By Joseph Keenan

PsychoGenics has signed on with Italy’s Iama Therapeutics to run a preclinical study as part of an effort to identify and develop drug candidates to treat Dravet syndrome.

Under the agreement, the US-based CRO will evaluate anti-seizure efficacy of first-in-class selective NKCC1 inhibitors designed to reduce intracellular chloride concentration and restore inhibitory GABAergic transmission in a preclinical model of Dravet syndrome, Iama said in a Jan. 12 press release. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Dravet syndrome is rare form of intractable epilepsy that begins in infancy or early childhood and can include a spectrum of symptoms ranging from mild to severe. Although the average life span of a child with Dravet syndrome is unclear, estimates peg between 10 per cent to 20 per cent of children with the genetic disorder do not survive beyond the age of 10.

Iama’s primary goal of treatment is to reduce or eliminate seizures, improve cognition and lower the risk of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.

“Dravet syndrome is a severe disorder lacking adequate therapies,” vice president of translational neuroscience at PsychoGenics, Stephen Morairty, Ph.D., said in the release. “We will use our extensive knowledge of the seizure phenotype in a preclinic model of Dravet syndrome to carefully evaluate the efficacy of these first-in-class selective-NKCC1 inhibitors.”