Boehringer Ingelheim and Lieber Institute for Brain Development advance development of COMT inhibitors to treat cognitive impairment in neuropsychiatric disorders
2025-03-31
(Press-News.org) Baltimore, Maryland (March 31, 2025) — The Lieber Institute for Brain Development, a nonprofit research institution dedicated to treating and preventing developmental brain disorders, today announced the progression toward clinical testing of a unique, centrally acting catechol Omethyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor from its collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim.
COMT is a dopamine-metabolizing enzyme involved in the regulation of neurotransmitter levels. These are critical for cognitive and behavioral processes that are impaired in several neuropsychiatric disorders. While peripherally acting COMT inhibitors are widely used as treatments for Parkinson’s disease, this collaboration is investigating centrally acting COMT inhibitors as treatment for cognitive impairment in certain neuropsychiatric disorders.
One in every eight people, or around 1 billion people around the world, are living with a mental health condition, according to the World Health Organization. Deficits in cognitive function — ranging from decreased attention and working memory to disrupted social cognition and language — are common in psychiatric disorders. These limit patients’ abilities to lead full lives, and treatment options for these impairments are very limited. With the progression of its productive partnership with the Lieber Institute, Boehringer Ingelheim further expands its pipeline of novel treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders.
“We’re excited to see this project advance toward clinical testing, with the goal of bringing us closer to real solutions for patients and their families,” said Dr. Hugh Marston, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Neuroscience & Mental Health, Boehringer Ingelheim. “We have been very pleased with the extremely close collaboration between scientists at Boehringer and the Lieber Institute as they have tackled this really challenging drug target. We are therefore delighted to see this program take a major step forward on the path to improving the lives of patients.”
Dr. Daniel Weinberger, Director and CEO of the Lieber Institute, added: “We are very excited to see the COMT program moving forward. This project had been a longstanding effort at the institute even before we started our collaboration with Boehringer in 2021. We are grateful for the commitment from Boehringer Ingelheim to advance this promising potential treatment to patients. COMT inhibition in the brain may have far-reaching positive effects across a spectrum of brain disorders.”
About the Lieber Institute for Brain Development
The mission of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and the Maltz Research Laboratories is to translate the understanding of basic genetic and molecular mechanisms of schizophrenia and related developmental brain disorders into clinical advances that change the lives of affected individuals. LIBD is an independent, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization and a Maryland tax-exempt medical research institute affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The Lieber Institute’s brain repository of more than 5,000 human brains is the world’s largest collection of postmortem brains for the study of neuropsychiatric disorders.
Contacts
Lieber Institute for Brain Development
Karen Robinson
karen.robinson@libd.org
(301) 450-3282
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[Press-News.org] Boehringer Ingelheim and Lieber Institute for Brain Development advance development of COMT inhibitors to treat cognitive impairment in neuropsychiatric disorders
