By the time Brian McMillan enrolled in the University of Florida College of Pharmacy’s online master’s program, he had already spent more than two decades developing pharmaceutical products and co-founded a successful drug development company. Yet, at the age of 46, he felt something was missing.
“Early in my career, I would be sitting with world-class scientists from various academic institutions and private industry, and at times I felt overmatched,” McMillan said. “I had a lot of practical knowledge from working in the industry, but I lacked the theoretical knowledge to contribute to the conversations.”
McMillan enrolled in the pharmaceutical chemistry master’s program in 2010. The online program gave him the scientific confidence he had long sought — confidence he says helped propel him to establish a second pharmaceutical company and pursue innovative therapies inspired by research he encountered at UF.
From Formulator to Founder
McMillan’s interest in chemistry dates to his childhood. As a 5-year-old, he would mix his older sister’s cosmetics with water and other solutions in the bathroom sink. He wanted to see if there was a reaction and how quickly they would evaporate. The experiments eventually prompted his mom to buy him a chemistry set.
“I have always had this feeling that chemistry was my calling and what I am supposed to do,” said McMillan, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Ohio State University in 1989.
After college, McMillan began his career in the pharmaceutical industry, spending six years as a chemist before transitioning into drug formulation. Over the next 21 years, he held positions with Roxane Laboratories, Bausch + Lomb and MDS Pharma Services, where he contributed to the development of a wide range of products and gained experience across multiple stages of pharmaceutical development.
In 2006, McMillan put that experience to work as an entrepreneur, co-founding CoreRx in Clearwater, Florida. The company provided preformulation, formulation development, manufacturing and analytical services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academic and veterinary clients.
McMillan spent nearly 11 years helping build the start-up from the ground up. Under his leadership, CoreRx grew from 12 employees to nearly 200 and reached a valuation of $55 million. But McMillan eventually realized that the company’s direction was taking him away from the creative work that had always motivated him.
“I felt like I had grown as far as I could there,” he said. “They were shifting to generic drugs, and I always saw myself as a creative person who creates new dosage forms.”
That desire to create and innovate led McMillan to his next entrepreneurial venture. In 2020, he launched Bravado Pharmaceuticals, the first pharmaceutical company in Pasco County, Florida.
Today, Bravado operates with two complementary business models. As a contract development and manufacturing organization, or CDMO, the company helps pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies develop, test, manufacture and package drug products. Bravado also operates as a 503b pharmacy focused on sterile and nonsterile compounding, an area McMillan sees as having significant potential. The company recently expanded into women’s health with its first product in this area.
For McMillan, the path from experimenting with cosmetics in his childhood bathroom to building pharmaceutical companies has been driven by the same curiosity that started it all: a desire to understand how chemistry works and use it to create something new.
Knowledge Worth Sharing
Four years ago, McMillan lost his brother, Jeff, to cancer. He remembers him as a brilliant man who earned both his R.Ph. and M.B.A., while building a successful career in retail pharmacy as a Kroger pharmacy manager. A conversation between the brothers left a lasting impression on McMillan.
“We were discussing how you learn all this knowledge in life, but when you die, you take it with you,” McMillan said. “I have spent a considerable amount of my life pursuing knowledge, but I have found that sharing knowledge is equally as important, especially when connecting with the younger generation.”
McMillan has lectured at the University of South Florida, the University of Central Florida and Florida State University. His companies have hosted pharmacy students for rotations, and in 2024, he joined the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Advisory Board for the UF College of Pharmacy’s online master’s program. The invitation brought him back to his alma mater and reconnected him with Oliver Grundmann, Ph.D., assistant dean for lifelong learning, a clinical professor and director of the online pharmaceutical chemistry program in the UF College of Pharmacy. McMillan credits Grundmann with providing invaluable support as he earned his master’s degree from UF.
“Oliver taught me persistence. When I was stuck, he did not just give me the answer. He challenged me to think differently, refine my search and keep looking,” McMillan said. “He taught me that finding information is a process, and you have to keep hammering away until you identify the answer.”
McMillan’s pursuit of knowledge eventually led him back to the UF College of Pharmacy as a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry. He briefly studied under Hendrik Luesch, Ph.D., a professor of medicinal chemistry, whose research focuses on discovering compounds from nature that could be developed into medicines for cancer and other diseases.
Working alongside Luesch and becoming immersed in natural products research helped spark an idea that would eventually become Bravado Pharmaceuticals. McMillan hopes to one day draw on his background in chemistry and his interest in natural products to develop anticancer medications.
“Once we meet our revenue goals with Bravado, then I can ultimately turn my attention to doing the research that I want to do involving natural products,” McMillan said.
It is an ambition rooted in his time at UF and reflective of a lifelong pursuit of knowledge. For McMillan, learning has never been confined to a classroom or a particular stage of life. It is a pursuit that continues to shape what he does and what he hopes to accomplish next.