09/27/2024

FDA Approves a Novel Drug for Schizophrenia

Researchers call it a potential ‘game changer’

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) late Thursday approved a new kind of drug to treat schizophrenia, a breakthrough after 70 years of incremental innovation that appears to avoid side effects that cause many patients to stop taking their medication.

The new drug, Bristol Myers Squibb's Cobenfy, targets a different area of the brain than traditional antipsychotic drugs to relieve symptoms like delusions without causing patients to gain weight, fall asleep and experience involuntary muscle jerking.

The drug was not without its own side effects. Participants in clinical trials reported higher levels of nausea, vomiting and constipation than in a placebo group. Even so, the arrival of Cobenfy offers a new tool for treating schizophrenia — a disease with profound societal consequences, including homelessness and encounters with police — beyond a class of drugs that has been prescribed for decades.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.