Actinogen Medical’s hopes—and stock price—have rebounded slightly from earlier this month, when the Australian biotech announced its cortisol blocker had failed to improve attention and memory in patients with cognitive dysfunction and major depressive disorder.
Though the drug, xanamem, missed that primary endpoint in cognitive function, Actinogen announced on Aug. 26 that the compound has hit secondary endpoints in depression. Patients who received 10 mg of treatment over 10 weeks reported that they felt less depressed and had a 50% higher rate of depression remission than patients who received placebo.
The results also confirmed the earlier announcement that xanamem reduced the severity of depression symptoms, another secondary endpoint for the trial.
"This trial confirms our conclusion that a 10 mg daily dose of xanamem is clinically active in the brain and has the potential to be an effective anti-depressant with a novel mechanism,” CEO Steven Gourlay, Ph.D., said in the release. “While the anti-depressant market is competitive, xanamem's safety profile stands it apart from the competitors and the durability of benefit seen is intriguing."
Actinogen’s stock price rose about 90% following the announcement, after tumbling 60% two weeks ago following the initial results of the phase 2 XanaCIDD study.
Xanamem is currently also in a phase 2 trial for Alzheimer’s disease. That study will not use the attention and memory test that xanamem failed in depression as an endpoint for Alzheimer’s.
Xanamem blocks the activity of the 11β-HSD1 enzyme, which is a key player in the production of the stress hormone cortisol.
Stress hormones in the brain are known to be bad for cognitive function. Actinogen hopes to also test xanamem in Fragile X syndrome and other neurological and psychiatric diseases.