Seth Y. Ablordeppey, a professor of Medicinal Chemistry and
the Director of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division of the College of Pharmacy
and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
(FAMU), continuing a $1,411,289 research project funded by the National
Institutes of Health (NIH).
NIH awarded Ablordeppey four years of funding for a project
entitled “A New Approach for the Development of Novel Antipsychotic Drugs.” The
organization released $337,755 to him in the fiscal year ending (FYE) 2016 and $300,180
for FYE 2017.
The project focuses on developing better drugs to treat schizophrenia.
“According to the National Institute of Mental Health,
approximately 2.4 million American adults, or about 1.1 percent of the
population age 18 and older in a given year, are affected by schizophrenia,”
says the project description. “Of this number, it is estimated that up to a
third of patients are unresponsive to current treatment options. An even more
heart-breaking statistics is the fact that between 9-13% of patients eventually
takes their own lives because of the illness.”
“This calls for an urgent effort to identify new agents in
the pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia,” the statement continues. “The long term
goal of this proposal therefore, is to develop new agents that have improved
therapeutic profiles over the current antipsychotics in use.”
