So here’s a strange twist: Glaxo, which sells nicotine patches, lozenges and gum, signed a deal worth up to $1.5 billion with Targacept to develop and market compounds targeting post-operative pain, obesity, addiction and Parkinson’s. There’s also one for smoking cessation, and Targacept was spun off by RJ Reynolds, the cigarette maker, seven years ago.

In return for an exclusive license, Glaxo will make an initial payment to Targacept of $35 million - $15 million of which will go towards the purchase of Targacept stock. If Targacept were to hit all its milestones, total payments under the deal would be around $1.5 billion, plus royalties from future sales. See Glaxo statement here.

Targacept ceo Don deBethizy says, of course, the deal validates the importance of the “neuronal nicotinic receptors” that form the basis of his company’s research. NNRs are a special class of receptors in the brain.

Nicotine drugs have had a chequered history, as Reuters note, but the field received a boost last year with the approval of Pfizer’s smoking cessation product Chantix.