Neurim Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is a drug discovery and development company founded in 1991 in Israel. Neurim is focused on age-related disorders, primarily in the central nervous system (CNS). The main goal is to improve the quality of life of the older patient.

Circadin®, the company's novel product for insomnia, was approved by the European Commission on the 29th June 2007 and has been distributed in the EU since Oct 2007. Other products are at various stages of preclinical and clinical development.

Neurim was founded by Prof` Nava Zisapel, a recognized neuroscientist and by the entrepreneur and businessman Mr. Yehuda Zisapel, who is also founder and director of the RAD Group, a high-tech group specializing in data communication and chairman of Rad-Biomed, a biomedical start-up incubator.

Through academic research on neurobiology, Prof. Zisapel, hypothesized that age-related sleep complaints are linked to the decay in production of melatonin. These findings initiated the creation of Neurim Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on age-related disorders, primarily in the central nervous system (CNS).

Dr. Moshe Laudon, who joined in 1992 and has thorough scientific and preclinical research experience and Dr. Tali Nir, who joined in 1997 and has scientific as well as clinical experience, led the early preclinical and clinical pharmaceutical development activities.

Building the scientific background

The first step of Neurim Pharmaceuticals' research activities on sleep disorders, was the development of Circadin®, the first and only IP-protected prolonged-release, melatonin containing ethical drug.

During this time numerous scientific collaborations have been established to explore the relationship between melatonin production and insomnia in the elderly and test whether melatonin replacement therapy would be beneficial for sleep in patients producing insufficient amounts of melatonin.

The results of these studies have initiated the clinical development program of Neurim's prolonged-release melatonin formulation for sleep disorders in adult and elderly patients. The drug Circadin® obtained marketing approval in the EU on the 29th July 2007.