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Burden of mental illness

Neuropsychiatric disorders impact hundreds of millions of patients, many of whom have poor or no treatment options. Yet, despite the enormous human cost and societal burden, there have been almost no new mechanisms to treat major neuropsychiatric disorders in decades.

Depression and anxiety disorders

cost the global economy
trillions
each year in lost productivity

21% of people experiencing homelessness

also have a serious mental illness

37% of people incarcerated in state and federal prison have a diagnosed mental health condition

46% of people who die by suicide

have a diagnosed mental health condition

1 in 8 of all visits to U.S. emergency departments

are related to mental and substance abuse disorders

1 in 5 U.S. adults
experience mental illness

The average delay between symptom onset and treatment is

11 years

Neuropsychiatric disorders

are complex conditions with poorly defined mechanisms

The complexity of these disorders requires
a new drug discovery approach

The target-based approach of identifying highly selective targeted compounds has failed to deliver new and improved treatments for central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Instead, we rely on old drugs, some with serious side effects.

The alternative to target-driven drug discovery is a phenotypic systems approach, which can deliver treatments that work via novel, unknown, or multiple mechanisms. Phenotypic screening strategies have been more productive than target-based approaches, especially for CNS disorders where some of the most efficacious drugs, such as clozapine for schizophrenia, were discovered by serendipity (by observing how an animal’s behavior was altered in response to the drug).

PsychoGenics employs computer vision and Artificial Intelligence to extract and analyze behavioral and physiological data from mice and offers an effective approach to the discovery and development of the next generation of breakthrough treatments for CNS disorders.”

Four proprietary in vivo technologies are at the core of our
drug discovery platform

There are currently four proprietary platforms, SmartCube®, NeuroCube®, PhenoCube® and eCube™. Using these platforms PsychoGenics can screen tens of thousands of compounds for CNS activity and identify those with a behavioral/physiological profile that reverses a disease model phenotype or that are similar to drugs that treat a specific neuropsychiatric disorder. The company’s technologies are being applied to discover treatments for psychiatric, cognitive, neurodegenerative, and seizure disorders, and pain.

data points per mouse per session

behaviors per session

of compounds per week

compounds per year

Our AI-enabled platform provides deep insight
into novel compounds

PsychoGenics’ phenotypic drug discovery approach can significantly reduce the time and cost to reaching approved Investigational New Drug status, potentially resulting in the identification of a viable drug candidate from a few hundred analogs tested in lead optimization in just over a year. This compares favorably to most target-driven programs, which typically synthesize thousands of analogs over many years. Due to its target-agnostic nature, the approach has increased the probability of successfully finding drug candidates with novel first-in-class mechanisms of action and improved side effect profiles that are suitable for treating the symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders.

The PsychoGenics platform has classified hundreds of currently marketed drugs by their behavioral signature to create our Reference Drug database. We now take experimental compounds and use AI to tell us behavioral similarity, which gives us insight into potential therapeutic indications.

Experimental Compound A is classified as “Antidepressant”

Our platform has enabled us to develop a proprietary
library of diverse compounds and their behavioral signatures

Over many years PsychoGenics has amassed a library of diverse small molecule compound tested for behavioral activity. given the diversity of chemistry there are many opportunities to initiate new discovery programs.

Our platform has delivered a pipeline of drug candidates in
partnership with Sunovion, Roche, Karuna and others

Using artificial intelligence (AI), PsychoGenics has pioneered the translation of rodent behavioral and physiological responses into robust, high throughput, high content phenotyping. Its drug discovery platforms, SmartCube®, NeuroCube®, PhenoCube® and eCube, have led to shared risk partnerships with major pharma companies such as Sunovion and Roche and resulted in the discovery of several novel compounds now in clinical trials, including SEP-363856. SEP-363856 is a novel, first-in-class drug treatment for schizophrenia being developed by Sunovion Pharmaceuticals.

*

The most advanced, Ulotaront, was awarded Breakthrough Status designation, treats more symptoms than any existing medication, and has placebo-like side effects

Ulotaront is our Breakthrough Status compound*
currently in Phase III

PsychoGenics’ platform
behavioral signature for Ulotaront

Potential to be the first new
Mechanism of Action for the treatment of schizophrenia in 65 years.

Placebo-like side effects with broad efficacy including against negative symptoms.

Сurrently in Phase 3 trials and granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by FDA.
developed in collaboration with

Our library is the source of our diverse
internal pipeline of programs

Our programs are positioned to achieve a similar or improved level of efficacy and to reduce side effects with novel Mechanisms of Action