RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that scientists associated with the Company have published a manuscript that raises the hope of novel treatments for tinnitus, the perception of sound in the absence of external auditory stimulation. Tinnitus is highly prevalent, with 10-15% of the general population worldwide affected, a statistic that can double in the elderly. The disorder can be markedly debilitating and is associated with and likely causal of anxiety, irritability, depression, sleep loss, social isolation, and suicidal ideation.

While there are no treatments that demonstrate any robust efficacy, decades old data from pioneers in the field first discussed the impact of loss of neural inhibition in the disease. Although older benzodizepine GABAkines like Valium® and Xanax® have and continue to be major world medicines, a resurgence in the identification of improved GABAkines has arisen recently with several companies moving compounds along their development pipeline, including KRM-II-81and analogs from RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. Dr. Witkin (Research Fellow with RespireRx) first described ganaxolone, a neuroactive steroid, as a novel anticonvulsant when he previously headed the Drug Development Group at the National Institutes on Drug Abuse. Ganaxolone was approved this year as Ztalmy® for the treatment of seizures in children suffering from CDKL5-Deficiency Disorder, a rare genetic disease.