One of the fastest growth areas of the pharmaceutical industry is the development of central nervous system (“CNS”) medicines. CNS disorders, such as schizophrenia, depression and ADHD affect up to one in four people at some stage of their lifetime. The total global market for drugs treating CNS diseases was valued at $62 billion in 2004. The great need for improved drug treatments has driven R&D spending for all disease areas to over $50 billion in 2005 with approximately 20% of this amount being spent on CNS research.

Although there is a large market opportunity in CNS, drug development for Central Nervous System disorders has historically demonstrated low success rates, high development costs and long clinical development profiles.

There is a need for tools to assist with the pre-selection of patients for clinical trials to improve efficiency of trials and potentially the development of more effective drugs.

Schizophrenia and Bipolar Affective Disorder

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder characterized in the active phase by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thoughts/speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, and apathy. It is estimated that 1% of the general population suffers from schizophrenia.

Bipolar affective disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a mental illness involving episodes of serious mania and depression. The person's mood usually swings from overly "high" and irritable to sad and hopeless, and then back again, with periods of normal mood in between. It is estimated that 0.5% of the general population suffers from bipolar affective disorder.

The global market for antipsychotics, which are used to treat schizophrenia and frequently bipolar affective disorder, was valued at $12.5 billion in 2004 and is expected to grow to $20.5 billion by 2009 (The CNS Market Outlook to 2010, Reuters Business Insights, 2005).

Further information about schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder can be found at www.schizophrenia.com or www.moodswing.org.