BINGHAMTON, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – A chemist who once took graduate classes at Binghamton University has returned to our area to get his pharmaceutical research and development firm off the ground.

This month’s Koffman Innovations segment features XCHEM.

Founded last year by CEO Charles Ogindo, XCHEM offers 2 distinct services to drug makers.

First, Ogindo devises less expensive methods for pharmaceutical companies to test the potency and purity of their drugs in order to satisfy regulatory agencies.

Ogindo says the goal is to generate lots of consistent data to prove the medicine’s efficacy.

He says the companies then hire another third party to actually perform the validation.

Ogindo says, “Mine is just to use my knowledge, as far as training and theory, to produce a good quality method and then they can transfer it to another company for regular use.”

XCHEM’s other contract service is developing methods to synthesize different drug compounds, specifically producing methods for conjugating proteins and antibodies.

Ogindo grew up in Kenya and attended Kenyatta University in Nairobi before coming to the US.
After studying at BU from 2002 to 2006, he got his doctorate in Chemistry from Howard University and worked in private industry honing his techniques.

After saving enough money to launch his own firm, he discovered that BU had helped to found the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator.

“It was very attractive and the terms were great. And then I’m familiar with the area, I know professors in the department, the resources are available for the kind of thing I wanted to do. So, I said, Man, this would be a great area.'”

Ogindo says he has already signed one contract to perform synthesis on behalf of a drug maker.

He says the more he proves that his methods can be effective at a lower cost than his competitors, he hopes to sign many more contracts in the future.