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TWST: Could you begin with a brief historical sketch of Memory
Pharmaceuticals and then a profile of things as they are now?
Dr. Eric Kandel at Columbia University and the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute. Eric Kandel is the year 2000 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or
Medicine for his outstanding scientific achievements in the field of
memory and learning over the past 30 years. The company was founded by
Eric Kandel, Walter Gilbert, a 1980 Nobel Laureate at Harvard
University, Jonathan Fleming at Oxford Bioscience, who Chairs our Board
of Directors, and Mark Leschly at Healthcare Ventures. Oxford Bioscience
and Healthcare Ventures provided the initial financing to get the
company off the ground. The company has completed three rounds of
financing, and is at the advent of a fourth round of financing, which is
being managed by Bear, Stearns. We plan to conclude this round of
financing this year. We are privately held by venture capitalists, and
currently have 50 employees on board. The company is focusing on
learning and memory disorders, such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI),
which is frequently a precursor for Alzheimer's disease, Alzheimer's
disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, major depression, Down's
syndrome, and vascular dementia. Our ultimate goal is to develop
efficacious and safe treatments for age associated cognitive decline
(AACD). We have identified a very comprehensive pipeline of various
memory drugs, at various stages of R&D, targeting different disease
indications. Over the next three years, we plan to advance our programs
toward clinical trials. We expect to be in phase I clinical trials in
the second half of 2002 with our first drug candidates. We are currently
discussing the in-licensing of a promising phase I/IIa compound for
Alzheimer's disease. This would get us into phase II clinical trials for
Alzheimer's disease in 2002. Independent of our in licensing efforts, we
have two drug candidates of our in-house pipeline geared toward phase I
clinical trials at the end of 2002. We are focusing in each case on the
specific mechanisms involved in the various disease indications. We
choose the appropriate drug targets within memory pathways involved in
short and long-term memory formation. We developed a battery of various
animal models in-house, which are an important aspect of our Cognostics_
technology platform. Cognostics is our comprehensive and proprietary
technology platform which looks at the efficacy and the mode of action
of drugs designed for different medical indications before compounds go
into the clinic.
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