Drug Repurposing for Mental Health: Overcoming Barriers and Improving Access

Dr Annalisa Casarin and her team are looking for professionals' perspectives regarding access to services for people living with Atypical Parkinsonian Syndromes (APS), including Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD) and Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). They have collected data from 30 cases and uncovered both expected findings and some surprising insights. They are now inviting professionals to take part in focus groups to help them better understand your perspectives on how the current organisation and delivery of services affect people's ability to live as well as possible with APS. Find out more about what's involved in the video. If you would like to get involved, please contact ImproveAPS@herts.ac.uk #ParkinsonianSyndromes #NeurologyResearch #HealthcareAccess #PatientCare #FocusGroups #MedicalResearch

The landscape of pharmaceutical investment in mental health, particularly for conditions like autism and schizophrenia, presents unique challenges. While cancer research often garners more immediate attention and perceived market viability, mental health remains a critical global priority. Depression, affecting a significant portion of the population, is an area with ongoing research aiming for improved treatments beyond existing serotonin reuptuptake inhibitors, which have limitations. Encouraging pharmaceutical involvement in mental illness research is crucial for developing more effective therapies. #MentalHealth #Pharmaceuticals #Schizophrenia #Autism #Depression #Research

📢 Seaport Therapeutics Advances Glyphallo in Major Depression 🔗 Read more: https://lnkd.in/gjt_MkiB Seaport Therapeutics is advancing #glyphallo in major depressive disorder, supporting continued clinical development of its investigational psychiatric therapy. Key Highlights: • #Glyphallo is advancing through clinical development • The program is focused on major depressive disorder • The development addresses significant unmet needs in mental health • The milestone expands Seaport Therapeutics’ psychiatric pipeline Continued development of #glyphallo reflects efforts to identify new therapeutic approaches for patients with major depression. 👏 Congratulations to the Seaport Therapeutics team on this clinical development milestone. Daphne Zohar, Steven Paul, Antony Loebel, Daniel Bonner 🤝 “Advancing #glyphallo brings another potential therapeutic approach closer to patients affected by major depressive disorder.” #SeaportTherapeutics #Glyphallo #MajorDepressiveDisorder #Depression #MentalHealth #ClinicalTrials #Biotech #DrugDevelopment FDA The National Institutes of Health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ISO - International Organization for Standardization World Health Organization European Medicines Agency U.S. Food and Drug Administration - Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), India American Psychiatric Association National Alliance on Mental Illness, Greater Los Angeles County (NAMI GLAC) || cGxP.wire || cGxP.Directory || cGxP.jobs || cGxP.Tech ||

FDA Officials Lay Out Plan To Make Psychedelic Therapies Available To Patients 'More Quickly': Agency officials are detailing steps to "compress the overall drug-development-to-approval timeline...as warranted by the nation’s mental health crisis." https://lnkd.in/giKqFZqF

A belief you have never tested feels exactly like a fact. That's what untested assumptions vs measured signals are about. And in pharma, untested assumptions will cost you dearly. The usual explanation for a wrong call is bad judgement. That is rarely what happened. Usually, nobody ever defined a signal to check the belief against. It was accepted once and never revisited. A study published this year in JAMA Psychiatry makes the same point plainly. Researchers tracked cannabis use disorder across the US population for four years. Their own conclusion: the results repudiate assumptions that had gone unquestioned for years, once someone finally measured them. The public, the politicians and even the healthcare community were clamouring for cannabis use. Now the research is coming out to challenge even medical use of cannabis. The belief was not stupid. It was simply never checked. The same pattern runs through founder-led pharma companies between $3M and $8M. ❌ A forecast confidence level nobody has verified this quarter. ❌ A team's capacity everyone assumes is fine. ❌ A market access timeline repeated so often it now sounds like a fact. None of these are lies. They are assumptions that quietly graduated into decisions. An assumption is not a signal. A signal has an owner, a defined check, and a date it gets reported. This week, name one belief currently steering a commercial decision that has not been checked against an actual number this quarter. Define what would confirm or correct it, and assign someone to report it on a fixed date. Which belief in your business has never once been checked against a number?

FDA Officials Lay Out Plan To Make Psychedelic Therapies Available To Patients 'More Quickly': Agency officials are detailing steps to "compress the overall drug-development-to-approval timeline...as warranted by the nation’s mental health crisis." https://lnkd.in/gKv8h22N

Canada's health ministry this week announced a $24 million investment in research examining how cannabis use affects users' brain health. The initiative comes as researchers confront a situation in which many Canadian adults report using cannabis without serious adverse effects, but, at the same time, important questions remain about its potential effects on mental health and wellbeing, particularly among youth, pregnant people, frequent users, and those at elevated risk of mental health issues.

Can we keep what makes opioids powerful painkillers—without forcing the brain to pay the price? For decades, the opioid crisis has pushed us toward a seemingly obvious solution: use fewer opioids. But perhaps we should also be asking a different question: Can we redesign opioid pharmacology itself? In this thoughtful article, pain and addiction specialist Dr. Lynn Webster revisits a scientific idea proposed more than 30 years ago—target opioid receptors in the periphery, where pain signals originate, while keeping the drug out of the brain, where euphoria, respiratory depression and addiction arise. I am particularly pleased to see DMX-101 and DIMERx highlighted as a real-world test of this hypothesis. This is precisely the paradigm we have been pursuing: don’t abandon opioid receptors—separate peripheral analgesia from central opioid liability. Maybe the future of opioid medicine isn’t fewer opioids. Maybe it’s smarter opioids. An important perspective from Dr. Webster, and well worth reading. #PainMedicine #OpioidCrisis #Addiction #Biotechnology #DrugDevelopment #DMX101 #DIMERx

The conversation around psychedelics is shifting from “if” to “how.” A new federal report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is urging states to begin preparing now for the possibility of FDA-approved psychedelic therapies. (Marijuana Moment) That preparation goes far beyond approving a drug. States may need frameworks for practitioner credentialing, safety protocols, informed consent, oversight, Medicaid coverage, and the infrastructure required to support people before, during, and after these experiences. One point in the report deserves particular attention: much of the clinical research has excluded people with serious mental illness, low incomes, and complex trauma histories, precisely the populations state mental health systems routinely serve. (Marijuana Moment) That evidence gap matters. Psychedelics are not conventional medications. Outcomes can be profoundly influenced by the individual, their psychological and medical history, medications, environment, support system, and preparation. As psychedelic therapies move closer to mainstream healthcare, readiness and harm reduction infrastructure need to advance alongside access. The question shouldn’t simply be: How do we make psychedelics available? It should also be: How do we identify risk, improve preparation, educate people, support informed decisions, and recognize when psychedelics may not be appropriate for someone? Perhaps the most important message from this report is that states shouldn’t wait until FDA approval to figure this out. The infrastructure for safer access needs to be built before access expands. Read the article: https://lnkd.in/gSFSU2jt #Psychedelics #HarmReduction #MentalHealth #PsychedelicResearch #PsychedelicTherapy #PatientSafety #HealthcareInnovation