Autifony Therapeutics announces £3.3 million collaboration to progress first-in-class drug for schizophrenia into clinical trials

Autifony Therapeutics Limited (“Autifony”), which is pioneering the development of novel pharmaceutical treatments for hearing disorders, today announced a £3.3 million collaborative project to progress its new drug, AUT00206 into clinical trials for the treatment of schizophrenia. £2.4 million will come from the Biomedical Catalyst, jointly funded by Innovate UK and the Medical Research Council.

Autifony will be sponsor of the clinical trial, with Dr Oliver Howes at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), Kings College London and Professor Bill Deakin at the University of Manchester collaborating on the clinical studies. In addition, the highly successful preclinical collaboration with the University of Manchester and Newcastle University, which was previously funded by the Biomedical Catalyst Early Stage programme, will continue in support of the clinical studies.

Autifony’s lead programme AUT00063 is a first-in-class Kv3 potassium channel modulator for hearing loss and tinnitus. AUT00206, a novel molecule with differentiated profile, is being developed against the same Kv3 ion channel target as a potential first-in-class new therapy for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric illness that has seen diminishing investment in research in recent years and remains an area of high unmet medical need, with existing schizophrenia treatments demonstrating poor efficacy for many patients as well as causing considerable side effects. The condition imposes a huge social and economic burden. Preclinical data generated with its academic partners under Autifony’s previous Early Stage programme suggest that AUT00206 may have potential to treat positive, cognitive and also negative symptoms of the disease, which would represent a breakthrough for schizophrenia patients.

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Thanks for posting - very interesting.

Here is the company site:

and more info on the new medication in development:

and Details on their scientific publications on schizophrenia medication:

http://www.autifonytherapeutics.com/autifony-science-publications.asp#schizophrenia

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