New psychiatric drugs low priority for pharmaceutical firms

The pharmaceutical industry has largely abandoned drug development for mental illnesses even though depression is a leading cause of disability, experts say.

Authors of papers published in this week's issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine argue that drug discovery for treating psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression are at a near standstill.

"Antipsychotics and antidepressants have been some of the most profitable agents for companies over the last two decades," said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health and one of the authors.

"But that doesn't mean they're effective. What it means is that they sell and they can be marketed."

In the last five decades, more than 20 antipsychotics and 30 antidepressants have been marketed with over $25 billion in sales in the U.S. in 2011 alone, Insel said.

The drugs are descended from serendipitous discoveries such as the mood stabilizing effects of lithium in 1949, said Steven Hyman of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and the author of the second paper.

"The central problem is clear: Neither vast unmet medical need, nor large and growing markets, nor concerted sales campaigns that attempt to recast 'me-too drugs' as innovative can illuminate a path across very difficult scientific terrain," Hyman wrote.

"Advances continue to be made in modes of cognitive psychotherapy and device-based psychiatric treatments; but despite the growing market opportunities, major pharmaceutical companies recently announced substantial cutbacks or complete discontinuation of efforts to discover new drugs for psychiatric disorders."

There are no drugs to target the main symptoms of autism such as social deficits and language disorder, Insel said. Those deficits often respond well to intensive behavioural treatments, which suggests theres potential for a pharmacological approach.

Antidepressants available today are modestly effective after six weeks of treatment in randomized clinical trials a long time to wait for a disorder with such a high burden, he added.

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New psychiatric drugs low priority for pharmaceutical firms