WALTHAM, Mass., Feb. 21, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Minerva Neurosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:NERV), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of therapies to treat central nervous system (CNS) disorders, will host a Research and Development Day to highlight unmet needs, including negative symptoms and cognitive impairment, and emerging treatment strategies in schizophrenia in New York City on March 2, 2017 from 8:00 am to 9:30 am Eastern Time.
The meeting will feature presentations by key opinion leaders Philip Harvey, PhD (University of Miami) and René Kahn, MD, PhD (Mount Sinai), who will discuss the current treatment landscape for schizophrenia. Dr. Remy Luthringer, president and chief executive officer of Minerva, will provide an overview of the Company’s ongoing clinical development work with MIN-101, including the Company’s clinical strategy moving forward. The presenters will be available to answer questions following the breakfast.
Philip D. Harvey, PhD is Leonard M. Miller Professor of Psychiatry and director of the Division of Psychology at the University Of Miami Miller School Of Medicine and a VA Senior Health Scientist. Dr. Harvey’s research has focused on cognition and functioning, and he has written extensively on aging in schizophrenia, negative symptoms in schizophrenia, functional impairments in severe mental illness, the cognitive effects of typical and atypical antipsychotics, and the effects of cognitive enhancing agents and cognitive training in various conditions. Dr. Harvey is a widely cited author who was repeatedly designated by Thomson-Reuters as being in the top 1% of all researchers in citations in mental health each year since 2010. He has received numerous awards for his research in schizophrenia.
Dr. René Kahn is the Esther and Joseph Klingenstein Professor and System Chair of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Over the last 30 years, Dr. Kahn and his research group have been instrumental in showing that brain changes in schizophrenia are progressive over time and have helped educate the medical community on the clinical relevance of these changes on cognitive function. He has served as principal investigator on several clinical trials for schizophrenia and has published over 800 research papers. He was Treasurer and Vice President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology and is currently past-President of The Schizophrenia International Research Society. He is a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
This event is intended for institutional investors, sell-side analysts, investment bankers and business development professionals only. Please RSVP in advance if you plan to attend, as space is limited. To reserve a spot, please reply to this email or contact LifeSci Advisors, LLC at Mac@LifeSciAdvisors.com.
A live and archived webcast of the event, with slides, will be available at http://lifesci.rampard.com/20170302/reg.jsp and on the Investors section of the Company’s website at http://ir.minervaneurosciences.com.
About MIN-101
MIN-101 is a drug candidate with equipotent affinities for sigma 2 and 5‑hydroxytryptamine-2A (5-HT2A) and lower affinity at α1-adrenergic receptors. MIN-101 has no direct dopaminergic post-synaptic blocking effects, known to be involved in some side effects like extrapyramidal symptoms, sedation, prolactin increases and weight gain.
About Schizophrenia
As described by the National Institute of Mental Health, schizophrenia is a chronic and severe disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels and acts1. In 2015 approximately 3.2 million people suffered from schizophrenia in the U.S., Japan and the five major European markets. Schizophrenic patients suffer from positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. Negative symptoms are disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors that may signal social withdrawal. Patients may be socially inhibited, lack the ability to begin and sustain planned activities, or speak little even when forced to interact. Negative symptoms account for a substantial portion of the morbidity associated with schizophrenia2. They persist chronically throughout an individual patient’s lifetime and increase with severity over time. Similar to negative symptoms, cognitive symptoms may be difficult to recognize and often are detected only when specific testing is performed. Cognitive symptoms include: poor “executive functioning,” or the ability to understand information and use it to make decisions; trouble focusing or paying attention; problems with “working memory,” or the ability to use information immediately after learning it. Poor cognition is related to worse employment and social outcomes for patients with schizophrenia.
About Minerva Neurosciences
Minerva Neurosciences, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of a portfolio of product candidates to treat CNS diseases. Minerva’s proprietary compounds include: MIN-101, in clinical development for schizophrenia; MIN-117, in clinical development for major depressive disorder (MDD); MIN-202 (JNJ-42847922), in clinical development for insomnia and MDD; and MIN-301, in pre-clinical development for Parkinson’s disease. Minerva’s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “NERV.” For more information, please visit www.minervaneurosciences.com.
1 https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia-booklet-12-2015/index.shtml
2 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, American Psychiatric Association.