The proof-of-principle clinical trial in healthy volunteers was intended to test the hypothesis that the compound has potential as a novel medicine for the treatment of insomnia. The preliminary results from the study demonstrate that the compound is well tolerated and has significant efficacy in both duration and quality of sleep with minimal residual effects the following morning.
Jorn Aldag, president and CEO at Evotec said the company would now be continuing with the clinical development of the drug, called EVT 201, commenting that the development was “An important step in the implementation of our strategy to develop a sustainable pipeline focused on CNS indications and shows our ability to execute on our business model.”
The compound acts on GABA A receptors and has a differentiated pre-clinical profile compared to commonly used agents for insomnia. It was originally developed at Roche where it completed a phase I clinical trial. This is the second programme that Evotec has in-licensed from Roche.