Pfizer Creates New Company to Oversee CNS Drug Development

Pfizer has followed through on its plan to exit neuroscience research. This week the company announced it was creating a new biopharmaceutical company called Cereval to continue to investigate several Pfizer compounds designed to target central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Pfizer will retain 25 percent equity in Cereval as part of the spinoff.

The most advanced drug in the pipeline of newly formed Cerevel is PF-06649751, a dopamine 1 receptor modulator that will start a phase 3 study for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease next year. Cereval has also obtained two drugs ready to start phase 2 clinical trials: an acetylcholine receptor modulator being tested for psychosis and a GABA receptor-targeting drug for epilepsy.

The remainder of Pfizer’s donated assets are all in the preclinical stage and include additional drug candidates for the treatment of Parkinson’s and psychosis, as well as molecules for treating substance use disorder and neuroinflammation. ■