The future and new horizons of psychopharmacology

Over the last decade, a large number of companies have terminated drug development in CNS disorders. This will lead to lower availability to society of novel drugs and new treatment approaches within psychiatric and neurological disorders. This shrinking pipeline is occurring while data from epidemiological studies indicate that CNS disorders will constitute the largest unmet need in most parts of the world in the near future. It is a major societal challenge to close the gap between increasing need and demand for treatment options within CNS disorders, and the availability of more efficient treatment options. This will require collaboration between academia, regulatory bodies, patients, and drug development industry. In addition, the conditions for reimbursement and market access are placing an increasing demand on bringing drugs to the market which already have demonstrated differentiation at the time of approval. The presentation will provide a perspective on development of new treatments for CNS disorders, and discuss strategies for innovation within CNS drug development with examples from recently approved medicines, and from late phase research.