The city of Rocky Mount has submitted a grant application to the state that could bolster the chances of a new pharmaceutical plant opening.
For more than two decades, Howard Phykitt has been working to perfect the formula for his potassium-based water-soluble aspirin.
Phykitt said Aquaprin is better than aspirin because it tastes good, hits the bloodstream much faster, lasts longer and doesn’t eat away at stomach lining.
He is hoping the grant can help jump-start the project.
The grant would give his company, PharmStar Pharmaceuticals, credibility with major pharmaceutical companies, he said.
“When they see it (the plant) up and operating, that’s a major step towards partnering with a major pharmaceutical company,” Phykitt said. “We’d love to partner with a major pharmaceutical company to do marketing. But if it doesn’t happen, we are prepared to go on our own.”
With the help of investors, he has been trying to open the plant to produce Aquaprin and related products out of 17,000 square feet of industrial space in the former Schlage Lock building across the street from the Ford’s Colony Shopping Center, just north of N.C. Wesleyan College off Wesleyan Boulevard.
The space has been vacant since the late 1980s, when contaminated soil and groundwater was found at the site. But the problem has been rectified through North Carolina Brownfields program in a plant on U.S. 301.
Phykitt’s plan is to also conduct tests on the products so advertising claims can be substantiated.
On March 9, Rocky Mount City Council members endorsed the project when they voted to submit an application for $336,000 to the N.C. Rural Center to renovate the building. A letter from Assistant City Manager Peter Varney states that PharmStar Pharmaceuticals is investing over $10 million in building improvements and process equipment and will be hiring 150 employees.
The council’s resolution states that the city is “in full support of the application.”
The Carolinas Gateway Partnership has agreed to pitch in more than $10,000 towards the project.
Phykitt said in this down economy, it has been difficult to raise the $6 million needed to get the plant operating.
“We were doing well, but when the economy changed, everyone became tight with money,” he said. “It’s like everyone clammed up all of the sudden. It just delays it. That’s all. It’s going to happen.”
In 1993, Phykitt formed Health Corp. to research and manufacture an earlier version of the soluble aspirin product in the Shepp Velour building at 620 Health Drive.
That earlier version was marketed through a national broker network to retail pharmacy chains and wholesalers. The product, which was protected with three patents, was sold in Eckerd Drug stores, but wasn’t a best seller.
“It was not produced in a good market-acceptable form,” Phykitt previously had said.
Phykitt said his recent version of AquaPrin is perfected.
“There is no potassium-based aspirin in the world. There are sodium-based ones, and calcium-based ones in Europe, which are very successful products,” he said.
The building’s owner, Carlton Harlow, also is an investor in the project. He said the grant will renovate the building for an office, a limited production area and laboratory space. “These rooms have to be heated and air conditioned and humidity controlled,” he said.
Harlow acknowledged that in this down economy, it isn’t the best time to be bringing a new product to the market.
“It is going to happen. The timing is not good, but it’s not good for anybody else,” he said.
AquaPrin, which comes in a small foil packet containing a granular formulation, chemically reacts when mixed with water. The pain reliever hits the system much faster than a tablet, Phykitt said.
“This reaction instantly dissolves the aspirin particles, or scum, and also becomes an antacid instead of being acidic,” the company’s business plan states. “The result is a great-tasting drink.”
AquaPrin comes in the flavors of peach, raspberry, strawberry and lemon lime.
In an interview this week, Phykitt said relatively speaking, $6 million is not a lot of investment capital to bring a pharmaceutical to market.
“That is very small for a product like this is with a potential for over a billion in sales,” he said.
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