Schizophrenia Daily News Blog

Merck Licenses New SZ Drug

U.S. drug company Merck and Co has recently bought the rights for a new experimental schizophrenia drug from Japan. Medication SM13496 is currently in FDA Phase II trials.

Results from early research suggest that the drug may not cause the problematic weight gain side effects that have plagued users of other second-generation antipsychotics. However, all research on this drug has been funded by the developers themselves - therefore, read all results with due caution. We would like to see independent, non-biased confirmation of drug efficacy.

SM-13496 is a novel antipsychotic with high binding affinity for dopamine (D2) and serotonin receptors. Results from Phase I clinical trials (funded by the pharmaceutical company Sumitomo in Japan) indicated that the drug is safe and tolerable in doses of 40mg/day and 120mg/day. Sample size was 149 chronic schizophrenia patients.

Full story: Merck Licenses Schizophrenia Medicine From Sumitomo, July 5 2005. See http://tinyurl.com/ctmwd