RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (RSPI)

[neuroinv]

Big Pharma is not a unitary construct. You have companies like GSK, Sanofi-Aventis, and AstraZeneca who have almost completely left psychiatry, and whose leadership is ambivalent at best about neurology. As I have mentioned before, on the other hand, you have Roche putting its credibility on the line for CNS--while taking drugs into Phase III for Fragile X and CIAS (cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia). You also have AZ and Targacept in Phase III with TC-5214 as a treatment adjunct for depression (seemingly contradicting AZ's exit from psychiatry, but they are keeping a couple chips in the game). These, and a few other programs, are the linchpin upon which the momentum out of the CNS sector will turn (hopefully).

The truly pathetic and appalling thing is that there is no shortage of cash--BPs are literally swimming in an ocean of cash-on-hand. Yet they are insisting on nickel-and-dime risk-sharing arrangements with VCs, who themselves cannot raise money sans an exit strategy, and academia, as if the universities have resources to spare. Lundbeck is fully committed to CNS, but they don't have much cash; their reliance upon academic/governmental grant funding is much more understandable.

Having said that, when I presented to a drug development conference two weeks ago, I was asked to not be as depressing as I usually am, and was able to come up with 'Ten Positive Signs for CNS Drug Development' (actually there were just eight, but I cheated). It will only take one positive event to reverse sentiment--Roche, AZ/Targacept, Naurex? Could be one of those, or something unexpected.

NeuroInvestment