Best-in-class CRH receptor 1 supported by companion diagnostic

The Cortibon program comprises Spruce Bioscience’s investigational product candidate, tildacerfont, a second-generation CRHR1 antagonist, and HMNC’s companion diagnostic, the proprietary Cortibon Genetic Selection Tool.

The neuropeptide corticotropin-releasing hormone coordinates hormonal and behavioral adaptation to stress. In about one third of patients with depression, CRH is believed to be involved in the development of the disorder. CRH antagonists thus have the potential to improve the depressive symptoms.

So far, it has not been possible to identify the patients in which elevated CRH in the brain is the cause of depression. As a result, CRHR1 antagonists have not yet entered the market.

HMNC Brain Health has developed and clinically validated a molecular laboratory test that allows to select the subset of depressed individuals with a disturbance in their stress axis system and thus indicates which patients with depression will respond well to a CRH blocker and which will not.

Depression therapy with CRHR1 antagonists will have two components in the future: (1) The CRH test, identifying the subset of depressed individuals with a disturbance in their stress axis system. (2) Treatment of this subset of patients with Spruce Bioscience’s CRHR1 antagonist, tildacerfont.

HMNC Brain Health is also looking into expanding the Cortibon program into other indications, such as anxiety or sleep disorders.