Richard Treagus has 20 years of exper­ience and a team with impeccable credentials, but he says the one thing that makes his ambition to bring a novel brain-disorder drug to market all the more easier is investors who are patient.

The executive chairman of Neuren Pharmaceuticals has a cornerstone investor in Lang Walker . The billionaire property developer owns about 17 per cent of the $271 million company and is banking on Neuren’s drug NNZ-2566 becoming the first ever treatment of rare neurological disorders such as Rett and Fragile X Syndrome s.