Migraine drug brings down Drug Company?

All right, it’s not quite that simple.  But the dramatic fall of TorreyPines Therapeutics does have something to do with the … well, previously up-and-coming migraine drug, Tezampanel.

It happened back in 2007.  TorreyPines had been working on a new kind of drug for migraine, and had been hoping to expand it to other types of pain as well in the future.  The next phase of the drug trial came out in the last quarter and…

Investors were unimpressed.  Very unimpressed.

The share price of the company began to plummet in the months ahead.  Worldwide financial upheaval didn’t come at a good time.  People working for the company started going elsewhere.  Finally, TorreyPines decided to sell.

But no one was buying.

So this spring the company decided to liquidate what was left of its assets.

During this time, the trials of Tezampanel had continued.  You can read more about the drug here, but the news was good on three fronts – first, it looked like it was going to work for some people.  Second, there was hope it would work for some that nothing else would work for.  Third, it represented a new approach to migraine that would hopefully lead to more research and more treatments.

But it’s a world in which many people have had to take a step back instead of forwards.  After the fall of TorreyPines, will any one else want to take the risk with Tezampanel?  And if not, how long will it take us to get back to where we were on this line of research?  Probably quite a while.  Sorry, but it’s not always good news…