Targacept (NASDAQ: TRGT) is regaining all rights to an Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate in mid-stage clinical trials and the company will have additional flexibility pursuing development of other compounds included in a newly restructured agreement with drug partner AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN).
Winston-Salem-based Targacept has been in a collaboration with British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca centered on developing new treatments for cognitive disorders. Targacept, spun off from the research of tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds, develops potential treatments from compounds that have an effect on the body’s neuronal nicotinic receptors, or NNRs.
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The AstraZeneca partnership had given the pharma company the option to license Targacept compounds developed for cognitive disorder or schizophrenia. But Targacept has had middling clinical trial results so far. A compound being studied for applications in schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder failed in a phase II ADHD study. Targacept’s experimental depression drug fail in phase III clinical trials last year.
Under the modified agreement announced today, Targacept now has the right to develop and commercialize any of its alpha 7 NNR compounds in any therapeutic area, including cognitive disorders and schizophrenia, without any further obligation to AstraZeneca.
AstraZeneca gets the right to develop and commercialize alpha4beta2 NNR modulators that it has licensed from Targacept, including AZD1446, a compound in early-stage studies as a potential Alzheimer’s disease treatment. AstraZeneca will now have the right to pursue development of this compound in any therapeutic area.
Targacept regains all rights to TC-1734, which is in phase 2b clinical trials for mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. While Targacept gets the rights to the potential Alzheimer’s treatment further along in development, it’s not clear it’s the more promising Alzheimer’s drug candidate. The trial is comparing the compound’s efficacy to the market leading Alzheimer’s drug Aricept. A previous three-month study was inconclusive. Targacept maintains it can get different results from a longer study.
“With respect to TC-1734, we plan to continue our ongoing clinical study, which is designed to reveal conclusively how our compound performs as compared to the market leader in the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease after a year of treatment,” Targacept President and CEO Stephen Hill said in a statement. “Sadly, new treatment options for Alzheimer’s disease have been elusive, while the need for patients and their caregivers remains immense.”
Targacept still has hope for the alpha 7 NNR compounds that AstraZeneca no longer wants to pursue. The company studying TC-5619 in phase 2b clinical trials as treatment for cognitive dysfunction in patients who have schizophrenia. Initial trial results are expected by the end of the year. The company is also evaluating that compound for potential applications in Alzheimer’s disease.
The next most-advanced alpha7 NNR is TC-6987. That compound failed has had disappointing clinical trial results in studies for diabetes and asthma. The company said it is still evaluating development options for this compound.
