The two met years earlier at Pharmacia, and realized they could turn their skills in developing basic compounds into a viable business.

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The problem, as Knowles saw it, was that the company was too focused on exotic basic research and neglected the less glamorous work of concocting compounds with the right combination of efficacy, safety and convenience to become big sellers.

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Synta, on the other hand, uses the same basic approach that drug companies have used for centuries: taking a library of thousands of chemical compounds, and testing those compounds one by one in the lab until something seems to work.

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