Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Drugmakers dance with autism

Nature Biotechnology volume 28, pages 772–774 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

With monogenetic neurodevelopmental disorders similar to autism serving as starting points for several drug discovery programs, smaller biotechs are now joining big pharma in pursuing therapies to tackle this perplexing condition. Sarah Webb reports.

Whereas the pharmaceutical industry increasingly has been shying away from psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and depression, interest in autism has intensified. Together with an increasing number of autism cases diagnosed each year, there is a dearth of effective treatments. As a result, “autism seems to be a relatively hot area,” says Manuel Lopez-Figueroa of Bay City Capital, a venture capital firm in San Francisco, and scientific liaison for the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium. Not only is the pharmaceutical sector ploughing R&D resources into the condition, but several smaller companies are pioneering therapies, one of which is an enzyme replacement therapy already in phase 3 human testing (Table 1 and Box 1). What's more, progress in drug discovery programs aiming to target proteins associated with Mendelian neurodevelopmental disorders may pave the way for expansion into broader spectrum autism conditions.

Table 1 Selected companies with autism targets in clinical development
Full size table

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

  1. Pinto, D. et al. Nature 466, 368–372 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Berkel, S. et al. Nat. Genet. 42, 489–491 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Guy, J. et al. Science 315, 1143–1147 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Dölen, G. et al. Neuron 56, 955–962 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Andari, E. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107, 4389–4394 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ring, R.H. et al. Neuropharmacology 58, 69–77 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brooklyn, NY

    Sarah Webb

Authors
  1. Sarah Webb
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Webb, S. Drugmakers dance with autism. Nat Biotechnol 28, 772–774 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0810-772

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0810-772

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing