Nov. 24--A Winston-Salem biopharmaceutical company is in clinical trials of several drugs to combat Alzheimer's disease, and hopes to have one or more market-ready in three to four years, according to its president and CEO.
Targacept, headquartered on First Street downtown, has three drugs in development with grand hopes for them to become effective treatment for cognitive disorders, including memory loss and Alzheimer's disease.
"We were blown away with the results from the first clinical trials," said Don deBethizy, CEO, at a press conference Wednesday at the company. The first trials have helped both attention and memory, and researchers are working on longer-term trials that will solidify the results and meet FDA regulations.
If successful the most promising drug, for now called TC-5619, will have a huge impact for those suffering from memory impairment. More than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's, including 170,000 in North Carolina. Baby boomers begin to turn 65 next year, meaning the need for drug therapies will be even stronger.
"With a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, people know they will lose their mind and then die,"deBethizy said. "That's ridiculous in this day and age for this to happen."
Targacept has nearly 50 researchers, mostly with doctoral degrees, working in the company's labs to create hundreds of future medications. The company has 450 pending patents.
"Our pipeline of potential drugs is robust," deBethizy said.
But creating new drugs for diseases like Alzheimer's is tough, he said.
"In 95 out of 100 attempts, they fail; they can't hit the target," deBethizy said. "We have to design molecules in a pill that must find their way to certain receptors in the brain. It's frustrating work, but we are making progress."
Targacept is a "young, new-age, new-economy company with a bright future," said Sam Taylor, president of NCbio, a lobbyist for the state's biotech industry. "They are going to become a world player and do well by doing good."
From 1997 to 2000, Targacept was a subsidiary of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., where scientists studied the chemistry and biology of nicotine. Many of the publications focused on neuronal nicotinic receptors, which are molecular targets in the body that maintain and adjust central nervous system activity. Targacept became an independent company in 2000.
Jean Small, vice president of adult day services at Winston-Salem Senior Services, said people in her field are looking for ways to offer hope and dispel fear.
"We are excited to read about these clinical trials with hopeful outcomes," Small said.
Targacept is researching and creating medicines that can attack the enzymes in the brain that help develop plaque, a known sign of Alzheimer's.
"Another is to create antibodies or vaccines that attack the precursors to fibrous plaque in the brain," deBethizy said.
They are also working on scans of brain size, because brains affected with Alzheimer's typically become smaller. This research might help achieve earlier diagnoses of the disease, he said.
North Carolina and Targacept are at the center of ground-breaking research into Alzheimer's, deBethizy said.
"It's a 100 percent unmet medical need. It's a complex disease, and we are working on which mechanism is best to treat it."
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