We need a new Prozac: The demand for brain drug innovation

An Expert View from Emer Leahy, chief executive, and Dani Brunner, chief innovation officer, of PsychoGenics, on the challenges involved in tackling mental disorders.

One of the greatest burdens for society, affecting millions of people, is created by unmet mental health needs. Difficult-to-treat diseases such as bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia not only affect individuals, but also their families. According to recent statistics, about one in every eight people has one or more mental or substance use disorders, with anxiety disorders topping the charts, impacting 4% of the population. Despite the enormous global burden represented by mental disorders, there remain considerable unmet needs, such as therapies for negative symptoms of schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and more.

Funding for discovery of novel therapies, however, has not tracked the needs. For instance, the United States’ National Institute of Health budget for the Mental Health Institute, which hovers around two billion dollars, steadily decreased from 5.6% of the total budget to 4.9% from 1993 to 2020 (Figure 1). Moreover, during the last decade many large pharmaceutical companies withdrew from CNS drug discovery – although this trend has reversed in the last two to three years. While the cost of development of novel medicines is staggering, the individual and societal benefits of addressing depression and anxiety consequences are at least double that of development costs.