Little-Known TC-5214 Touted As Effective Anti-Depressant Despite Little Evidence

Yesterday, AstraZeneca announced it had licensed TC-5214, a compound with alleged anti-depressant qualities, from Targacept. Turns out TC-5214 was developed by researchers at the University of South Florida and today there was an article in the Tampa Tribune on how much money USF might make if the drug pans out.

Then a USF official said:

"Holbrook compared TC-5214 to the drug Abilify, or aripiprazole, commonly used in treatment of major depression disorder.

"'We have a drug here that is two to three times more effective than Abilify without the side effects,' Holbrook said."

Abilify is not commonly-used in the treatment of major depression, so that's an error of fact by the reporter. What's more, claiming that the compound is two to three times as effective as Abilify in treating depression isn't an impressive claim since Abilify's trials for add-on depression treatment status showed the drug had an effect size of 9 percent. Is the public to be impressed by an effect size of 18 percent to 27 percent? Um, no.

And what study wold back up such an efficacy claim? To date, there's been only a single phase 2 trial of TC-5214 as an add-on depression treatment, that study is not published, and it only involved about 100 people taking TC-5214. In other words, there is only a very slim evidence base upon which the USF official could make such a claim and yet the reporter swallowed it. Nice to see skepticism reigning in journalism.

I'm sorry, but reporters who don't understand the nuances of scientific research shouldn't write about the subject.

Interestingly, TC-5214 was also trialed as a treatment for hypertension, but the study was terminated early, presumably because the drug didn't work well.