QPS Holdings offers example of life after DuPont
As hundreds of former DuPont Co. employees plot their next move, Delaware officials are encouraging many to consider launching companies of their own.
DuPont, after all, has a rich history of spawning entrepreneurs whose ventures have become some of the state’s biggest and most innovative businesses.
Some are well-known, such as W.L. Gore & Associates and Incyte, while others are just under the radar.
QPS Holdings, for instance, is not a name recognized by most Delawareans.
But founder Ben Chien is still hoping his company can offer inspiration to ex-DuPonters searching for a success story to model.
Launched in 1996 with just three employees, QPS now earns about $125 million in annual revenue and employs about 1,200 people worldwide, including nearly 300 at two sites in Delaware.
“I think it’s good to see somebody who has done it before,” Chien said. “I’m an ordinary guy who built something here and maybe that will convince others that they can do it too.”
Former DuPont workers pursue their own businesses
Based at Delaware Technology Park in Newark, QPS conducts bioanalytical testing for hundreds of clients, ranging from the most promising biotech startups to some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.
The company offers a range of services aimed at helping those businesses bring their drug candidates through clinical trials and on to federal approval.
But its main focus involves analyzing blood, urine and tissue samples to understand how a drug moves through the body. Drug developers looking to bring their products to market are required to provide those test results to federal regulators, ensuring QPS’s services are in high demand.
“Every compound has different characteristics,” Chien said. “So each one presents its own challenges and you have to do different things, chemistry-wise, to overcome the problem and create a map book that’s reliable for measuring the drug.”
Chien launched the business after a brief stint in DuPont’s former pharmaceutical division that began after he earned his doctorate in organic chemistry.
At the time, DuPont Merck was looking to harness an emerging technology called LC/MS that combines the analytical power of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.
“There were six instruments in the world at that time and they cost like half a million dollars for each one,” Chief said. “They were very nice toys and my job was to make them useful.”
It proved to be an easy task.
“Difficult projects that used to take years to develop could be solved within two or three weeks with these machines,” he said. “It was so useful, I thought I should go start my own company so I could serve even more clients.”
With $280,000 borrowed from family and friends, Chien struck out on his own, quickly capitalizing on both his technological expertise and impeccable timing.
The launch of QPS coincided with a surge in demand for contract research services as pharmaceutical companies increasingly outsourced their research operations. More recently, a slew of small biotech firms have emerged to conduct early-stage drug discovery work in the hopes of being acquired by major pharmaceutical companies at the end of their clinical trials.
Both trends have proved profitable for companies like QPS.
Spinoffs to stay in Delaware after Dow-DuPont merger
“We became a million-dollar business in our first year,” Chien said. “And we’ve managed to grow every year since then except for one: 2008.”
While the Great Recession took its toll on the company’s bottom line, Chien managed to seize opportunity during the economic downturn.
“Either you retreat or you compete,” he said. “So we charged forward and started being more aggressive, acquiring seven companies in five years.”
The acquisition of overseas testing firms made QPS a global company. New divisions in Sweden, the Netherlands, India and Taiwan also enabled the company to quadruple its revenue in just five years.
“The clinical-trial testing, toxicology, late-phase clinical testing, we all acquired,” Chien said. “Now QPS as a whole is like a small pharmaceutical company. We can do everything except manufacturing.”
Chien will be weighing his options on that front next. But first, he wants to ensure QPS is excelling in its central mission of bioanalytics.
That includes adding 100 new workers this year globally, about a third of whom will be hired in Delaware.
Chien said he anticipates some of those positions will got to former DuPonters who lost their jobs as part of the most recent round of layoffs.
“I look for people with passion,” he said. “I look at people’s character and integrity more than their skill set or experience.”
Chien, who moved to California in 2005, said he is hoping some of those former DuPonters also consider following in his footsteps.
“Starting a business is not easy. It takes long hours and hard work,” he said. “But if you have support from your family and you believe in yourself, sometimes in life you just have to take a chance.”
Contact business reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.