Solvonis Therapeutics PLC (LSE:SVNS) has identified three promising drug candidates that could lead to new treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company announced positive results from early lab tests on its SVN-SDN-14 programme.
These compounds target three key brain chemicals: serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline, which affect mood and social behaviour.
Solvonis believes its new compounds could potentially help more than 20 million people across the UK, US and major European markets living with PTSD by improving their ability to form social connections and respond better to therapy.
The drugs aim to reduce social isolation and support emotional recovery by adjusting brain pathways linked to empathy and bonding.
In laboratory screening, three out of six candidates showed strong and balanced activity across all three neurotransmitter systems. This balance is seen as essential for effective treatment.
The company had expected to choose just one lead candidate at this stage, but having three strong contenders gives it more options and increases the chance of finding the most effective drug with good commercial potential.
"It is encouraging to see three candidates with equally strong, balanced SERT, DAT, and NET modulation profiles," said Solvonis' chief scientific officer, Professor David Nutt.
"This gives us a solid basis from which to make an informed choice. The in vivo data will enable us to select the candidate with the best potential to advance as a new treatment option for PTSD."
These three candidates will now move on to in vivo preclinical studies, which involve testing in living organisms to better understand how the drugs behave in the body.