When the Winston-Salem drug company Targacept spun out of research done at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco company in 2000, it did so with the promise of revolutionizing the global treatment of brain disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
The scientists at Targacept were hired first by R.J. Reynolds to devise a safer cigarette. But through their accumulated knowledge of nicotine, they came to see the addictive drug as less harmful and more hopeful – especially if you could extract the drug from all the smoke and toxins in burning tobacco.
So they did. And with a $30 million stake from a French pharmaceutical company, Targacept emerged 15 years ago as a small-pharma startup with a new drug, TC-1734. Its chemists believed that the drug could become the first therapy to effectively treat the global scourge of Alzheimer's disease.
But now the dream is over.
WFDD contributor Justin Catanoso has covered Targacept since its founding. In his recent column in the Triad Business Journal, he says the company has some choices to make.
“The company's new CEO Stephen Hill tells me that they are going to decide pretty soon if they're going to license new compounds from other companies, whether they're going to buy a new company and go in that new direction, or maybe they'll merge with a small pharmaceutical company and pull their resources," says Catanoso. "There's also the option that they liquidate and take that $100-million that investors have poured into Targacept with a very risky bet and let them have it back and decide to do something entirely different with the money.”
Catanoso says a decision about Targacept's future is expected in the coming weeks.
The Business Report on 88.5 WFDD is a partnership with the Triad Business Journal. You'll find Justin Catanoso's story and more breaking business news at Triad.Bizjournals.com.
Follow Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news
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