Abbott develops ‘potentially safe and effective’ ADHD drug

Abbott is preparing to present the findings of Phase II clinical trials that it hopes will demonstrate the potential of its newly developed treatment for attention deficit disorder (ADHD).

The disorder is more commonly associated with childhood but most sufferers are not able to shake the condition as they enter adulthood and current drug treatments are known to cause unpleasant side-effects.

With this in mind, Abbot is keen to accelerate the progress of ABT-089, which it believes could be a safe and effective way for adults to treat the major symptoms of ADHD.

“The studies evaluating efficacy demonstrated that ABT-089 reduced the severity of symptoms and was generally well tolerated in adults with ADHD,” explained Professor Timothy Wilens, a psychiatrics expert from Massachusetts General Hospital.

Abbott recently revealed that its pharmaceutical sales around the world increased in scale by close to 13.7 per cent during the first three months of this year.