What Most Psychiatric Drug Development Programmes Learn Too Late: Six Questions That Determine Success

Novel mechanisms are bringing renewed momentum to psychiatric drug development, but the familiar risks have not gone away: uncertain disease biology, thin pharmacodynamic characterisation, symptom-based endpoints and pressure toward broad diagnostic indications.

Researchers at the Centre for Human Drug Research apply Question-Based Drug Development to psychiatric CNS programmes through six questions, from whether the compound reaches its site of action to how population variability shapes response. The argument is that a study should be chosen because its result will change a decision, not because it is the next phase. The closing point reframes what an early stop can mean.

Explore the six questions and how they fit together.