Germantown Drug Company Develops New Treatment for Tourette Syndrome

Germantown drug development company Psyadon Pharmaceuticals Inc. is working on a new treatment for Tourette Syndrome.

Psyadon Pharmaceuticals won a commitment this month from the Tourette Syndrome Association to help fund research and development of a drug, called ecopipam.

The drug is designed to ease the involuntary movements, called tics, associated with Tourette Syndrome.  

The Tourette Syndrome Association also is helping to recruit subjects for the clinical trials of ecopipam. Psyadon Pharmaceuticals is retaining the patent rights to the drug.

 Psyadon Pharmaceuticals has been headquartered in Germantown since 2008, though the clinical work for the new drug would not be done in Germantown, Richard E. Chipkin, Psyadon Pharmaceuticals president, told Germantown Patch.

 “However, we are testing the drug at a site in Maryland with Dr. Harvey Singer at Johns Hopkins Medical School,” Chipkin said.

Tourette Syndrome is a genetic disorder of the central nervous system that can cause seizure-like movements and spontaneous outbursts of sounds or words.

It sometimes has been misdiagnosed as a personality problem or sign of aggression.

The two drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat it – pimozide and haloperidol – often provide little relief and produce undesirable side effects, according to a statement from Psyadon Pharmaceuticals.

The FDA granted a special approval last September of ecopipam for treatment of rare conditions.

Ecopipam belongs to a class of agents referred to as dopamine D1 antagonists. Chipkin said in a statement from Psyadon that experiments in animals suggest that the drug interacts with nerve cells and systems in the brain that are thought to contribute to the development of tics and other symptoms in Tourette Syndrome.

The clinical trial that already started is examining the ability of ecopipam to reduce tic severity and to determine its safety in patients. The study is expected to last for several more months.

Psyadon Pharmaceuticals and the Tourette Syndrome Association plan to announce the results of the study by mid-2012.