What's Behind Axsome Therapeutics' Miracle Pipeline?
In the biotech industry, companies are able to successfully advance a drug from phase 2 to phase 3 studies and beyond about 50% of the time. But Axsome Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AXSM) is currently developing four drug candidates targeting seven conditions with significant medical needs -- and nearly all of the company's clinical trials have succeeded in their phase 2 and phase 3 investigational goals. That success rate is wild. Just what exactly could be behind the company's track record of success?
Axsome's flagship product is AXS-05, a compounded drug made up of an over-the-counter cough medication, dextromethorphan (DM), combined with bupropion, an antidepressant. AXS-05 is being investigated for four different conditions, and it's thought that its components work together synergistically, with bupropion increasing the circulation of DM in the bloodstream while retaining its antidepressant characteristics. As a result, the drug can target multiple receptors in the central nervous system, whereas traditional antidepressants only target one. I recently wrote about about the drug's the potential to become a new first-line therapy for depression, but its potential doesn't stop there.
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Source Fool.com
