One path to a billion-dollar drug discovery for Targacept Inc. officially closed Monday with the ending of its pharmaceutical collaboration on TC-5214 with AstraZeneca PLC. Targacept, an anchor tenant in Piedmont Triad Research Park, had been expecting AstraZeneca to terminate the TC-5214 licensing agreement. Last week, Targacept confirmed it would eliminate 65 jobs, or 46 percent of its workforce, in a restructuring following the failure of TC-5214 in four Phase 3 clinical trials for major depressive disorder. Targacept said other parts of its collaborative research and license agreement with AstraZeneca, which began in December 2005, remain in effect. The agreement focuses on cognitive disorders.
