BlackThorn Therapeutics Announces R&D Updates
BTRX-335140 Poised to Enter Phase 2 Efficacy Studies and BTRX-323511 to Enter IND-enabling Studies
Company Increasing Investment in Computational Psychiatry (CompPsych) Platform for Targeted CNS Therapeutics and Deprioritizing BTRX-246040 to Focus on Proprietary Programs
BlackThorn Participating in Several Conferences and Panels in January
San Francisco – January 4, 2019 – BlackThorn Therapeutics, a computational sciences and therapeutics company with a focus on neurobehavioral disorders, today announced key Research & Development (R&D) updates and goals for 2019 for its proprietary pipeline powered by its Computational Psychiatry (CompPsych) platform. CompPsych uses data-driven approaches to solve the patient selection problem in central nervous system (CNS) drug discovery, which has been one of the greatest barriers to success.
R&D Updates
BTRX-335140 (a selective antagonist for kappa opioid receptor): BlackThorn completed the single ascending dose and multiple ascending dose Phase 1 study in healthy volunteers. Target receptor occupancy studies are underway with results expected in the first half of 2019. The first Phase 2 study for this program, which has demonstrated acceptable tolerability and safety profile, is expected to start in the second half of 2019.
BTRX-323511 (a selective antagonist for the vasopressin 1a receptor): BlackThorn unveiled this new proprietary program and plans to initiate Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies for social-emotional disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in early 2019. The Company expects to file an IND in early 2020.
BTRX-246040 (an NOPR antagonist): BlackThorn reported that its Phase 2a study did not meet its primary or secondary endpoints in major depressive disorder (MDD). Further analyses are being conducted; however, the Company has deprioritized this in-licensed program to focus on its proprietary programs and CompPsych platform.
BlackThorn also announced new developments with its integrated CompPsych platform. The Company intends to increase its data sciences investment over 2019 to reinforce its industry-leading position in sequential patient phenotyping and insight generation.
Explainable Artificial Intelligence
BlackThorn will present an accepted paper, titled “MCA-based Rule Mining Enables Interpretable Inference in Clinical Psychiatry” at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 33rd Annual Conference, which will take place January 27-Feburary 1.
Digital Phenotyping
MINT-COG, a proprietary data application that digitally assesses motivation and cognition, has been released to production on iPad and is undergoing technical and clinical validation with BlackThorn’s collaborators.
Functional Biomarkers
BlackThorn plans to report results from its first neuroimaging-based multimodal biomarker identification study in the first quarter of 2019 and initiate its second digital biomarker identification study to explore other modalities. Results are expected in late 2019. Collectively, the findings from these studies will help refine patient selection approaches for clinical trials.
“In 2019, we plan to significantly expand our proprietary patient selection platform,” said Bill Martin, Ph.D., President and Chief Operating Officer of BlackThorn. “The combination of our computational psychiatry approach to CNS therapeutics and our deep pipeline of novel compounds positions us to continue to execute our vision of redefining patient care in the field of neuropsychiatry.”
Participation in Upcoming Conferences BlackThorn’s executive team will participate in the following conferences and panels this month:
East/West CEO Forum, January 6
“Early Stage Biotech: Strategies for Survival” at 11:30 a.m.
Sach’s 2nd Annual Neuroscience Innovation Forum, January 6
“BioPartnering and Deal Making” panel at 9:30 a.m.
Company presentation at 2:10 p.m.
Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, January 7
“The Future of AI-Powered Healthcare” panel (co-sponsored by BlackThorn) at 4:00 p.m.
About BlackThorn Therapeutics BlackThorn Therapeutics is a computational sciences company with capabilities to develop proprietary therapeutics focused on neurobehavioral disorders. BlackThorn has pioneered the development of a computational psychiatry platform to advance its robust pipeline of novel therapeutics. The company uses data-driven approaches to solve the patient selection problem to create treatments that improve patient outcomes. BlackThorn Therapeutics is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. For more information, please visit http://www.blackthornrx.com.