Neuroventi Co., Ltd., "We will hurry up to develop autism that has no cure yet and preoccupy the market."

18-11-05

Currently, the only treatments available are behavioral and cognitive therapies.

Research using AI, big data, etc.

Phase 1 clinical trial plan at the end of next year

“Autism is a mental illness for which there is no cure yet. We will speed up development and preoccupy the market.”

Shin Chan-young, CEO of Neuroventi, said, “The only treatments for autism are behavioral and cognitive therapies, but as the number of patients increases, the need to develop treatments is growing.” CEO Shin received his doctorate from Seoul National University for neuropharmacology research and has been working as a professor at Konkuk University Medical School since 2006. After confirming the possibility of treating autism in animal experiments six years ago, it was founded in 2015 to develop new drugs in earnest.

The prevalence of autism is increasing worldwide. The United States has about 3.5 million patients and spends 68 trillion won annually on treatment. In Korea, the number of patients increased by 9% every year, reaching 8,517 as of 2016.

The company is developing a treatment based on the principle that autism appears when the nervous system function is overexcited or suppressed. Through animal experiments, researchers found that blocking the activation of ‘intrinsic iGluR,’ a protein that regulates neurotransmitters, can alleviate autism. CEO Shin said, “When we administered a drug that blocks the activation of endogenous iGluR to laboratory animals, social interaction became active and stereotyped behavior (symptoms of repeating the same behavior) disappeared.” There will be,” he said.

Multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Roche and Novartis are also developing treatments for autism, but progress is slow. He explained, “About 1,000 genes related to autism and environmental factors work in combination,” and “the fact that the gap between laboratory animals and humans is large because it is a mental disease is also a reason why it is difficult to develop a cure.”

Neuroventi uses the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to classify patient groups and conducts research and clinical trials specializing in types with a large proportion. It plans to complete a toxicity test at the end of this year and enter phase 1 clinical trials at the end of next year at the earliest.

Neuroventi is also developing a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with a substance derived from natural products. Existing treatments are ineffective in 25-30% of patients, and have significant side effects such as sleep disorders, anorexia, and drug addiction. CEO Shin said, "We are researching not only ADHD treatment but also health functional food that can be taken for a long time while alleviating symptoms with 3 selected out of 500 natural products."