Disease Focus

The central nervous system (CNS) consists of the brain and spinal cord. Disorders of this system can be severely debilitating, often causing significant deterioration of quality of life and fatalities. These incapacitating disorders include degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington’s disease; psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia as well as other disorders like impaired cognition, epilepsy, and pain.

While treatments exist for many CNS disorders, the degree of effectiveness is variable. For many neurodegenerative diseases, either no treatments or only symptomatic treatments are available today. This leads to a significant unmet medical need for treatment of these diseases. Additionally, the aging population and continuing advancements in diagnostic techniques are expected to lead to even a greater number of patients in need of effective therapies in the future.

Consequently, CNS disorders represent the largest and fastest growing area of unmet medical need. Over 1.5 billion people worldwide, including over 100 million people in the U.S., suffer from them. These disorders represent over 15% of the global cost of treating all diseases. As one example, annual cost of approx. $150 billion makes Alzheimer's the third most expensive disease in the U.S.