Ash Stevens turns cancer fight into job creator, hires ex-Pfizer scientists

The pharmaceutical company was the first business to spin off from Wayne State University's Chemistry Department. It became the first tenant of the Detroit Research Park incubator in the early 1960s, a predecessor of TechTown. Unfortunately, no other businesses followed and the Research Park Apartments on Trumbull were built on the land meant to house other new economy start-ups that were supposed to reinvent Detroit's economy decades ago.

But Ash Stevens pressed on, creating powders used in cancer-fighting drugs. Today it makes three of the 100 chemical entities the FDA has approved since 2003. Ash Stevens employs 50-plus people, ranging from research & development scientists to factory hands in its Riverview drug manufacturing facility. It plans to expand that plant in the near future.

Ash Stevens also has plans to add another five to six scientists within the next two years. That's on top of the six former Pfizer scientists it recently hired.

"We didn’t want to see them leave the state," says Stephen Munk, CEO and president of Ash Stevens. "It was a good opportunity for us so we hired them."

Munk is a little envious of the new TechTown initiative. When the Detroit Research Park started it was supposed to foster the creation of new, brain-based companies and the high-paying jobs that come with them by working closely with Wayne State. The Lodge between them put a turned into a huge barrier, putting a big damper on the collaboration.

"I think they made a mistake 45 years ago," Munk says. "TechTown solved it because it's so close to Wayne State."

But not one that stopped Ash Stevens, a prime example of what these types of businesses these incubators can foster.

Source: Stephen Munk, CEO and president of Ash Stevens
Writer: Jon Zemke