Solvonis Therapeutics PLC (LSE:SVNS) has completed a key step in its search for new treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, as the London-listed drugmaker advances a novel class of compounds aimed at improving the way trauma-related mental health conditions are treated.
The company, which focuses on addiction and psychiatric disorders, said it had finished synthesising the development candidates for its SVN-SDN-014 programme, a project aimed at developing drugs that target three brain chemicals linked to emotional regulation and social behaviour: serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline.
These neurotransmitters play a central role in trust, empathy and social bonding.
Solvonis said the compounds are designed to help patients rebuild interpersonal relationships and better engage in therapy, while also aiming for a safer profile than existing experimental treatments.
The project is part of a broader push to address post-traumatic stress disorder, which affects an estimated 13 million people in the United States alone.
This marks the third of seven planned stages in the translational development plan, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The completed phase involved synthesising a set of compounds that will now undergo pharmacological and toxicological testing, processes that assess how the drugs interact with biological systems and whether they present any safety concerns.
The next steps include lab-based screening to test the compounds’ ability to block or enhance the activity of the target neurotransmitters, followed by pre-clinical animal testing. Solvonis expects to select a lead drug candidate by the end of the third quarter this year.
The SVN-SDN-014 series was previously developed under the name AWKN-SDN-014 by Awakn Life Sciences, which Solvonis acquired in May.
The transaction has broadened Solvonis’s pipeline at a time of growing interest in mental health therapeutics, especially treatments aimed at conditions such as PTSD where there is significant unmet need.
CEO Anthony Tennyson said: "SVN-SDN-014 represents a novel, mechanism-driven approach to treating PTSD, an area of significant and persistent clinical need.
"With candidate synthesis now complete, we are progressing the programme toward formal lead selection and IND-enabling studies."