Leading the way is Targacept, a company spun out of the research division of R.
If Targacept's drug succeeds, it would be a welcome addition to the existing options for treating Alzheimer's.
Reynolds never sold any of its stake in Targacept, but dilution has lowered its equity interest to 4%.
Schindler got the importunate scientist off his back in 2000 by spinning off Targacept as an autonomous company.
If Targacept's drugs are approved, they'll be the best things ever to come out of a tobacco company.
Targacept's drug is designed to bind to the same regulators in the nervous system that react to nicotine, the so-called neuronal nicotinic receptors, or nnrs.
Leading the way is Targacept, (nasdaq: TRGT - news - people ) a company spun out of the research division of R.
Memory Pharmaceuticals has a nicotinic receptor drug for Alzheimer's in midstage trials that is probably a year behind Targacept, figures Lazard Capital Markets analyst Terence Flynn.
Much of that study, of course, was done by tobacco companies, and Targacept, one of the bioscience companies in the Piedmont Triad Research Park, is among the fruits of that labour.
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Meanwhile, Targacept, a firm based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is looking at another group of nerve-cell proteins, the nicotinergic receptors, whose activation has been shown to increase alertness and may fend off cognitive decline.
Targacept's pill is more refined, he says, because it binds with a subtype of neuronal nicotinic receptor situated mostly in parts of the brain that process sensory information and aid in learning and short-term memory.
It's too early to say whether Targacept's drug will improve Alzheimer's treatment, but it has been given to 540 people in 12 prior trials for indications including mild cognitive impairment, which is often a precursor to Alzheimer's and age-associated memory impairment.
Memory Pharmaceuticals (nasdaq: MEMY - news - people ) has a nicotinic receptor drug for Alzheimer's in midstage trials that is probably a year behind Targacept, figures Lazard (nyse: LAZ - news - people ) Capital Markets analyst Terence Flynn.
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