Winston-Salem, NC Sep 10, 2003
Targacept, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) through its Advanced Technology Program (ATP).
The grant will provide approximately $2.0 million over a three-year period. The award will help fund Targacept’s development of sophisticated new computer simulation software designed to accurately predict biological and toxicological effects of drugs, which would enable earlier and better predictions about the molecular properties of drug candidates, improve selection of compounds for development and reduce the failure rate in the drug development process.
“This award, our second federal grant this year, highlights the depth and breadth of our drug discovery capabilities,” noted Targacept’s Vice President of Drug Discovery and Development, William S. Caldwell, Ph.D. He continued: “It is especially important, in terms of validating Targacept’s core capabilities, that we won the award as a first-time applicant to ATP.”
Targacept’s Scientific Director of Molecular Design, Jeffrey D. Schmitt, Ph.D., will serve as the principal investigator for the project, a three-year research effort. His collaborators will be Roberto Car of the Princeton Materials Institute at Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) and Todd Minehart of Department of Chemistry at the University of Colorado (Denver, CO).
“Our research will leverage ab initio (from the beginning) Molecular Dynamics (aiMD) concepts, which have revolutionized electronic structure simulation and led to previously inaccessible insights, to facilitate more efficient drug discovery and development,” stated Schmitt.
Congressman Richard Burr commented favorably on the grant, noting it as an important development in the growth of the biotechnology industry in the Triad: "Targacept is certainly an asset to Winston-Salem and the Piedmont Triad Research Park,” said Burr. “Their cutting-edge research and technology are unequaled,” he noted, “and they have made indispensable contributions to the medical community. I am pleased that they will continue to receive funds for their exceptional work."
Targacept, Inc. is a leading central nervous system-focused biopharmaceutical company engaged in the design, discovery and development of a new class of drugs to treat a broad spectrum of diseases, including, among others, memory disorders and dementia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ulcerative colitis, pain and Alzheimer’s disease. The company's drug candidates selectively modulate an underexploited class of molecular targets involved in regulating central nervous system (CNS) activity, known as neuronal nicotinic receptors (NNRs), and its NNR expertise, together with Pentad™, its powerful proprietary in-silico drug discovery engine, facilitate highly-targeted drug design and development. With an unparalleled portfolio of candidates for first-in-class therapeutics that includes three Phase II compounds and one Phase I compound, decades of management experience and an extensive patent estate, Targacept is pioneering the next generation of CNS therapeutics. For more information about Targacept, go to www.targacept.com. The ATP provides cost-shared funding to industry-led teams which can include non-profits and universities to help advance particularly challenging, high-risk research and development projects that have the potential to spark important, broad-based economic or social benefits for the United States. The program supports projects that industry cannot fully fund on its own because of significant technical risks.
ATP awards are made on the basis of rigorous, competitive peer review of the scientific and technical merit of each proposal. The program accelerates enabling technology research, but does not support product development work. Further information about ATP is available at http://www.atp.nist.gov.
Targacept™ and Pentad™ are registered trademarks of Targacept, Inc.