Leahy E
Drug Development & Delivery March 2019 Vol 19 No 2: 46-49.
At the recent American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) meeting, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals and PsychoGenics Inc. announced positive Phase 2 results for SEP-363856, a novel, first-in-class treatment that has the potential to offer patients with schizophrenia the chance to live a near-normal life. Available treatment options fail to treat all schizophrenia symptoms, and their side effects result in non-compliance and relapse. SEP-363856, by contrast, shows robust effects across a broad range of disabling symptoms, including positive, negative, depressive, and general psychopathology symptoms, with a safety profile similar to placebo. Discovered via SmartCube®, PsychoGenics’ target-agnostic platform, SEP-363856 does not interact with the dopamine D2 or other neuroreceptors thought to mediate the effects of currently available antipsychotic agents. The SmartCube platform thus represents a novel approach to discovering the next generation of breakthrough treatments for schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders.