The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday approved the first new treatment for adults with schizophrenia in over three decades.
The xanomeline and trospium chloride capsules for oral use will be marketed under the brand name Cobenfy.
The FDA said that it approved Cobenfy after clinical trials of the drug demonstrated reductions in schizophrenia symptoms among participants.
Produced by Bristol Myers Squibb, Cobenfy is the first oral medication for treating schizophrenia by targeting the brain’s cholinergic receptors rather than dopamine receptors, which have traditionally been the standard treatment approach, according to the FDA’s Sept. 26 statement.
“This approval offers a new alternative to the antipsychotic medications people with schizophrenia have previously been prescribed,” Tiffany Farchione, director of the Division of Psychiatry, Office of Neuroscience in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement….