Despite positive findings from an earlier trial, Alto Neuroscience Inc.’s BDNF-targeting candidate, ALTO-100, failed to best placebo in a phase IIb study in major depressive disorder, sending shares of the company to their lowest price since going public in a February 2024 IPO, as investors worried about readthrough to Alto’s biomarker-based approach for treating psychiatric disorders.
The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Agency has become the third to approve Eli Lilly and Co.’s Kisunla (donanemab), but the drug’s spending watchdog has simultaneously ruled the Alzheimer’s disease treatment is not cost effective.
Humanwell Healthcare (Group) Co. Ltd. has patented compounds acting a type-2 angiotensin II receptor (AGTR2; AT2) antagonists reported to be useful for the treatment of neuropathy and neuropathic pain.
Nippon Chemiphar Co. Ltd. has disclosed morphinan derivatives acting as κ-opioid receptor agonists reported to be useful for the treatment of cough, pain, pruritus, substance abuse and dependence, and liver, respiratory, neurological and cardiovascular disorders.
Oblique Therapeutics AB has achieved a milestone within its research project on the Nav1.8 ion channel with the goal of developing innovative therapeutics for patients with chronic pain.
At the ongoing European Society of Gene & Cell Therapy meeting in Rome, Aviadobio Ltd. presented preclinical data for a novel ATXN2-targeting miRNA-containing vector, AVB-205, developed based on previous research that has shown the potential of ATXN2 silencing as a promising therapeutic strategy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and tau-negative frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Targeting NMDA in mental health has chalked wins but not universally, as shown by Sage Therapeutics Inc.’s failure of the placebo-controlled phase II Lightwave study testing dalzanemdor in Alzheimer's disease, which missed the primary outcome measure, another bit of bad luck from the company that was disclosed Oct. 8.
Cureverse Inc. and Angelini Pharma SpA signed a potential $360 million deal for CV-01, an oral small-molecule candidate for Alzheimer’s disease and neurological disorders like epilepsy. As a novel candidate, CV-01 suppresses neuroinflammatory reactions through the Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 and nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor signaling pathway.
Seaport Therapeutics Inc. has followed up its recent fundraiser with an oversubscribed $225 million series B financing that will help set it on the path to a phase IIb study in major depressive disorder. The company’s lead candidate is allopregnanolone, an endogenous neurosteroid that is taken orally and bypasses the liver. Once it is absorbed through the lymphatic system, allopregnanolone enters through a pathway that avoids the liver and the possibility of hepatoxicity and elevated liver enzyme counts, Michael Chen, Seaport’s chief scientific officer, told BioWorld.
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