BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Metamorphoses of Ovid

How Ovid will work with patients to repurpose drugs for rare brain disease

April 20, 2015 7:00 AM UTC

Neurology company Ovid Therapeutics Inc. is already tapping into the expertise of its new CEO, veteran dealmaker Jeremy Levin. The biotech is in-licensing molecules that have reached Phase III testing but are not approved in the U.S., and where there is a mechanism-based rationale for development in rare and Orphan diseases of the brain.

Hardly the first company to attempt to repurpose failed drugs, Ovid may have an ace up its sleeve in the form of extremely close ties to patients and their families, who will have a role in shaping development of the company's drug candidates...