Calculus of success

This year is likely to shape up as the year of the deal, ranging from last-ditch desperation stands to true strategic partnerships. The latter, illustrated by last week's transaction between Cambridge NeuroScience Inc. and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, will point up the disparity between Wall Street's valuation of companies, and the value corporate partners are placing on technologies they want.

CNSI and Boehringer signed a letter of intent to collaborate in the development and commercialization of Cerestat, CNSI's lead compound. The NMDA ion-channel blocker acts to forestall nerve cell death by preventing excess entry of calcium into nerve cells. In December, CNSI began a 120-patient international Phase II dose-response study in stroke patients. Enrollment in a 23-patient safety and dose escalation trial in traumatic brain injury patients began in November. ...