Cerevel Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. was an American biotechnology and pharmaceuticals company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, focused on the development of novel therapies for mental and neurological illnesses.

History

Cerevel was established in October 2018. The company was formed in a collaboration between pharmaceuticals company Pfizer and private equity firm Bain Capital. In 2019, Cerevel appointed N. Anthony Coles as its chief executive officer. In 2020, Coles led Cerevel's effort to raise $445 million for brain drugs, the third largest biotech public listing at that time (after Legend Biotech and

Moderna Moderna, Inc. ( ) is an American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that focuses on RNA therapeutics, primarily mRNA vaccines. These vaccines use a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to carry inst ...

). In May 2023, Coles resigned from his position as CEO, yet retained his role as board chairman of Cerevel. In December 2023, American pharmaceutical company

AbbVie AbbVie Inc. is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. It is ranked sixth on the list of largest biomedical companies by revenue. In 2023, the company's seat in Forbes Global 2000 was 74, and rank 89 on the ...

announced its intention to acquire Cerevel for US$8.7 billion. The acquisition was completed in August 2024 with Cerevel becoming a subsidiary of Abbvie.

Pipeline

Cerevel uses novel approaches and technologies to develop its drugs and treatment therapies. Its pipeline contains an array of drugs and therapies treating a range of conditions including

Schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

Parkinson's Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become more prevalen ...

Epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...

mood disorder A mood disorder, also known as an affective disorder, is any of a group of conditions of mental and behavioral disorder where the main underlying characteristic is a disturbance in the person's mood. The classification is in the ''Diagnostic ...

s, and more. Notable Cerevel drugs and treatments at varying stages of development include: * Tavapadon (

) *

Emraclidine Emraclidine (developmental code names CVL-231, PF-06852231) is an investigational antipsychotic for the treatment of both schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease psychosis developed by Cerevel Therapeutics. On November 11, 2024, AbbVie announced ...

(

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

) * Darigabat (

) * CVL-871 (

Dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

Apathy Apathy, also referred to as indifference, is a lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern about something. It is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation, or passion. An apathetic i ...

) * CVL-354 ( Major depressive and

Substance-related disorder Substance-related disorders is a class of mental disorders that affect a person's brain and behavior, leading to their inability to control their use of substances like drugs, alcohol, or medications. The disorders can lead to large societal probl ...

Approach to treatment

Cerevel's tagline

mission statement A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation ...

is to "unravel the mysteries of the brain" to treat neurological disease. Scientifically, its approach to therapy development focuses on understanding the wiring of the brain, pursuing novel

targets ''Targets'' is a 1968 American crime thriller film directed by Peter Bogdanovich in his theatrical directorial debut, and starring Tim O'Kelly, Boris Karloff, Nancy Hsueh, Bogdanovich, James Brown, Arthur Peterson and Sandy Baron. The film ...

, and addressing specific

receptor Receptor may refer to: * Sensory receptor, in physiology, any neurite structure that, on receiving environmental stimuli, produces an informative nerve impulse *Receptor (biochemistry), in biochemistry, a protein molecule that receives and respond ...

sub-types. The company has stated its approach to neurotherapy development can be viewed as: * Development of treatment opportunities by precisely identifying and targeting the neurocircuitry that underlies a given neurological disease. * Selective targeting of only the relevant receptor subtype(s) related to the

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

of the disease being treated. This has the impact of minimizing undesired off-target and

side effect In medicine, a side effect is an effect of the use of a medicinal drug or other treatment, usually adverse but sometimes beneficial, that is unintended. Herbal and traditional medicines also have side effects. A drug or procedure usually use ...

s, while maximizing activity. * The design of full and partial agonists,

antagonists An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or rival of the protagonist and is often depicted as a villain.allosteric modulator In pharmacology and biochemistry, allosteric modulators are a group of substances that bind to a receptor to change that receptor's response to stimuli. Some of them, like benzodiazepines or alcohol, function as psychoactive drugs. The site that a ...

s that can precisely fine-tune the receptor

pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

and neurocircuit activity, without over-activation or over-suppression of the

endogenous Endogeny, in biology, refers to the property of originating or developing from within an organism, tissue, or cell. For example, ''endogenous substances'', and ''endogenous processes'' are those that originate within a living system (e.g. an ...

physiologic range.

References

External links

* {{Finance links historical , name = Cerevel Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. , symbol = CERE , reuters = CERE.O , bloomberg = CERE:US , sec_cik = 1805387 , yahoo = CERE , google = CERE:NASDAQ Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Pharmaceutical companies of the United States Health care companies based in Massachusetts Biotechnology companies established in 2018 Pharmaceutical companies established in 2018 2018 establishments in Massachusetts 2024 mergers and acquisitions