Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., Irvine, has entered into an $11 million licensing agreement with Servier, one of the largest privately owned pharmaceutical companies in France, and landed a $1.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for stroke research.
“We foresee that the money from the agreement and grant will stabilize our business over the next three years,” said Vincent Simmon, Ph.D., president and CEO of Cortex.
Servier has agreed to pay $5 million up front and $2 million per year for a minimum of three years for the rights to develop and commercialize Cortex’s Ampakine technology for the treatment of neurological disorders.
The companies will jointly research and clinically develop new Ampakine compounds for Alzheimer’s disease, sexual dysfunction and dementia. The firms also plan to enroll patients in a cross national study to determine the efficacy of the Ampakine CX516 compound in improving memory and cognition.
Cortex still holds the North American rights to the technology, and likely will seek to form a partnership with another company in the future, Simmon said.
Meanwhile, Cortex also received a $1.1 million grant from NIH for stroke research. The grant, which will be spread over three years, is a follow-on to previous research funding.
