DefinedHealth

Ginger S. Johnson, PhD

The worldwide market for CNS disorder therapies (currently valued at more than $50 billion) is on the verge of explosion, especially as the baby boomers and their CNS-related conditions come of old age. However, drug development in CNS is not keeping pace with demand. The CNS pipeline has a notoriously high attrition rate due to a variety of factors, some of which are associated with unwanted side effects and difficulty crossing the blood brain barrier to reach the target. These include: the complexity of the brain; a lack of understanding of the underlying biology of CNS diseases; limited value of animal models; and “messy” mechanisms interacting with multiple targets. Pharma and biotech need to come up with innovative solutions to mitigate risk and recognize value in the CNS market, particularly when faced with novel mechanisms of action and unvalidated clinical pathways.

At this Insight Series briefing we will look at the various approaches being taken along the perilous road of CNS development, such as: (1) repurposing of marketed drugs for new CNS uses; (2) developing methods to look outside of a company’s “siloed” therapeutic focus to opportunistically recognize potential therapies for CNS disease, and (3) the use of translational medicine to bridge the gap between CNS drug discovery and drug development. We will discuss lessons learned from the efforts of others and the role of clinical and market unmet need as guide posts for risk/reward consideration in CNS.