Dive Brief:
- According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Cyclurad, a combination of Ketamine, the mood stabilizer Lurasidone and a tubreculosis drug, D-cycloserine, has long-term efficacy in hard-to-treat bipolar depression. Cyclurad is being developed by the company NeuroRx.
- The peer-reviewed study included eight patients and was conducted by researchers at Columbia University in NYC.
- More than three million Americans live with bipolar depression, which is also known as manic depression.
Dive Insight:
One of the most exciting takeaways from this study is that researchers seem to have uncovered a way to leverage the short-term efficacy of Ketamine in rapidly reversing depression for a short period of time, by combining it with other drugs to lengthen the positive treatment effect.
There is a huge unmet medical need associated with bipolar depression, which experts say leads 25% to 50% of those with the disease to attempt suicide. Approval of Cyclurad could be a major game-changer for treatment of this challenging disease.
NeuroRx is privately funded and headed up by Jonathan Javitt, who lives in Israel and has a stellar drug-development history, including developing drugs for Pfizer and Merck, in addition to being a healthcare advisor during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.