By Diagnostics World News Staff
December 10, 2025 | Thanks to promising developments in psychedelic and dissociative compounds, treatments for depression are likely to significantly change in the next 10 years. However, psychedelics also come with their own set of complications and side effects, such as disconnection from oneself and one’s surroundings and cardiovascular changes. Furthermore, there is also the concern of getting the medications to the patients that need them.
For Hans Eriksson, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer of HMNC Brain Health, there needs to be an emphasis on precision psychiatry. His company is “ensuring that the right medication ends up with the right patient where it can have the best benefit for that individual.”
Historically, attempts to personalize depression treatment have not been successful because the requisite diagnostic tests were impractical. An example is the decades-old process used to assess dysregulation in the stress-resilience system, specifically the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Identifying patients with overactivity in this hormonal pathway required a two-day hospital stay involving hormone injections and serial blood draws. Unsurprisingly, the test never gained traction in routine clinical practice.
But HMNC Brain Health is trying to create a “shortcut” to the gold-standard physiological test in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. Researchers mapped biomarker profiles of hundreds of patients with depression and created a blood-based genetic signature that predicts who is more likely to respond to drugs correcting HPA axis hyperactivity.
That signature is now being used to guide treatment with nelivaptan, a vasopressin-blocking antidepressant originally studied by Sanofi. In HMNC’s 338-patient phase 2 trial that took place in August of this year, it was found that nelivaptan showed efficacy when paired with the company’s genetic selection tool identifying individuals who would have a stronger response to the intervention.
The company is now refining the test toward a simple yes/no result, reducing ambiguity for clinicians. Faster turnaround times are also in development, aiming to allow physicians to identify ideal candidates within days rather than a week. A phase 2b trial deploying the improved test is planned.