Depressed? You’re stuck with the drugs you have for at least another decade
Depression and anxiety are on the rise, but no big breakthroughs are expected in the field, partly due to "failure of science", but also for commercial reasons
London — It will probably be at least 10 years before any new generation of antidepressants comes to market, despite evidence that depression and anxiety rates are rising worldwide, say specialists. The depression drug pipeline has run dry due to "failure of science" and big pharma groups pulling investment out of research and development in the neuroscience field because of uncertainty on profit potential, they say. "I’d be very surprised if we were to see any new drugs for depression in the next decade. The pharmaceutical industry is simply not investing in the research because it can’t make money from these drugs," Guy Goodwin, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford, told reporters in London. Andrea Cipriani, a consultant psychiatrist at Oxford, said risk aversion was understandable, given uncertain returns and the cost of developing and bringing a new drug to market at about $1bn. "It’s a lot of money to spend, and there’s a high rate of failure," Cipriani said. T...
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