Husseini Manji

Psychiatric drug development may be set to exit the doldrums, says Husseini Manji, head of neuroscience at Janssen. Manji, a former Director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), points to his company's recent launch of pivotal trials for esketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist that holds promise in treatment-resistant depression, as one of several programmes that could open up new biochemical space in psychiatric diseases. Anti-inflammatories and novel modulators of the endocannabinoid system are also on deck. The field is only a success or two away from a rebound, he tells Asher Mullard.