Although several members of the U.S. FDA’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee said they thought Lykos Therapeutics Inc.’s midomafetamine (MDMA), used in combination with psychotherapy, is a promising treatment for post-traumatic stress syndrome, they were not ready to endorse its approval.
Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd.’s NNZ-2591 met the primary endpoints in a phase II trial in children with Pitt Hopkins syndrome, with improvements seen in communication, social interaction, cognition and motor abilities, according to top-line results.
Researchers from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation continue to build intellectual property to protect their invention of a portable device for regulating the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from a patient.
Parmedics Inc. has described proteinase-activated PAR2 receptor antagonists reported to be useful for the treatment of asthma, cancer, osteoarthritis, migraine, chronic pain, inflammatory and vascular disorders.
Beijing Primegene Therapeutics Co. Ltd. has divulged thioether compounds acting as transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 3 (TRPV3) antagonists reported to be useful for the treatment of pain, pruritus, inflammation, fever, cystitis, irritable bowel syndrome, cough and alopecia.
With its hands full developing QRL-101 and QRL-201, both in clinical trials for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with plans to expand into other neurodegenerative diseases such as frontotemporal dementia, Quralis Corp. has decided to out-license its preclinical ALS and FTD drug, QRL-204.
Unblinding, zealous therapists, severity of harms, abuse potential and actual benefit could all be part of the conversation June 4 when the U.S. FDA’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee meets in person for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdowns to consider the use of a psychedelic drug, guided by psychotherapy, to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Scientists at Cerevance Inc. and Cerevance Ltd. have described potassium channel subfamily K member 13 (KCNK13; THIK-1) blockers reported to be useful for the treatment of fibrosis, depression, diabetes, gout, psoriasis, atherosclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and traumatic brain injury.
Scientists from the PsychENCODE Consortium have analyzed the brain transcriptome in a coordinated series of studies to map all the cell types, genes, epigenetic factors, and molecular pathways involved in different psychiatric disorders. After a first set of projects based on bulk analysis, the second phase of this project included 14 simultaneous publications that revealed the cellular atlas of post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder, among others.
Two companies – Head Diagnostics Ltd. and Octave Bioscience Inc. – identified biomarkers that could provide objective assessments of disease progression and response to treatment for patients with multiple sclerosis.