Ovid Therapeutics Inc.

Ovid is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing small molecule medicines for brain disorders where there is a significant unmet need. These potential medicines target the central nervous system (CNS) and aim to stop the progression of brain diseases by reducing neuronal hyperexcitation and easing patient symptoms. The company targets fundamental biological targets in the brain involved in neuronal hyperexcitability, such as neurotransmitters and dysregulated ion channels. By reducing excessive neuronal hyperexcitation with distinct medicines, Ovid seeks to address a range of neurological and psychiatric conditions that currently have limited treatment options. Over the past decade, scientific understanding of the biology of neuronal hyperexcitability and its role in epilepsies, psychoses, and other brain disorders has advanced. The causes of many monogenic epilepsies and seizure disorders are becoming clearer, often linked to mutations in specific molecular transporters, ion channels, and receptors. Science is also revealing the damaging effects of over-excitation on neuronal networks, including its connection to cell inflammation, stress, and apoptosis. This improved understanding, combined with advances in preclinical research tools, is enhancing the predictive power of translational research and improving the likelihood of successful clinical development for CNS medicines. Emerging evidence suggests that neuronal hyperexcitability is involved in many conditions beyond seizures and psychoses, including certain psychiatric, neurodegenerative, and neurodevelopmental conditions, and other brain traumas. Despite these scientific advances, there remains a significant unmet need for people with seizures, epilepsies, and psychiatric diseases, as few new mechanism-of-action therapeutics have been approved recently, and most patients are not cured.