Creating combinations to target glial cells and improve CNS drug efficacy

Current CNS drugs for neurological disorders—including narcolepsy, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, neuropathic pain, psychiatric disorders and epilepsy—have limited efficacy. Theranexus chief business development officer, Julien Veys, explains how the company is developing new treatments based on combinations of known CNS drugs and compounds that can target glial cells, non-neuronal cells that have an impact on how neurons respond to treatment.

Theranexus has three candidates in the clinic with the lead program THN102, a combination of modafinil, the current first-line treatment for narcolepsy, and flecainide, a drug repositioned to act on glial cells, in Phase II trials as a treatment for sleep/wake disorders in narcolepsy and Parkinson's disease.