Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. (President: Dr. Tadashi Hirata) started in June 2000 phase II clinical study in depression for KW-6002 in the U.S.

  KW-6002 is now under development as a therapeutic agent for Parkinson's disease. This product also demonstrated excellent efficacy on several depression models, and the company decided to carry out exploratory phase II study to investigate the potential of the product for novel treatment of depression. Kyowa Pharmaceutical, Inc., a subsidiary in the U.S., is advancing the clinical development in the U.S.

  Most antidepressant drugs are based on the assumption that depression results from a shortage of neurotransmitters, serotonine or norepinephrine, in the brain. Thus tricyclic antidepresssants and selective serotonine reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) which now dominate the market have been used to treat depression. KW-6002 is a selective antagonist of adenosine A2A receptor and can provide a potentially new mechanism of antidepressant different from that of the conventional drugs.

  We live in an age full of depression, anxiety and insomnia, and the patients who suffer from depression and depressive state are drastically increasing. The patients with depression are estimated at more than 20,000,000 in the U.S. KW-6002 is expected to make a new contribution to medical care as a novel antidepressant.