HOPE Therapeutics, Inc., a medical and technology driven company, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of NRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: NRXP), today announced the planned acquisition of the Kadima Neuropsychiatry Institute (Kadima) of La Jolla, CA, per the previously announced Letter of Intent, for the HOPE network. Kadima is expected to serve as the flagship clinic for HOPE’s planned international network of interventional psychiatry clinics, designed to provide advanced treatments for debilitating diseases such as depression, anxiety and PTSD.
Kadima is one of the world’s premier interventional psychiatry clinics and was among the first to introduce Ketamine Therapy for Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders at scale in the clinic setting. The clinic offers a full range of cutting-edge treatments for suicidal depression, anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other CNS disorders. Those treatment options include Ketamine Therapy, Spravato® (nasal esketamine), Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as well as medication management.
Kadima also has a robust research division and is a leading investigative site for innovative CNS treatments, specializing in psychedelic research, for which it has served as a leading site in nearly all major clinical trials in this area. Kadima has contracts in place with the US Department of Veterans Affairs and also treats active-duty military personnel in the US Department of Defense under Tricare and other treatment programs.
Kadima’s founder and CEO, Prof. David Feifel, MD PHD, has been a pioneer and international thought leader for advanced interventional treatment of psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, PTSD and related disorders for more than three decades. Among other things, he is a co-author on a recent landmark expert consensus paper for treating depression with TMS, endorsed by three leading organizations in the field (ref). He also established the first clinical program to use subanesthetic dose ketamine infusions for neuropsychiatric disorders at UC San Diego, where he is currently Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry. His 150 peer-reviewed publications and several patents have provided global thought leadership on advanced approaches to treating psychiatric conditions, including integration of medicines like ketamine with neuromodulation such as, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Digital Therapeutics. Kadima’s experience will guide the growing network of HOPE Therapeutics clinics to an integrated, multi-modal approach to treating suicidal depression, anxiety and PTSD that is far more effective than ketamine alone.
Upon consummation of the proposed acquisition, Dr. Feifel will serve as HOPE’s Chief Medical Innovation Officer (CMIO), focused on identifying and evaluating new developments in the treatment of CNS disorders and insuring Hope clinics are at the forefront of interventional psychiatry delivery, and leading global clinical trials to continue to advance the ability to treat these lethal diseases.
Dr. Feifel will join NRx’s Chairman, Prof. Jonathan Javitt in presenting a Keynote address at the 8th Annual Neuroscience Innovation Forum during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, CA on the 12th of January 2025, and will join in meeting investors over the following week.
“I am thrilled to join the leadership of HOPE at this exciting juncture,” said Dr. David Feifel. “In a world where nearly 60 million Americans suffer from a mental illness in any given year (ref), our dream has been to expand the successes and learnings of Kadima to an international stage, where we can continue to innovate and refine treatments that will create a world in which suicidal depression and PTSD are 100% treatable conditions, from which patients and their families should expect to return to empowered and productive lives.”
“We are honored to welcome David and the Kadima team to the HOPE family. David has helped pioneer the field of interventional psychiatry and is one of the few global thought leaders who has been able to span the worlds of academia and community health care delivery, serving the residents of his community as well as active-duty military and veterans in a town known for hosting some of America’s most elite warriors. We are thrilled to count David as our partner for expanding the success of Kadima across the globe,” said Jonathan Javitt, MD MPH and Matthew Duffy, Co-CEOs of HOPE Therapeutics.
The acquisition of Kadima is subject to the completion of financial audits, execution of definitive agreements, the satisfaction of standard closing conditions.
About HOPE Therapeutics, Inc.
HOPE Therapeutics, Inc. (www.hopetherapeutics.com) is a development stage healthcare delivery company that intends to develop a best-in-class network of interventional psychiatry clinics to offer ketamine transcranial magnetics stimulation (TMS) and other lifesaving therapies to patients with suicidal depression and related disorders, together with a digital therapeutic-enabled platform designed to augment and preserve the clinical benefit of NMDA-targeted drug therapy.
About NRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
NRx Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics based on its NMDA platform for the treatment of central nervous system disorders, specifically suicidal bipolar depression, chronic pain, and PTSD. The Company is developing NRX-101, an FDA-designated investigational Breakthrough Therapy for suicidal treatment-resistant bipolar depression and chronic pain. NRx plans to file an NDA for Accelerated Approval for NRX-101 in patients with bipolar depression and suicidality or akathisia. NRX-101 additionally has potential to act as a non-opioid treatment for chronic pain, as well as a treatment for complicated UTI.
