Allergan working to increase range, efficacy of mental health treatments

The recent acquisition of Naurex by Allergan has provided the company with the opportunity to deepen its commitment to the mental health field.

“Naurex is an exciting addition to our efforts in psychiatry,” C. David Nicholson, PhD, head of brand research and development at Allergan, told Healio.com/Psychiatry. “Colleagues at Naurex have discovered N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) modulators which have huge potential to be fast-onset antidepressants.”

C. David Nicholson

Prior to the Naurex acquisition, Allergan’s portfolio included Namenda (memantine hydrochloride, Forest Laboratories Inc.), Namenda XR and Namzaric (donepezil hydrochloride/memantine hydrochloride, Forest Laboratories Inc.) for Alzheimer’s disease; Viibryd (vilazodone hydrochloride, Forest Laboratories Inc.) and Fetzima (levomilnacipran Forest Laboratories Inc.) for depression; and Saphris (asenapine, Forest Laboratories Inc.) for schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder. Allergan recently received FDA approval for Vraylar (cariprazine, Actavis Pharma) for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Following the acquisition, Allergan will further research on the NMDAR modulators, which have been shown to have antidepressant effects within hours after a single IV administration, according to Nicholson.

“Allergan remains very committed to mental health,” Nicholson said. “There is a huge unmet need across the full range of psychiatric and neurological disorders — a huge unmet need for novel therapies. The existing therapies only work in a proportion of patients, take time to deliver benefits and sometimes have unacceptable side effects.”

In addition to the compounds from Naurex, Allergan is exploring Vraylar for treatment of major depressive disorder and bipolar depression. – by Amanda Oldt