Medicine man grows by thinking small.

• Author: Roush, Chris
• Position: People - Frank King - King Bio Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Frank King grew up on a 450-acre farm in New Castle, Pa., where his family raised cattle and ran a restaurant and a motel. It gave him exposure to running a farm and a business. It's experience he uses in Asheville, where he is president of King Bio Pharmaceuticals Inc., a maker of homeopathic medicines.

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Homeopathy is an alternative approach to treating illnesses based on the administration of minute doses of a drug that in larger amounts produces symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the illness itself. Proponents say it stimulates the body's defenses and immune processes; critics contend it's little more than snake oil.

That doesn't bother King. "I grew up with the saying that you have to be tough-skinned but light-hearted." King Bio opened in 1989 and has developed more than 250 homeopathic medicines. Its top sellers include remedies for allergies and back and neck pain. The products are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and are sold in vitamin and nutrition stores and in organic-grocery stores such as Earth Fare. He expects sales to reach $3 million this year.

King, 51, graduated in 1976 with a bachelor's in business from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. A year studying alternative energy and agriculture at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt., inspired him to focus on finding ways to make people healthier.

He opened King Health Center in 1979 in Lowellville, Ohio, after graduating from Life Chiropractic College in Atlanta. A decade later, after the clinic had 60 homeopathic formulas, he...