
The United States the first in several decades drug for the treatment of schizophrenia has been approved
According to the World Health Organization, schizophrenia is one of the 15 main causes of disability in the world. In specialized clinics, 50 % are patients with this diagnosis. Traditional therapies for schizophrenia include drugs that act on dopamine receptors, while the new drug involves acting on cholinergic receptors in the brain.
On September 26, 2024, the news about the approval of the drug Cobenfy (xanomeline and trospium chloride) manufactured by Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) appeared on the website of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The drug Cobenfy is the first antipsychotic in the last few decades, the action of which is based on a fundamentally new approach – the effect on the cholinergic receptors of the brain.
The drug has shown its effectiveness in two clinical trials identical in design. In both trials, patients taking the drug had a decrease in the severity of schizophrenia symptoms in the fifth week compared with the placebo group.
BMS plans to bring Cobenfy to the market at the end of October 2024 at a price of $1,850 per month and $22,500 per year.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a combination of productive (hallucinatory-delusional, catatonic-hebephrenic, affective, etc.) and negative (apathy, abulia, alogia, emotional and social isolation, etc.) symptoms, behavioral and cognitive disorders (memory, attention, thinking, etc.) and leading to adverse social and economic consequences.
Currently, the stress-diathesis model of the origin of schizophrenia is generally accepted, which reflects the idea of the importance of not only hereditary, but also environmental, including social factors in the development of the disease.
Thus, the risk of schizophrenia increases in cases when a person grew up in an urban environment, compared with living in rural areas, is a migrant and uses cannabinoids. Risk factors, in addition, include obstetric and gynecological complications (premature birth, fetal hypoxia), infectious diseases and maternal malnutrition in the first and early second trimester of pregnancy, infectious diseases during pregnancy - influenza, rubella, toxoplasmosis, herpes, as well as early childhood psychological trauma. In recent years, special attention has been paid to the microbiota in relation to the development of schizophrenia.
References:
- https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-drug-new-mechanism-action-treatment-schizophrenia
- https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/schizophrenia
- https://cr.minzdrav.gov.ru/schema/451_2
- https://pharmvestnik.ru/content/news/FDA-odobrilo-pervyi-za-neskolko-desyatiletii-preparat-ot-shizofrenii.html