Biotech firm Targacept ends work on TC-6499 drug development after clinical trial failure
Friday, April 17, 2015
Winston-Salem biotech firm Targacept announced Thursday that it has ended work on another of its drugs in development after failures during clinical trials.
The announcement by Targacept(NASDAQ: TRGT) concerned TC-6499, which researchers had hoped would be a treatment for diabetic gastroparesis, a chronic disorder that slows or stops food from passing from the stomach to the small intestine. The trial found that TC-6499 did not change that time relative to the results achieved by a placebo.
Targacept President and CEO Stephen Hill said that the clinical trial results "do not support the prior signal we had seen suggesting that TC-6499 might increase gastric motility in this patient population" and that those results don't warrant further development of the potential therapy.
Targacept has sustained blow after blow in recent years to its hope of developing drug therapies that focus on neuronal nicotinic receptors. Targacept spun out of research by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. on the effects of nicotine on the body, with the hope that impacting the receptors could help treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease or schizophrenia.
Targacept launched the gastroparesis study last summer, and a month later saw the failure of clinical trials related to its potential Alzheimer's treatment as well as one for overactive bladder.
A drug research and licensing partnership with AstraZeneca ended in October, and in March, the company announced it would merge with Catalyst Biosciences, though some speculate that deal may be in trouble.
bizjournals.com
