London, U.K.-based Autifony will use the money to push a schizophrenia program into the clinic later this year, at which point it will have three trials underway. A clutch of big-name investors have helped Autifony reach this point, with Pfizer’s ($PFE) VC unit and SV Life Sciences being joined in the most recent round
The sideways leap into schizophrenia is underpinned by research suggesting Kv3 channels play a role in neurological and psychiatric disorders. In this context, the channels are known to be involved with the control mechanism for parvalbumin-positive interneurons, a part of the central nervous system that is thought to stop functioning normally in people with schizophrenia. If Autifony’s drug can modulate the Kv3 channels to fix the functioning of the interneurons, it might be able to improve health outcomes for people with the mental disorder.
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