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Neumora, a privately held biotech company, is moving into the final phase of testing with a novel treatment for depression that showed promise in a mid-stage trial.

The drug, a daily pill called navacaprant, led to statistically significant improvements over placebo on a measurement of disease severity for patients with moderate to severe major depressive disorder, Neumora said Tuesday. In the eight-week study, the medicine also led to improvements in patient-reported anhedonia, a reduced ability to experience pleasure that often accompanies severe depression.

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Navacaprant’s statistically significant benefits came from a pre-specified subset of 100 patients in a study that enrolled 171 people. In the total population, including 71 patients who had mild to moderate disease, navacaprant’s effect on depressive symptoms was numerically superior to placebo but did not reach the threshold of statistical significance, missing the study’s primary endpoint.

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