RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (RSPI)

[neuroinv]

Money continues to be "extremely tight." But Les Street left for an academic position at the University of Capetown. Makes sense--they don't need new chemical entities now, they need resources with which to develop the ones that they have.

As to Servier: They face massive French lawsuits in conjunction with their marketing of the diabetes/ obesity drug benflourex (it's the same heart-valve issue that killed fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine). Not only is there apparently the potential of jail time for the CEO/primary owner, Jacques Servier, but the weight of the hundreds of suits could pose fiscal jeopardy for Servier as a company: the French court has refused to combine all the suits into a class action, which eliminates the likelihood of a Wyeth-type class-wide settlement, as occurred with dexfenfluramine/Redux. At the very least, this is a major distraction for Servier, and makes investment in new programs more problematic.

NP