Johns Hopkins, Eisai to Collaborate on New Brain Drugs

(National Institute of Mental Health)

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore and Eisai, a pharmaceutical company in Tokyo, will collaborate on research for discovery of drugs for brain conditions such as schizophrenia, pain, brain tumors and Alzheimer’s disease. The partnership will be part of the NeuroTranslational Program in JHU’s Brain Science Institute.

The Brain Science Institute researches questions about brain development and function to understand the mechanisms of brain disease. The NeuroTranslational Program connects commercial drug-discovery scientists with Johns Hopkins faculty to develop discoveries from JHU neuroscience labs into treatments neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Under the agreement, JHU will provide Eisai with new therapeutic targets in the central and peripheral nervous system discovered by JHU scientists. Using assays developed and validated by the NeuroTranslational Program, Eisai will conduct high-throughput screening of its chemical libraries to identify compounds that interact with these targets.

The goal of the collaboration is to identify clinical candidates and advance them to investigational drug-enabling studies. Eisai will have the option to enter into an agreement to develop and commercialize the new chemical compounds, and will pay upfront milestone and royalty payments on each selected drug discovery target.

Read more: Hopkins, Walgreens to Partner on Research, Outcome Protocols

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