experience working as either a principal or business advisor to owners and senior management of entrepreneurial companies. He has been associated the Company and its founders for 6 years. In addition to having primary responsibilities for business planning and strategy formulation, he has had leading involvement in business development, licensing, and contract negotiations. Mr. Gerald is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and Howard University.

Douglas Clark, Ph.D.
Cofounder and Technical Adviser

Douglas S. Clark is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Vermont in 1979 and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1983. From 1984 to 1986 he was an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University. Professor Clark is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Biotechnology and Bioengineering. Dr. Clark has received several awards including the Marvin Johnson Award from the American Chemical Society (2006), the NorCal Chemical Engineering Excellence Award for Industrial Research (2004); the Food, Pharmaceutical, and Bioengineering Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2003); the International Enzyme Engineering Award (2003); and the Amgen Award in Biochemical Engineering (2003). In 2003 he was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1995 was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Jonathan Dordick, Ph.D.
Cofounder and Technical Adviser

Jonathan S. Dordick is the Howard P. Isermann Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he is also the Director of the Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies. He received his B.A. degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry from Brandeis University in 1980 and his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986. He has held chemical engineering faculty appointments at the University of Iowa (1987-1998), where he also served as the Associate Director of the Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1998-present). Prof. Dordick has received numerous awards, including the 2007 Marvin J. Johnson Award, the 2007 Elmer Gaden Award, the 2003 International Enzyme Engineering Award, the 1998 Iowa Section Award of the American Chemical Society, and an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1989. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2004 and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering in 1996.