Daewoong Pharmaceutical said on Wednesday it signed a joint R&D agreement with Neurorive to develop new drug candidates for depression treatment.

NR-0601 is an oral antidepressant derived from Neurorive's drug screening platform that sends electrical signals to living brain tissues to check the response of nerve cells and has a multi-target mechanism of action, which is expected to alleviate depression faster than conventional monoamine oral antidepressants.

One in three patients with major depression disorders suffer from treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and this drug also has the possibility of treating these patients who do not respond to existing therapeutic drugs, Daewoong said.

Both companies will jointly develop a multi-targeted non-narcotic oral depression treatment NR-0601 which is scheduled to enter clinical trials early next year. 

Daewoong Pharmaceutical will handle research on drug improvement, chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC), good manufacturing standards (GMP) for clinical trials, and clinical trial advice.

Neurorive will be responsible for non-clinical development and testing, discussions with various regulatory agencies including the FDA, application for clinical trial plan approval (IND), and clinical development.

“We are excited to cooperate with Neurorive, on the R&D of next-generation antidepressants to help people manage their mental health such as depression, anxiety, and stress," said Daewoong Pharmaceutical CEO Jeon Seng-ho.

Neurorive CEO Lee Suck-chan said, "The collaboration with Daewoong Pharmaceutical which has excellent development capabilities has brought us a step closer to our dream of developing competitive global drugs."

“Our drug screening platform will help effectively identify the efficacy of candidate substances by measuring neural networks activated when treating central nervous system diseases while also shortening clinical lead time and improving the probability of success.”