Neurotech Insights

November 30, 2006

Inside This Issue: Memory and AAMI

Top News Alerts: Product Updates, Deals & Financings
Featured Topic: Age Associated Memory Impairment
Featured Company: Targacept (TRGT)

Market Highlights: Holidays Come Early for Private Neurotech Companies
November was a big month in neurotech venture financing with private companies raising over $270 million.  Drug developers Solstice and Kalypsys pulled in mega rounds of $85 million and $100 million, respectively. Drug delivery and retinal disorders were spotlighted with Eyegate raising $35 million and Neurotech Pharmaceuticals raising $10 million...

Age Related Memory Disorders
Almost everyone has experienced “senile moments” when something that should be familiar, like a name or address, is just beyond their grasp.  When this happens often enough to become bothersome, a person over the age of 50 may be suffering from some form of age-related memory disorder.  Age-related memory deficits represent a huge potential market for pharmaceutical companies, and some might even have drugs that would treat such a condition, however, confusing terminology, poor diagnostic criteria, and lack of FDA guidance is currently preventing the development of treatments. “Age-Associated Memory Impairment” (AAMI) is a term proposed by a working group of the National Institutes for Mental Health (NIMH) to describe a general reduction in memory that occurs with age. Newer concepts such as “Age-Associated Cognitive Decline” (AACD) and “Mild Cognitive Impairment” (MCI) have since been put forth, in an attempt to better define various stages of memory and cognitive decline in the aging population...

Targacept: Harvesting Nicotine's Therapeutic Effects
Targacept (TRGT) is a company 30 years in the making. It all started when R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, RJRT, decided to form a nicotine basic research group. The group, which eventually became the four founders of Targacept, came together in the mid 1980s and published nearly 300 peer reviewed papers and abstracts about nicotine and its receptors. By the early 90s, the group had discovered that nicotine both activated and desensitized nicotinic receptors.  Activation of receptors in the brain resulted in improvements in cognition and memory, while blocking the receptors had benefits for depression, anxiety and stress. Activation of peripheral receptors caused side effects like nausea and increased heart rate.  If the various benefits and side effects could be teased apart, RJRT realized it might be sitting on a huge pharmaceutical opportunity...