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By the end of June, the 400,000 American women affected each year by postpartum depression will no longer have to endure the extreme sadness, anxiety, exhaustion and other symptoms that define this condition debilitating, often misunderstood.
That's because it's at this point that Zulresso, the first and only drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to specifically treat postpartum depression, will be on the market.
Jeff Jonas, co-founder and CEO of biopharmaceutical company Sage Therapeutics, the drug maker, hopes the victory will change the public's perception of mental health.
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"I hope Zulresso will change the game as people will now see that the postpartum is a medical condition that can and should be treated," he said.
Zulresso (also called brexanolone) quickly reduces depressive symptoms in a few days. It is given as a continuous intravenous infusion for 60 hours, or two and a half days, and costs $ 34,000 per treatment. Due to risk concerns, including excessive sedation or sudden loss of consciousness during the administration, the drug must be administered by a health care provider in a licensed health facility.
"Although I have the privilege of being one of the founders of a company that markets a drug, I am also proud of the fact that this drug can change the way people think." to mental health, "said Jonas.
"The challenge of what we are trying to achieve is to know how to change the way people think about mental health.If you think about psychiatry in general, it's one of the only areas of medicine where alternative therapies are accepted, "he says.
"If you go into the doctor's office with diabetes, no one will argue for nutritional advice or insulin.You will get the drug.But in depression, people will say:" We do not Maybe we do not need medicine Maybe we should wait. "
If you enter the doctor's office with diabetes, no one will wonder if you should have nutrition counseling or insulin. You are going to have the medicine. But in depression, people will say, "We may not need medicine. Maybe we should wait.
Jeff Jonas
Sage Therapeutics Co-Founder and CEO
"In postpartum depression, it's not your fault," said Jonas. "You have an imbalance, and we can correct it, so our goal is to make things better, to put them back to work, and you have to remember that psychiatric disorders are multigenerational disorders, you have the postpartum, it is a child who is affected, you are affected, a family a husband, a significant other, no matter.These are truly tragic and urgent medical conditions that need to be treated. "
Jonas says that it is the company's unique approach to drug development that has led to Zulresso's success.
"We said from the beginning that we would do things that will change the way people are treated and that we will do things that we think will change the drugs."
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