Neuro3d Commences Clinical Studies with its PDE4 inhibitor ND1251 a New Approach for Treating Patients with Depression

09-Jun-2004

Neuro3d, a biopharmaceutical company focused on drug discovery and development for psychiatric disorders, announced today that ND1251 is being investigated in Phase I trials for the treatment of depression. ND1251 is an orally active phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor, a mechanism clinically proven to play a role in alleviating symptoms of depression. The goal of the Phase I trials is to establish the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of ND1251, and to demonstrate activity in the brain.

"After ocaperidone, ND1251 is our second drug that has entered the clinic and the only PDE4 inhibitor in clinical trials for depression worldwide. Meeting this milestone is a major achievement for Neuro3d. The successful advancing of the drug from discovery into clinical development in less than 2 years, demonstrates the efficiency of our R&D organization," noted Charles Woler, CEO of Neuro3d. "While depression will be the initial focus for ND1251 because of the documented success of PDE inhibition in this indication and the significant medical need for new types of treatments, we believe that there may be several more applications both core and non-core to our business. We would of course leverage non-core applications in potential deals with partners."

ND1251 is a very potent compound with a large safety margin. In animal models, it does not exhibit the typical side effects, such as emesis and sedation that prevented the clinical use of previously developed PDE4 inhibitors. ND1251 possesses a good safety profile showing no prohibitive effects on respiratory, cardiac or CNS parameters (e.g. QTc). In preclinical studies, ND1251 has shown anti-depressant, memory enhancing and anti-inflammatory effects. On the basis of these activities ND1251 may also have applications in other disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, multiple sclerosis and certain respiratory diseases.

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