Scoop: Novartis axes mid-stage depression trial of ketamine-like injection

No­var­tis has scrapped a Phase II clin­i­cal tri­al of an in­ves­ti­ga­tion­al treat­ment for ma­jor de­pres­sive dis­or­der re­lat­ed to sui­ci­dal ideation, the Swiss Big Phar­ma con­firmed to End­points News.

The de­ci­sion was made “fol­low­ing a ben­e­fit risk as­sess­ment of avail­able da­ta,” a No­var­tis spokesper­son said via email. The cull was dis­closed in an Oct. 6 up­date to the fed­er­al tri­als data­base.

No­var­tis was test­ing MIJ821, an IV in­jec­tion, ver­sus place­bo to see if it was bet­ter at re­duc­ing de­pres­sion symp­toms. The near­ly 200-pa­tient tri­al be­gan in Ju­ly 2021 and wrapped up this Ju­ly, per the clin­i­cal­tri­als.gov en­try. The com­pa­ny se­cured the as­set through its $210 mil­lion up­front buy­out of Ca­dent Ther­a­peu­tics in 2020.

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