There’s a serious dearth of psychiatric drugs under development, but Janssen is taking a gander at speeding up innovation on that front.
The project’s called Neuroscience Catalyst. Over the course of three years, Janssen and Johnson & Johnson Innovation plan to set up 10 research projects that examine mood disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological conditions. Working with the University of Toronto, the idea here is to help seed ideas and ultimately spin out startups from academia.
“We’re particularly excited by this – helping academic entrepreneurs take their ideas to the next level,” said Guy Seabrook, vice president of neuroscience scientific innovation at J&J Innovation.
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Janssen is helping operationalize the academic spinouts, as well as raise downstream venture financing, and design a clear exit strategy. Much like many of these pharma-academia partnerships, J&J will also provide in-kind support, allowing access to its “state of the art” resources and conducting functions like compound and lab screening.
The University of Toronto is co-funding this effort, and creating a structure to solicit and evaluate research proposals from academic hospitals and research institutions throughout Canada.
“In the last decade, a lot of big pharma have exited the field of psychiatric disorders, particularly mood disorders,” Seabrook said. “We see that as a big opportunity – finding compounds that work in a matter of days instead of months.”
Another field of focus is aging-related mental illness, particularly Alzheimer’s disease, as its incidence will likely triple over the next few decades as demographics shift. The impact on society from this disease alone is projected to exceed $1 trillion, Seabrook said – which is why seeding early-stage research at this point is so important.
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“Conditions such as dementia and depression affect hundreds of millions worldwide, and that number is rising,” Ruth Ross, director of the Centre for Collaborative Drug Research in Toronto, said in a statement. “By working together in an open innovation partnership, we can conduct the basic research needed to identify new therapeutic options for patients.”
