The burgeoning psychedelic therapeutics market experienced a boost Jan. 25 as Small Pharma Inc. announced its synthetic, intravenous formulation of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), SPL-026, led to a statistically significantly, rapid reduction in depression symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder in a phase IIa trial, thus meeting its primary endpoint. DMT is a powerful hallucinogenic tryptamine substance which works as a 5-HT receptor agonist. It is found naturally in various plants, and is a schedule I controlled substance in the U.S. Although lesser known than other psychedelics such as magic mushrooms and LSD, it produces short-lived but intense auditory and visual hallucinogenic effects.

ABVC Biopharma Inc is headquartered in San Francisco but it has its roots in Taiwan where it is digging into traditional medicine and validating it for the modern world. “There are a number of drugs that can’t be synthesized in the lab,” ABVC CEO Howard Doong told BioWorld, so he is going back to the original source of traditional Chinese medicines to validate them using traditional drug development models.

Eli Lilly and Co.’s complete response letter (CRL) from the U.S. FDA relating to accelerated approval of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) candidate donanemab set off a round of speculation regarding not only what the move might mean for the pharma giant but also for others in the embattled therapeutic space and beyond. The answer, if you believe analysts: not much.

Looking ahead to potential commercialization of its late-stage tau PET imaging agent, Aprinoia Therapeutics Inc. has chosen to go public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Ross Acquisition Corp. II in a deal that has an equity value of $280 million. The funding is aimed at getting candidate 18F-APN-1607 to the market in China.

Irlab Therapeutics AB’s phase IIb exploration of the dopamine D3-receptor with the Ipsen SA-partnered oral antagonist mesdopetam in Parkinson’s disease (PD) levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) fell short in terms of the primary endpoint, but the company is holding out hope. Mesdopetam missed the primary endpoint of change in daily hours of “on” time – periods of adequate PD control – without troublesome dyskinesia as shown in patient diaries, the company said.

A psychiatric disorder rarely comes alone. More than half of all individuals who meet the diagnostic criteria for any psychiatric disorder are diagnosed with more than one condition. That high degree of comorbidity is often viewed as a consequence of the heterogeneity of psychiatric disorders – and as evidence that psychiatric diagnoses poorly reflect the underlying brain biology. Data published in Nature Human Behaviour on Jan. 12, 2023, has identified another likely contributor to the high degree of overlap between different psychiatric disorders.

A drug that Novartis AG discontinued in fragile X syndrome in 2014 after it failed in two phase II/III trials has been in-licensed by neuroscience specialist Stalicla SA, which plans to revive the prospects of the glutamate receptor antagonist by applying its precision medicine technology to identify likely responders.

Recent news from Quralis Corp. and Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. highlighted the potential for targeting the Kv7 potassium channel, of special interest to a handful of developers lately.