RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (RSPI)

[neuroinv]

It's not even that long ago. I think it was in 2007 that the head of the Analgesia division cited RD as a major problem for practitioners in the pain/anesthesia area. Which was one of the reasons for RD enthusiasm, including my own. At the risk of violating my own wish to be less redundant, the factors that made what seemed so doable less so, include:
1) The oral drug (CX717) used for RD POC is not viable for ongoing oral prophylaxis use in chronic pain.
2) The IV version of CX717 needed for hospital-based rescue therapy would have cost almost as much to get ready for clinical testing (completing preclinical work--not including any actual human testing) as it would cost to bring CX1739 through this ill-starred SA POC trial. Even in hindsight, clinic-ready IV CX717 does not look as valuable an asset as POC-proven CX-1739. They couldn't do both with the funds they had--as it turned out, they could barely do one, and even that took desperate measures.
3) The oft-cited glut of partnering opportunities. RD does not fit within the strategic emphases of a lot of pharma companies: acute hospital use fits for companies with large hospital based sales, whereas chronic use fits for companies with pain franchises. Like everybody else, these companies have felt they had the luxury, even necessity, of thumbing through the larger-than-ever-stack of projects available-for-licensing.

So, yes, it's "ridiculous" in that there is a clear clinical need. But these factors have made that less of a BusDev priority.

NeuroInvestment