Health firms partner for decentralized, precision study of non-responders to depression
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A pair of West Coast health firms have announced a partnership to launch a decentralized clinical study in precision psychiatry.
The collaboration between Alto Neuroscience Inc. and Cerebral Inc. will provide Cerebral patients who have not responded well to therapy for major depressive disorder with access to Alto’s approach, which aims to match each patient with the appropriate drug to improve treatment and results.
“Our team is deeply committed to bridging gaps in clinical care and reducing barriers to connecting our members with personalized mental health resources,” Kyle Robertson, CEO and founder of Cerebral, said in a press release.
The companies expect to conduct multiple phase 2 studies to evaluate Alto’s new drug candidates. They are likely to enroll between 200 and 300 participants each, drawing from Cerebral’s 200,000-plus member network.
Participants will undergo in-home evaluations measuring brain activity using EEG, as well as assessments of cognitive and emotional functions, sleep and activity patterns and genetics. Remote assessments will be performed for each study, while an interdisciplinary health care team will conduct at-home visits at the start and end of each trial.
Researchers will also evaluate clinical outcomes, such as depression or PTSD scales, to determine overall improvements of participants. Alto will then apply analytics to determine if one of its biomarkers can identify which patient can respond well to a particular drug.
Results from these studies are expected to be made public by the end of 2022.
“The days of relying on trial-and-error for treating mental health conditions are over. Psychiatry has been poised for disruption for decades, and this partnership represents our collective commitment to bring a vast network of patients access to the care they deserve,” Amit Etkin, MD, PhD, founder and CEO of Alto Neuroscience, said in the release.
“The introduction of this first-ever decentralized clinical trial in precision psychiatry broadens our formerly narrow view of drug discovery and development in mental health, allowing us to quickly deploy effective, accessible treatments in a way not previously possible.”