Memchan Pharma is a venture promoted by Arthur M. “Buzz” Brown, M.D., Ph.D., who established ChanTest Corp. in Ohio in 1998. The company was a contract research organization that tested compounds for more than 500 global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and partnered with them to speed the drug development process for the release of better and safer drugs. In 2014, ChanTest was acquired by Charles River Laboratories International for $59 million. Dr. Brown continues to serve as Scientific Advisor to ChanTest and recently founded a new drug discovery company, MemChan Pharma.

Memchan Pharma signed a joint agreement with Qualtran LLC to use Dielectrophoresis as an investigative too to detect cancer cells in the blood. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is an electrokinetic method that allows intrinsic dielectric properties of suspended cells to be exploited for discrimination and separation. It has emerged as a promising method for isolating circulation tumor cells (CTCs) from blood.

This research project will be carried out in India with leading research institutions such a CSIR and Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. The objective would be to establish efficacy of the process in detection of the cancer cells in the blood and commercialize the technology after the research study. Qualtran has been instrumental in helping us with 2 of our earlier projects in drug discovery and we are happy to engage with them again on this new exciting project, said Dr. Arthur Brown, Chairman of Memchan Pharma.