Chattanooga biotech company Glenveigh Medical could save your business thousands of dollars, even if you never pay them a cent. Founded by maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) specialist Dr. C. David Adair, Glenveigh is developing drugs and devices to prevent the major causes of premature births: preeclampsia and premature rupture of membranes.

One in eight births in Tennessee is premature and, according to the March of Dimes, preemies cost their parents' employers an average of $41,546 more than full-term babies. Adair believes that the company's products can extend pregnancies by weeks, saving up to $1.5 million for a single infant. "His research is going to save the taxpayer and programs like Medicare potentially billions of dollars," says Rep. Zach Wamp.

Glenveigh's first product, the "pelvic pack," designed by two MFM doctors to stop bleeding after gynecological surgery, is due to launch in 2009. Earlier this year, the company licensed intellectual property for the treatment of preeclampsia with a drug called Digibind to Protherics PLC. Protherics, whose U.S. headquarters is in Brentwood, expects to launch the drug by 2011, with potential sales over $1 billion.

Ten years ago, however, Digibind almost cost Adair his future. As a faculty member at LSU-Shreveport, he was so convinced the drug would work that he funded the research himself with as many credit cards as he could get his hands on. He even pawned his grandfather's watch.

Despite his success treating patients, drug companies were not interested. With their personal finances in peril, Adair's wife put her foot down. If she heard any more about Digibind, she said, he would hear the other "d" word—"divorce." So, in 1998, he took a position in Tennessee and gave up his research. Four years later, Digibind manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline finally came calling. "I was afraid to tell my wife for six months," Adair says.

By then, he had fallen in love with Chattanooga and refused offers of funding contingent on moving elsewhere. "Chattanooga is a little out of the way," he admits, "but we have an airport and lots of amenities to attract people: a decent tax structure, nearby universities and a talented workforce." Glenveigh has always conducted its research coordination, accounting and legal work in Chattanooga, and CEO Rick Proctor will soon move to Tennessee from North Carolina's Research Triangle.

Glenveigh's economic impact may be regional; but for Adair, venture capital means that he can reach patients worldwide. "In the middle of the night, when I'm hopefully home asleep," he muses, "one of our devices or drugs is going to save somebody's life."