Schizophrenia Drug Performs Well In Trial

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Lilly's new schizophrenia drug called LY2140023 has performed very well in clinical trials, greatly reducing symptoms of the disease in study participants




It is being reported that a new schizophrenia drug has shown a lot of promise in clinical trials.

The drug, named LY2140023, is made by Eli Lilly and Co. It worked just as well as their other schizophrenia drug, Zyprexa, without weight gain in patients taking it.

Unlike many other types of schizophrenia drugs, the Lilly compound works by not targeting dopamine, a chemical found in a person's brain. It affects glutamate, which is necessary for learning and memory.

``Discovering an antipsychotic drug that doesn't work through dopamine is the holy grail of drug development,'' said Gerald Marek, Lilly's chief scientific officer of psychiatric disorders, in an Aug. 30 telephone interview. ``It looks like we've hit upon a target that will ultimately do this.''

The second of 3 studies was conducted on 97 participants. After 4 weeks on the Lilly compound, patients reported significantly fewer symptoms of schizophrenia than those patients taking a placebo.

``We found that all symptoms of schizophrenia were decreased,'' using a common scale to measure them, Marek said.

``We're going to be doing our best to get this drug out there as soon as we can,'' he said. ``It's such a novel agent.''