Ophidion, Inc., an early-stage private biotechnology company developing a new class of safe and effective drugs targeting some of the most important receptors in the central nervous system. The activity of this target is implicated in cognitive processes (important for the alleviation of symptoms of, as examples, Schizophrenia, ADHD, and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease), anxiety and depression, pain, as well as many other important medical indications. Ophidion’s licensed approach is to develop drugs that allosterically modulate receptor activity by enhancing or reducing the activity of extracellular, small accessory proteins. Allosteric drugs are predicted to enhance or limit the receptors’ activity while preserving their spatio-temporal activity patterns in the brain, and thereby significantly enhance efficacy and reduce side effects. Ophidion’s approach is an improvement over drugs that continuously activate or suppress these receptors everywhere, thereby causing significant side effects, and that over time cause receptor down-regulation and/or desensitization, and hence loss of efficacy.

Based on the real unmet need for more effective cognitive treatment not only for Alzheimer’s disease patients, but also for the treatment of patients suffering from other dementias, including age-associated memory impairment, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, and vascular dementia; from impaired cognitive abilities in other CNS disorders, such as depression, ADHD, schizophrenia, and autism, and vascular disorders, including hypertension, diabetes, and stroke; and for post-surgical and chemotherapy patients, Ophidion will initially focus on the development of cognitive enhancement drugs. Safer and more effective medication for these population groups would expand the market for cognitive drugs dramatically. Furthermore, the aging population represents additional, enormous growth potential.

For more information contact: Julie Miwa, PhD