For decades, doctors caring for people with schizophrenia have relied on mood-regulating drugs that target the brain chemical dopamine. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved for the first time a new type of medicine that may change the way the psychiatric disorder is treated.
The drug, called Cobenfy, will be sold by Bristol Myers Squibb. It was developed by the biotech company Karuna Therapeutics, which Bristol acquired for $14 billion last year.
Cobenfy was approved to reduce the psychotic symptoms associated with schizophrenia. It is a new type of medicine that works by stimulating a pair of muscarinic receptors in the brain, that, in turn, control the release of a brain chemical called acetylcholine.