Hinting that scientists have reached a new understanding of how cocaine affects the brain, the Abell Foundation and a fledgling biotechnology company have joined forces to develop drugs to treat an addiction that afflicts a million Americans.
Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Baltimore firm also searching for drugs to combat brain cancer, Parkinson's disease and seizures, announced yesterday that the foundation had committed $2.5 million for research into agents that could block cocaine's effects.
Dr. Craig R. Smith, president and chief executive officer of Guilford, said yesterday that the funding will enable the company to address "a medical need that is currently not being adequately addressed by the pharmaceutical industry."
Guilford and the foundation plan to form a jointly owned company to develop a cocaine treatment. Guilford will provide all research, development and administrative services.
Dr. Solomon Snyder, chairman of Guilford's scientific advisory board, said the company also hopes to attract funds from state, federal andprivate sources. He is neuroscience director at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and is credited with many of the key discoveries of how addictive drugs create sensations of pleasure and dependence.
Robert C. Embry Jr., president of the Abell Foundation, said yesterday that this was the first time that the foundation had invested in drug development. In the past, it spent money on school reform, economic development and health projects, such providing the Norplant contraceptive to clinics throughout Baltimore.
If Guilford's efforts bear fruit, its scientists will have succeeded in an area that has eluded researchers for decades. While doctors have been treating heroin addicts since the 1960s with the synthetic drug, methadone, they have been unable to offer cocaine addicts anything to cope with their addiction.
Furthermore, Dr. Snyder said methadone doesn't accomplish what he hopes the cocaine treatment will. Methadone is a heroin substitute that enables some people to function better because it produces a milder "high." But it, too, is addictive and causes troubling withdrawal symptoms in people who try to quit.
Scientists involved in the cocaine project hope to develop nonaddictive drugs that would prevent cocaine's "high." If given to an addict, they would render cocaine ineffective.
The company will tap insights gained by Hopkins neuroscientists about how cocaine acts upon the brain, Dr. Snyder said. He would not elaborate on the findings, saying they would be disclosed next month at a conference in Colorado.
Mr. Embry said the discovery triggered the joint venture.
"We have been talking to Sol Snyder for several years about whether it is possible to develop a block for cocaine," Mr. Embry said. "Only recently did he think the research had developed to the point where it was possible."
Although the project is now a joint venture, Guilford could acquire the company later by giving Abell 500,000 shares of Guilford common stock, which closed yesterday at $4.75, down 37.5 cents.
A Guilford spokesman, Anthony Russo, said that to his knowledge "there are no other companies" pursuing such cocaine addiction research.
In a recent article, Dr. Snyder speculated on the reasons why large drug companies have not invested in research into a cocaine block. Major firms, he said, are reluctant to develop drugs that are unlikely to generate less than $100 million annually.
Also, he said, they shy from "highly controversial areas such as abortion-producing drugs or agents that would be used in drug-abusing populations."
Guilford was formed in October 1993 after the California-based Scios Nova Inc. acquired Nova Pharmaceutical Co. of Baltimore, which was then the leading biotechnology business in the city.
In February, Maryland invested $250,000 in Guilford through the state's Enterprise Investment Fund. It was Maryland's first equity investment in a private company.
WK In June, Guilford raised $13.8 million in an initial sale of stock, but
suffered a serious setback in September when the biotechnology investment firm that took Guilford public collapsed. Guilford's stock, which topped $9 in July, plummeted.
The head of the Department of Economic and Employment Development termed the Abell Foundation commitment "good news."
"We staked our commitment to Guilford on the basis of a terrific scientific reputation and all signs suggest . . . that our investment was well-timed and well-placed," said Mark L. Wasserman. "The fundamental objective for us in Maryland is to harvest this incredible endowment of basic science that we have."
The state has also assisted Guilford by issuing bonds to pay at least $8 million of the cost of renovating the company's headquarters in the Fort Holabird Industrial Park.