Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson announced Thursday it will discontinue development of aticaprant for major depressive disorder (MDD), dealing a significant blow to what was once considered a promising drug candidate with blockbuster potential.
The company revealed that while the experimental drug demonstrated favorable safety and tolerability profiles, it failed to show sufficient effectiveness in treating patients with difficult-to-treat MDD and those experiencing anhedonia, a core symptom characterized by the inability to feel pleasure or loss of interest.
Despite this setback, J&J maintains it will explore other potential therapeutic applications for aticaprant in areas with significant unmet medical needs. The company emphasized its ongoing commitment to neuroscience research, highlighting its recent $15 billion acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapies, which produces the psychiatric medication Caplyta.
The development halt impacts Wall Street projections, with Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger noting that market expectations had placed aticaprant’s annual revenue potential at approximately $1 billion by 2032. This figure fell well within J&J’s own late 2023 forecast, which had optimistically predicted peak annual sales between $1 billion and $5 billion.
The news poses challenges for J&J’s stated ambition to become the leading neuroscience company by 2030, though the pharmaceutical manufacturer maintains its medicines division will achieve a compound annual growth rate of 5% to 7%. The division reported $57 billion in sales last year, representing a 4% increase from 2023.
The announcement’s market impact extended beyond J&J, whose shares actually rose more than 1% on Friday. Notably, biotechnology company Neumora Therapeutics, which is developing a similar drug, saw its stock decline by approximately 5%.
Neumora, which launched in 2021 with $500 million in backing from prominent venture capital firms including Arch Venture Partners and Polaris Partners, along with Amgen, had already faced challenges. The company’s stock had plummeted earlier this year when its own kappa opioid receptor-blocking drug, navacaprant, failed to outperform placebo in treating moderate-to-severe MDD.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams suggested J&J’s decision could eliminate remaining optimism about the effectiveness of this drug class in depression treatment. The news prompted Stifel analyst Paul Matteis to downgrade Neumora’s stock to “Hold,” noting the increasing difficulty in supporting investment in the company’s approach.
The impact on Neumora has been severe, with shares now trading around $1.45, representing a more than 90% decline from its initial public offering price. The development also raises questions about similar drugs in development, including one from AbbVie, acquired through its Cerevel Therapeutics purchase, currently in Phase 1 testing.
The setback with aticaprant, while significant, represents just one project within J&J’s extensive pipeline. The company had previously identified nearly 20 novel drug programs with potential blockbuster status, demonstrating the breadth of its pharmaceutical development portfolio.
Kappa opioid receptor-blocking drugs had generated considerable interest in the pharmaceutical industry due to their potential impact on mood, stress, and pain perception through interaction with nervous system proteins. However, the recent series of disappointing trial results has cast doubt on their viability as a treatment approach for depression, potentially redirecting future research efforts in the field of psychiatric medicine.