Psychotherapeutic Medications Development Program (PMDP)

The Psychotherapeutic Medications Development Program (PMDP) of the National Institute of Mental Health was established in 1990. The purpose of the PMDP is to improve, enhance, and speed the development of new medications and improve the therapeutic usefulness of existing medications for the treatment of mental illness. The PMDP will fulfill this mission by implementing four initiatives. In the drug discovery and development initiative, the PMDP will aid in the development of promising new drugs. This initiative will also include improving the therapeutic usefulness of existing medications. In the technology transfer initiative, PMDP will improve the technology transfer from academic and government researchers to the pharmaceutical industry; improve the dissemination of information concerning technology transfer opportunities as it pertains to psychotherapeutic medications; and enhance technology transfer by acting as a broker to bring interested parties together. For the third initiative, the PMDP will develop and maintain a capability to clinically evaluate psychotherapeutic medications. The PMDP will also act to facilitate the development and testing of new concepts and models of mental illness. There is a detailed description of the steps that are involved in developing a new chemical entity (NCE) from the conceptual stage to a medication that is approved for the treatment of a particular illness. The pharmaceutical industry estimates that this medication development process costs $238 million.