From Lawyer to Cancer Researcher
From Lawyer to Cancer Researcher: A Small Business Success Story
Sometimes having a great idea for a small business means making a complete change in profession. For Greg Colip, this was certainly the case. He was happy as an attorney specializing in Houston’s booming oil and gas business. However, one quick talk with a friend gave him the business idea of his life, along with a new and more meaningful career.
Jerry Bryant was a local scientist working for a local cancer center. While most doctors use PET scans to find cancer, Bryant’s employer had discovered a chemical that would make tumors light up on a much cheaper piece of equipment, a SPECT camera.
Colip also had experience working in the pharmaceutical industry, so he was the obvious person to talk to. Bryant wanted Colip to help him turn this new technology into an industry product that could save lives. This led to the creation of Cell>Point, a company developing this technology for release in 2010.
Many people haven’t heard of SPECT cameras, but they are present in most hospitals—six times as many as PET scanners, in fact, due to their much lower cost—and currently used for cardiac imaging and bone density scans. This means that the new technology will make cancer screening more accessible to the average American. Further, because SPECT cameras cost less to operate, patients will be able to get this screening for about half of what a PET scan currently costs.
Not only is this a cheaper option, it is one that is more effective, even in its current stage of development. The SPECT technology system that Cell>Point is developing can find tumors as small as 2 millimeters and is a more reliable indicator of whether these tumors are malignant. PET scans currently have a false positive rate of around 40%. This means that patients will have to undergo fewer unnecessary biopsies and treatments.
Even better, the new technology exposes patients and health practitioners to less radiation. Another added bonus is that doctors will be able to see after just two weeks whether a cancer treatment is working. This treatment doesn’t just mean a success business for Colip, but a better chance of getting the diagnosis and treatment that patients need.
The FDA approval process is long and costly, but Cell>Point’s promising treatment has already raised $33 million in investments, much of it from the medical community. The technology is currently being tested at top medical clinics, including the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and Montefiore.
The projected success of this treatment has inspired further research into other cost-saving technologies. The same isotope may be efficient for cancer treatment. A similar technology is being developed to detect Alzheimer’s disease in a similar manner.
These business owners never dreamed that this idea could come to fruition in such a lucrative way. While changing careers at age 60 is never easy, sometimes it is more of an opportunity than a trial. New businesses change lives, not just medically but in every way imaginable.
