Funding will accelerate preclinical development of firm’s therapeutic candidate for ADHD.

Euthymics Bioscience added $4 million to the $24 million Series A financing it closed last June. The additional funds are intended to accelerate preclinical development of its second candidate, EB-1020, a nonstimulant for adult ADHD.

Euthymics says it will use the expanded Series A investment for GMP manufacturing of EB-1020, to conduct a full GLP preclinical program, and to initiate a large Phase I program to enable further human testing.

“We expect the full preclinical program could support filing an IND for EB-1020 by early 2012,” says Anthony A. McKinney, president and CEO of Euthymics.

EB-1020 is a norepinephrine and dopamine-preferring triple reuptake inhibitor designed to treat adult ADHD. Euthymics says its research suggests this profile could be optimal for the treatment of adult ADHD while avoiding the drug abuse liability of stimulants.

“In our recent study, EB-1020 was as effective as methylphenidate (Ritalin®) in reducing the ADHD-like behavioral hyperactivity in this animal model, a model that has predictive validity for ADHD in people,” says Frank Tarazi, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, and director, psychiatric neuroscience program, McLean division of Massachusetts General Hospital.

Euthymics’ plans to initiate TRIADE (triple reuptake inhibitor antidepressant effects), a multicenter Phase IIb/IIIa trial, for its lead product EB-1010 in major depression in the first half of 2011. EB-1010 is a triple reuptake inhibitor that acts on serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine in a specific ratio and is given as a single capsule.

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