A small company with Triangle roots that is seeking to develop an experimental hormone treatment for Alzheimer's has replaced most of its board of directors and executive management team.

Curaxis Pharmaceutical, which previously was known as Voyager Pharmaceutical, revamped its leadership team "to better position the company for its next phase of growth and development," it wrote in a press release.

Timothy Wright will take over as chairman and interim CEO. Wright previously held management positions at Covidien, Elan and DuPont Merck.

"We thank the departing Board and management for their efforts on behalf of the Company and its shareholders, and are very excited to develop Curaxis' Alzheimer's disease drug candidate and other pipeline candidates," Wright said in a prepared statement.

The management reshuffling follows other recent strategic moves, including renaming the company, lining up $25 million from a Connecticut investment firm and merging with a shell corporation to become a publicly traded company.

Icagen, a Durham drug development company that has struggled financially, is in discussions about a possible takeover by its much-larger partner Pfizer.

Pfizer disclosed in a regulatory filing this afternoon that it is "evaluating the possibility of entering into a strategic transaction with Icagen."

Icagen began a collaboration with Pfizer in 2007 to develop new pain medicines. As part of that partnership, Pfizer has paid Icagen millions of dollars in milestone fees. It also bought more than 1 million Icagen shares and now owns a 14 percent stake in the company.

In a prepared statement late today, Icagen acknowledged that its executives are in talks with Pfizer, but that no agreement has been reached. The company "does not plan to make future announcements with respect to this matter" until a deal is reached, the current partnership agreement with Pfizer is extended or the discussions have terminated.

Pozen has filed another patent infringement lawsuit, as the Chapel Hill drug company fights to protect its portfolio of medicines from cheaper, copycat competitors.

Pozen and larger partner AstraZeneca filed the lawsuit in federal court in New Jersey, in an effort to block Dr. Reddy's Laboratories from selling a generic version of Vimovo.

Pozen and AstraZeneca won Food and Drug Administration approval to sell that drug as a treatment for arthritis pain a year ago. The companies contend the drug is protected by a patent that expires in 2023.

Last month, Dr. Reddy's notified the companies that it planned to seek FDA approval to market a generic version. Dr. Reddy's is one of India's biggest drug companies.

Inspire Pharmaceuticals plans to pay every remaining employee a retention bonus after the Raleigh drug-development company restructured its operations and slashed jobs.

The amount will be based on various factors, including current position and salary.

CEO Adrian Adams will be eligible for a bonus of $812,500, on top of other compensation, Inspire reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Chief administrative and legal officer Andrew Koven will receive $398,400.

Employees will receive the bonuses only if they stay with Inspire for at least the next year.

Pozen reported stronger fourth-quarter results this morning as the Chapel Hill company had higher sales and royalties from its drugs to treat migraines and arthritis pain.

As those products continue to gain ground, investors are waiting for more evidence that the company will succeed with other promising products, including an aspirin designed to reduce the risk of ulcers.

Testing that medicine and others will be an expensive and risky effort, and Wall Street will want proof that the costs will pay off. Pozen expects to seek regulatory approval for the better aspirin in late 2012, but it wouldn't be on the market until 2013 or early 2014.

Tranzyme took another key step toward making its Wall Street debut.

The Durham drug-development company reported in a regulatory filing that it expects to sell 5 million shares at $11 to $13 each.

Tranzyme first proposed an initial public offering of stock in November, but needed to disclose those terms before it could begin selling its IPO to potential investors.

A successful IPO would give Tranzyme more money to pay for further clinical tests of its drugs to treat gastrointestinal problems. It also could draw more investor attention to this region's drug-development industry, which hasn't had an IPO in several years.

Icagen reported improvement in its fourth-quarter financial results, although the Durham company continues to lose money as it seeks to develop a successful experimental drug.

The company's revenue rose to $2.3 million in the fourth quarter, up 64 percent from the same three-month period a year earlier. Much of the increase was tied to a $1 million milestone payment from bigger partner Pfizer.

Under its agreement with Pfizer, which runs through December, Icagen is developing new pain treatments that block so-called sodium channels and reduce the body's ability to feel pain. Icagen also is testing an experimental epilepsy treatment, and is preparing to start a new clinical trial on 60 patients.

Icagen plans to resume clinical trials of an experimental epilepsy drug after federal regulators lifted a hold on the tests.

Last fall, the Durham drug-development company stopped clinical trials after a patient experienced a "serious adverse event." Officials have said that no one died, but haven't disclosed what happened.

The company announced this morning that the Food and Drug Administration has approved Icagen's plans for further clinical tests. Icagen will determine its next steps shortly, said CEO P. Kay Wagoner, in a prepared statement.

Icagen shares rose 31 cents to close at $3.72. The shares have more than tripled since September, on investor optimism that several experimental drugs show promise.

Icagen also is developing pain treatments under a partnership with Pfizer.

Inspire Pharmaceuticals reported that its potential treatment for cystic fibrosis failed to meet key treatment goals in a late clinical study.

The news disappointed investors, who sent shares of the company down in early morning trading. Inspire, which is moving its headquarters to Raleigh from Durham this month, has been counting on the drug to help it expand beyond its line of medicines for various eye ailments.

The company is studying denufosol tetrasodium as a treatment cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that causes thick mucus buildup in the lungs. The results from the so-called Tiger-2 test mark a setback after a previous, successful study of the drug.

"These Tiger-2 results were disappointing and unexpected given the treatment effect observed in the Tiger-1 trial," CEO Adrian Adams said in a prepared statement. 

Shares of Icagen surged today after the Durham company announced it has started an early clinical trial of an experimental pain treatment.

The pain drug, which still requires years of further testing, is being developed with Icagen's larger partner Pfizer. The partnership calls for Icagen to receive milestone payments as the drug moves through the clinical testing process.

Icagen also announced this afternoon that it expects to submit with the Food and Drug Administration results from studies of its experimental treatment for epilepsy within the next few weeks.