AstraZeneca bipolar treatment approved by FDA

AstraZeneca’s Seroquel XR treatment for depressive episodes associated with bipolar disorder has been approved for use in the USA by the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The company explains the medication is the first to be approved by the body for the once-daily acute treatment of both manic and depressive episodes associated with bipolar disorder.

It is important to remember how debilitating the depressive episodes of the condition can be, explains Dr Trisha Suppes, professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford Medical Centre.

“With the approval of Seroquel XR for the treatment of bipolar depression and mania, we have a once-daily treatment that has been proven to help control the depressive and manic symptoms of bipolar disorder,” she adds.

In recent weeks, AstraZeneca and Targcept announced that results from the phase IIb clinical trial of AZD3400 – which were conducted by the company in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease sufferers – were inconclusive.