The fall and rise of M&A investment in neuroscience

A feature on renewed interest in an area where the difficulty for drugmakers is matched only by the potential rewards.

The last two decades have been fraught with advances and setbacks in the neuroscience space as the pharma industry targets one of the most challenging organs of the body—the brain. Since 2000, several pharma companies including Glaxo SmithKline (LSE: GSK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), have reduced their investment in the central nervous system (CNS). However, there are signs that the tide is turning and pharma has renewed interest in finding the proverbial ‘needle in the haystack’ to treat debilitating mental health conditions such as depression and schizophrenia as well as the elusive neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Leveraging new technologies to target neuroimmunology