Corridor In The News

USF drug at center of $1 billion AstraZeneca, Targacept deal

By Tampa Bay Business Journal

December 4, 2009 –A drug to treat depression that was created and patented by a team of University of South Florida researchers is poised to bring millions of dollars of royalties to the university. AstraZeneca plc and Targacept Inc. announced a collaboration and license agreement for the global development and commercialization of the drug, TC-5214, as it enters its final stages of testing.

The drug was licensed to Targacept by the University of South Florida Research Foundation, which would be paid a portion of the royalties as the drug moves to market, USF said in a release. Details on the amount of USF’s royalties are confidential under its agreement with Targacept, but Valerie McDevitt, USF’s assistant vice president for research, said in the release that TC-5214 would generate “substantial revenue in the range of millions of dollars” and would be USF’s most lucrative patent to date.

Under the agreement, AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN), an international health care business headquartered in London, will make an upfront payment to Targacept (NASDAQ: TRGT), a biopharma company headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., of $200 million upon effectiveness. There would be additional payments of up to $540 million upon completion of specified development, regulatory and first commercial sale milestones. Targacept also would be eligible to receive up to $500 million if specified sales related milestones are achieved.

Looking for a treatment

TC-5214 is the invention of USF researchers Paul Sanberg and Douglas Shytle, retired USF psychiatry professor Archie Silver and former student Mary Newman, the USF release said. They began developing the drug a decade ago in searching for an effective treatment for children with Tourette syndrome. The project led the researchers to discover a decades-old blood pressure medicine that helped children whose Tourette syndrome also included depression, the release said.

The researchers continued to study the drug, eventually creating a unique version of the medicine, which was patented in the United States and abroad. The Florida High Tech Corridor eventually supported their research before it was licensed to Targacept.

Major depressive disorder affected about 42 million people worldwide. The global antidepressant market is valued at more than $20 billion.

TC-5214 is viewed as a promising alternative to antidepressants currently on the market, about half of which do not work for people who suffer from depression, the release said.