Innovative drugs in mental health

an evaluation of the last two decades

Abstract

Despite of the increase of global prevalence of mental illnesses the investments in research and development of new drugs presented a significant decrease in the last decade, which can negatively impact the discovery of innovative drugs. The FDA-approved drugs in the last 20 years in neurology and psychiatry were evaluated and classified into six different categories to identify innovative drugs for mental health. In the period, FDA approved a total of 192 new drugs, being 139 for neurology and 53 for psychiatry, respectively. The results showed a tendency on decrease of number of approvals and innovations, with only 28 innovative drugs (14.6%) and the others classified as structural analogues, pro-drugs, new formulations, new therapeutic indications or drug combinations. Innovative drugs to treat mental illness were identified only for Parkinson’s disease (4), Alzheimer’s disease (1) and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (1) while important prevalent diseases such as depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder had no innovations.