Science in the Triangle

Winston-Salem drug development company Targacept adds a $1.24 billion deal to its partnship with British drugmaker AstraZeneca, Quintiles Transnational will add $400 million in debt to pay dividend and an AIDS researcher dares to speak of a cure.

Targacept scores $1.24 billion deal

Targacept, a Winston-Salem drug development company, has agreed to sell the rights for an antidepressant it is working on to British drugmaker AstraZeneca. The deal is worth up to $1.24 billion and adds to an existing partnership the two companies have had since 2005 to develop treatments for cognitive disorders.

Antidepressants generate about $20 billion in sales worldwide, but more than half of all patients don’t respond to the most commonly prescribed medicines.

This is the second large deal Targacept has signed with a British pharmaceutical giant. Two years ago, GlaxoSmithKline, which has its U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, agreed to pay up to $1.5 billion for the right to experimental painkillers Targacept was developing. One of the painkillers failed a clinical trial and in March, Targacept mothballed it.

Under the GSK and the AstraZeneca deals, payments are dependent on how effective the drugs are.

Quintiles to add debt to pay dividend

Quintiles Transnational will take on more debt to pay the three private investment firms that are its largest owners a fat dividend. According to Standard & Poor’s credit research, the Durham-based company, which helps drugmakers test and sell new medicines, plans to sell $400 million in bonds next week, adding to an existing debt load of $1.2 billion.

The majority of the bond sale will benefit TPG Partners of Fort Worth, Texas, Bain Capital of Boston and London-based 3i Group.

TPG helped finance a $1.7 billion management-led buyout that turned Quintiles into a privately held company six years ago. Bain Capital and 3i became large investors in Quintiles in 2007.

AIDS researchers dare to speak of a cure

Dr. Myron Cohen, an infectious disease specialist at the University of North Carolina, dared to speak of a cure for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

A laboratory experiment gives him hope.

More on Cohen’s talk, which he gave on World AIDS Day in Research Triangle Park, here.