Approximately 19 million Americans are affected by depression, with 2.5 million more diagnosed annually, at a cost to society of nearly $40 billion annually. Though millions of Americans now take antidepressants, these drugs form a fairly narrow functional class, causing a portion of depressed patients to be refractive to these therapies. Due to the length of time a patient must take antidepressants prior to amelioration of symptoms, and due to their known side effects, patients may become noncompliant.

Neuronascent is developing therapeutics aimed at intervening at the level of reduction in neurogenesis in patients with chronic depression and anxiety . Our lead therapeutic candidate represents an exciting new class of drugs that is not a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, but one that complements those already on the market for noncompliant and refractive patients. In vivo preclinical proof of concept for this lead therapeutic candidate showed not only antidepressive activity and memory improvement but new neurons, or neurogenesis, in a critical region of the brain. Our program for depression is in the preclinical phase of development, initiating IND-enabling studies.

For more information on depression, please visit the International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression at www.ifred.org.