Neumora Therapeutics, Inc. (NMRA) shared some encouraging news Monday about its experimental Alzheimer's treatment, and it's worth paying attention to because this is a notoriously difficult area to crack.
The company's Phase 1b trial of NMRA-511 showed the drug delivered a clinically meaningful effect in people dealing with agitation related to Alzheimer's disease. What makes this particularly interesting is that the drug managed this without causing sedation or making patients drowsy, which is often a problematic side effect with treatments in this space.
What the Study Found
The Phase 1b study had two parts. Part A tested the drug in healthy elderly adults, while Part B focused on people with agitation associated with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. Part B is where things got interesting.
Patients taking NMRA-511 showed improvements of -2.6 and -2.1 points compared to placebo on the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) total score at weeks 6 and 8, respectively. The CMAI is a clinically validated scale that measures the frequency of 29 different agitated behaviors, so we're talking about a standardized way to track whether patients are actually getting better.
But here's where it gets really compelling: in the subgroup of patients with elevated anxiety, NMRA-511 demonstrated much larger improvements of -7.6 and -5.6 points compared to placebo at weeks 6 and 8. That's a substantially bigger effect, suggesting the drug might work particularly well for a specific patient population.
Safety Profile Looks Clean
On the safety front, the drug appears to be well-tolerated. Treatment-emergent adverse events were typically mild to moderate, and only 2.5% of patients stopped taking the drug due to side effects. Perhaps most importantly, there were no reports of somnolence or sedation, which is a common problem with existing treatments for agitation.
What Happens Next
Neumora has a clear roadmap for moving forward. The company plans to launch a multiple ascending dose extension study at higher doses in 2026, develop an extended-release formulation to support once-daily dosing in 2026, and eventually initiate a Phase 2/3 dose-ranging study.
In other company news, Neumora also announced Monday that it's expanding enrollment in its KOASTAL studies of navacaprant, a different drug candidate being tested for major depressive disorder. The company plans to increase enrollment by up to 25% beyond the original target of 332 participants. Joint topline data for both KOASTAL-2 and KOASTAL-3 studies is expected in the second quarter of 2026.
Shares of Neumora (NMRA) were up 2.11% at $1.69 following the announcement Monday.
