The Hunt for Novel Depression Therapies
Over the past two years the pharmaceutical sector has been roiled by announcements from big pharma that they were reducing CNS research and development, specifically in psychiatry.  Various reasons are given, but  most often we hear about a lack of good animal models, a high placebo effect, and high late stage failure rates. CNS Phase II and II failure rates, however, are actually lower than oncology and cardiovascular programs according to a 2010 Tufts study.  Another problem facing development in the area of depression is the lack of novel targets. Many novel targets in the past decade for depression including CRF, V1B, and NK1 antagonists have not lived up to expectations. Success will be undoubtedly be rewarded,  though, and new drugs as well as new neurostimulation devices and diagnostics are making progress in the clinic. This article outlines issues in depression and drugs, devices and diagnostics in development ...

e-Therapeutics: Network Pharmacology at Work

e-Therapeutics (LON:ETX) was formed in 2001 but its CEO, Malcolm Young traces the company’s origin to the early 1990's. At that time he had just received a Royal Society Fellowship to work with Professor Colin Blakemore at Oxford University. His focus evolved from neural organization to paradoxical restoration of function after multiple brain lesions, and then on to protein networks, drug discovery, and finally to network pharmacology. "I began to apply similar modeling that I had done on brain organization to protein networks and drug discovery,”  he explains...

Companies Covered In This Issue Include: Durect, Pain Therapeutics, Boehringer Ingelheim, Evotec, Seaside Therapeutics, Adeona, Lpath, Orexigen, Mylan, Valeant, GSK, Edison, Neurotech North America, CerebralRx, Alkermes, Neurelis, Somnus, Tonix, Biotie, Titan, Catalyst, Acura, Lundbeck, Pfizer, Merck Sereno, St. Jude Medical, Naurex, Repligen, EnVivo Pharma, Ono Pharmceutical, Autonomic Technologies, Nuvo Reserach, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Corcept Therapeutics, Alkermes, Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation, Epiomed, Neuronascent, MEMStim, Philips, Spinal Modulation, Zarlink, Medtronic, Sanofi, Nipro, GE, Audion, Mayo, NeuroMetrix, Jan Medical, Karuna,Tal Medical, Nordic Life Science Pipeline, Luminosity, Depomed, Brainsway, Novasom, Quintiles, Prana, Jubilant, Janssen, Proteotech, CeNeRx, Roche, Clinical Data, Forest, Euthymics, BrainCElls, NeuralStem, NeoStim, Cyberonics, Rexahn, Novartis, Otsuka, NeuroSigma, Ridge Medical, Transcription Diagnostics, Optimal Medicine, AbaStarMDX, BioCortech, PAX Neuroscience

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