A new compound from South African and Slovenian labs could treat depression a different way

For many people living with depression, the available medicines simply do not work — or work at the cost of heavy side effects. At North-West University in South Africa, pharmacologist Brian Harvey's group has joined forces with Stanislav Gobec's team at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia on a new compound that aims at different brain pathways than today's antidepressants — the circuits governing mood, stress and reward. In early laboratory tests it performed comparably to leading existing drugs. The team is candid about the distance still to travel: the compound sits at technology readiness level 4, tested in the lab but not yet in people, and an international patent application has drawn a positive first assessment.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation