Last week we reported that Eli Lilly’s head of neurological research had resigned . Now we know why: Johnson & Johnson poached him to bolster its own hunt for new treatments for Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases. The move underscores the fierce competition for talent in areas seen as driving growth. In December, for instance, AstraZeneca recruited Pfizer’s Asian R&D chief, Steven Yang, to take on a similar role. Bredt had headed neuroscience research at Lilly since 2006. Husseini Manji, who oversees all neuroscience R&D at JNJ, said he wooed Bredt over the last several months to oversee the work discovering potential drugs and developing ways to measure their potential worth. “We think the science is exploding, and we can enhance our efforts,” Manji tells the Health Blog. A Johns Hopkins-trained neuroscientist who ran a lab at the University of California, San Francisco, Bredt made a name for himself exploring the role that proteins and receptors play in the brain’s message traffic. It’s one of a growing number of advances in understanding the molecular underpinnings of brain function thought to have significance for diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Bredt started at J&J on Monday, where he heads the discovery of potential treatments and the development of ways for measuring their worth, such as biomarkers and animal models for testing the molecules. The company wouldn’t make him available for comment. Lilly, meantime, says it appreciates Bredt’s many contributions to the company and wishes him well. The company remains committed to

neuroscience and it is conducting a “robust search” for a successor, a company spokeswoman says. J&J is among several companies that have designated neuroscience an area of focus. In 2009, J&J bought a $1.5 billion stake in Irish biotech Elan to gain access to bapineuzumab, an experimental Alzheimer’s treatment in late-stage development. Currently, J&J’s biggest selling neuroscience drug is Risperdal Consta for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which had $1.5 billion in sales last year. Companies consider the field attractive because so many people suffer from the conditions but most existing treatments do little more than lessen symptoms. In addition, emerging scientific understanding how the brain works is helping drug makers identify ways of attacking diseases and giving them confidence more effective drugs could be developed. “The hope is that would lead to treatments that have more than symptomatic effects,” Manji says. The potential profits are also huge. A drug that could halt the progression of Alzheimer’s could be a $25 billion opportunity. But the research is expensive and risky. Lilly, for instance, recently halted development of a treatment called semagacesta because studies showed it was worsening patients’ conditions, while two FDA staffers  recommended against approving a drug for detecting the plaques in the brain that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s. Given the hurdles, a few companies have scaled back neuroscience drug R&D, including GlaxoSmithKline which announced last month it was cutting back its program . Image: Associated Press

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J&J Poaches Lilly’s Neurological Research Chief