Historically I have tended to be critical of Neurogen, and have never recommended them. I do not recall if I made that comment to you or not. I have not liked their business model--but as it turns out, it saved the company, because I cannot think of another neuro company with as many developmental failures (CoCensys comes closest, and they closed at around 0.25 today). It doubtlessly also irked me that, of the close to 40 companies I follow, NRGN has over time been one of the least accessible, and it seemed to spring out of arrogance, that they did not need to waste their time with me. Perhaps not, but it was striking that finally last fall--only after several molecular failures--I finally had the opportunity to talk to John Tallmann (R&D head) at length about their GABA-A program. He is clearly highly knowledgable, but one could tell that he had little tolerance for any questioning of strategy, such as the use of a situational anxiety model. It turns out it provided a cheap way for them to run 95-2 through its paces, and fail, cheaper than using a clinical population. So NRGN ends up being right in its tactics, for all the wrong reasons. Given where they are with their various programs, NRGN seems overpriced even at tonight's close.
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