Naurex Inc. has issued a report on its Phase IIa clinical trial on one of its own antidepressant medications showing the drug to be successful so far in treating depression. The new drug compound is called GLYX-13, which is a novel partial agonist of the NMDA receptor.
Presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), the clinical trial showed that giving the GLYX-13 just once significantly reduced the depression scores in the patients who did not find success with other antidepressant medications. The lower scores were seen within the first 24 hours after use and lasted for an average of seven days. The compound’s efficacy was almost twice the effect size as occurs with drugs like Paxil or Effexor after 4-6 weeks of use. This could be a groundbreaking discovery in terms of depression drug treatments if the results are confirmed.
“These data are an important step in validating Naurex’s mission of developing breakthrough therapies for depression and other CNS disorders,” said Derek Small, CEO of Naurex. “Our founder discovered a new class of drugs that appeared to have the remarkable antidepressant efficacy of ketamine-like compounds, but without their limiting side effects. These Phase II results suggest that this discovery may translate into measurable health improvements for individuals with depression, which bodes well for the future success of GLYX-13 and the other promising compounds we have generated from this platform.”
This compound is showing that this and other NMDA receptor-modulating agents, like ketamine, can work wonders in providing patients with an alternative treatment to antidepressants like Paxil and Effexor. Paxil and Effexor have both been linked to various side effects, including violent and suicidal thoughts and behavior. The pills have also been linked to babies being born with birth defects, including PPHN, oral clefts, spina bifida and neural tube defects, when the mothers take the pills while pregnant. It is for this reason that researchers are constantly trying to develop alternative treatments for moderate to severe depression.
“We are encouraged by these promising data,” noted Ronald M. Burch, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer of Naurex. “We have recently begun dosing patients in a GLYX-13 Phase IIb repeated dose trial, and we are on track to advance our second-generation oral compound, NRX-1074, into clinical trials next year. Preclinical studies show that our novel NMDA modulators may be applicable to a number of CNS disorders, and we look forward to assessing their potential to address major unmet needs in psychiatry and neurology.”
