Naurex reports depression data, raises $25 million

Naurex Inc. (Evanston, Ill.) reported data from a Phase IIb trial of the company's GLYX-13 as adjunctive therapy of major depressive disorder (MDD) and said it raised $25 million from existing investors and. The company said patients who received adjunctive treatment with repeated doses of IV GLYX-13 achieved and maintained the "rapid, robust and sustained antidepressant effects [that were] observed in an earlier single-dose study" with GLYX-13 (formerly NT-13). Naurex said additional data will be available "in the coming weeks." The double-blind, placebo-controlled, U.S. trial enrolled 430 MDD patients with an inadequate or partial response to antidepressants. In 2012, Naurex said a single dose of IV GLYX-13 met the primary endpoint of improving Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-17 (HDRS-17) scores from baseline to 24 hours vs. placebo (p<0.05) in a Phase IIa depression trial.

Naurex said it hopes to meet with FDA this year to discuss the timing and design of Phase III testing with GLYX-13, a glycine site functional partial agonist (GFPA) of the NMDA receptor. The company is also developing NRX-1074, a second-generation oral NMDA receptor modulator in Phase II testing for MDD. ...