Hi! I’m Doug, the founder of Pace Pharmaceuticals. I’m developing drugs for common neurological diseases.
This vial contains my lead asset — PAC-832, a first-in-class small molecule GalR1 antagonist for improving cognition in Alzheimer’s disease patients. Read more about PAC-832 below:
Everybody thinks it takes a large team and millions of dollars to develop a new drug. They’re wrong.
All the labor to invent PAC-832 and advance it past the discovery stage — including the drug design, organic synthesis, analytical chemistry, formulation science, assay development, bioanalysis, cell experiments, animal experiments, and data analysis — was performed by a team of two: me and my dad. Significant work was also done by ChatGPT, Claude Code, and an OpenTrons OT-2 liquid handling robot.
I funded everything using my savings from my prior PhD and postdoc.
I’m now preparing PAC-832 for Phase 1 clinical trials — scaling up manufacturing and preparing for animal toxicity studies.
I’m concurrently working on a second drug for schizophrenia, PAC-1231, which is rapidly progressing through the discovery phase.