Dragged by PhI­II flop and shelved by Ab­b­Vie, a class of de­pres­sion drugs finds new life at start­up

A month be­fore Al­ler­gan re­vealed that it would be bought out by Ab­b­Vie for $63 bil­lion, CEO Brent Saun­ders took a painful hit on one of his own ac­qui­si­tions: In the wake of suc­ces­sive Phase III flops for the key de­pres­sion drug from its $560 mil­lion deal to buy Nau­rex, Al­ler­gan marked a $2.5 bil­lion write­down.

So when Ab­b­Vie swal­lowed Al­ler­gan, it left ra­pastinel — and the next-gen­er­a­tion NM­DAR mod­u­la­tors that came af­ter it — sit­ting on the shelves.

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