Forest’s acquisition of Clinical Data to get its just-approved antidepressant signals continuing strong demand. But better, and much needed, treatments remain elusive. We profile four emerging antidepressant drug developers in this issue: Euthymics Biosciences, Naurex and PharmaNeuroBoost.

Belgian firm PharmaNeuroBoost NV creates NCEs out of existing therapeutics combined with the company’s proprietary boosting technology. The most advanced product in its pipeline, PNB01, is a combination of a low dose of pipamperone, a selective antagonist of the 5-HT2A and dopamine-4 receptors, with a fixed dose of the SSRI citalopram. It will soon embark on a Phase III pivotal trial comparing PNB01 with standard of care for treatment of major depressive disorder.

Each month, Start-Up presents a comprehensive review of young, private life science companies that have received venture funding during the month, including companies in the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic and research instrumentation & reagent sectors.

Our monthly update on technology transfer deals--licensing agreements between companies and universities or other research institutions--in the fields of life sciences, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and research/analytical instrumentation and reagents.