Validus buys antidepressant Marplan

Marplan is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), a class of antidepressants usually used as a last resort treatment due to its side effects and drug interactions. Validus said that physicians have turned to Marplan therapy when early treatments with SSRIs and other antidepressant drugs failed to control their patients’ severe symptoms of depression and also as a safe and effective alternative treatment prior to electro-convulsive therapy.

“Marplan is an antidepressant with a distinguished track-record in a very difficult-to-treat patient population,” said James Hunter, Validus Pharmaceuticals’ president and CEO. “Its widely recognized efficacy and safety provide the ideal platform for our entry into the psychiatric marketplace.”