DETROIT (WXYZ) — Big news for Detroit is coming on the heels of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East. A local business started nearly three decades ago is branching into a separate business and their world headquarters will be built in the city of Detroit.
I sat down with the founder of Detroit Life Sciences. They are launching a global supply chain business that will bring jobs, housing and a whole new ecosystem to the Motor City.
Watch the video report below:
Global health care company bringing new headquarters to Detroit
Stephen Shaya is a physician by trade and so was his late father who started the company J & B Medical with his wife 28 years ago.
We went for a walk through their massive warehouse in Wixom.
“My late father would always say the best way to give back is to provide jobs and opportunity to people,” Shaya said.
So now Shaya, a married father of three, has founded Detroit Life Sciences, a global health care company under the brand name Shamekh IV.
“The idea came to me during COVID when we saw issues with the global medical supply chain,” Shaya said. “Access to health care products became kind of a political football.”
Detroit BioSciences will make IV fluids, generic drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients,” Shaya said. “Eighty percent-plus of the active pharmaceutical ingredients, which are used to make drugs, are made in China.”
Shaya, who is Chaldean Iraqi Christian, decided in 2023 to launch his company first in Saudi Arabia.
“There were 250 companies that submitted their projects to the White House, $930 billion worth of projects. We were one of a handful that got announced,” Shaya said.
Carolyn Clifford asked, “Why was it so important for you to have a facility like this in Detroit?”
“I was born and raised in Detroit. I went to school Wayne State undergrad, Wayne State Medical School,” Shaya said.
“During COVID, there were chinks in the supply chain, masks, IV-fluids, even vaccines.” That was a bit of a wake-up call for the whole world that we all need to look out for each other and we’re all more connected than people realize,” Shaya said.
Also with Wayne State, Michigan State and the University of Michigan accelerating AI, Detroit Bio-Sciences will utilize it too.
“A big part of what we’re doing is using AI to facilitate our development. Things that used to take many, many years, we can do in a third of the time,” Shaya said.
Shaya says he is being mentored by Dan Gilbert to secure one of two locations to build in 2026. The facility would be 150,000 square feet and three stories high. They are investing $500 million and will bring 500 jobs to the city.
“We’re also going to have places for folks to live, so this is not just building a facility. We want to build a whole ecosystem,” Shaya added.
Detroit is known for automotive, but Shaya is hoping just like other Midwestern industrial towns, it can now be known for health care as well.
“When you give people health, you give them hope. And you give them hope, you give them everything,” Shaya said.
