SSR181507
dopaminergic · dopamine d2 antagonism paired with 5-ht1a agonism (preclinical) class / dopaminergicdiscontinued · 2 listed
newest 2003spec sheet5 rows
SSR181507 was a Sanofi-Synthelabo tropanemethanamine compound built around a dual mechanism that was, on paper, close to ideal for schizophrenia: dopamine D2 receptor antagonism to control positive symptoms, combined with 5-HT1A receptor agonism to add antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like activity and, in theory, spare cognition and avoid extrapyramidal side effects. Sanofi's own pharmacology group published an unusually thorough set of papers through the early-to-mid 2000s (a two-part Neuropsychopharmacology series covering its neurochemical, electrophysiological, and behavioral profile, plus follow-up work on anxiolytic-like and attention-related effects in rodent models). What never surfaced in the public record is any published human clinical trial; the compound appears to have quietly stopped advancing somewhere between promising rodent pharmacology and clinical testing, with no announced reason. It is a reminder that plenty of drugs in this archive never even made it to the failed-in-humans stage; they simply stopped being talked about.
- combined D2 antagonism with 5-HT1A agonism in a single molecule, a rational design for broader symptom coverage
- showed anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like activity in rodent models, not just antipsychotic-like effects
- improved performance on rodent attention/novelty-discrimination tasks used as a selective-attention deficit model
- remains unclear whether it ever reached human trials at all
- Sanofi published a genuinely thorough two-part pharmacology profile of SSR181507 in Neuropsychopharmacology, the kind of detailed characterization usually seen right before a compound heads into clinical trials, yet no human trial results ever surfaced.
Mechanism
receptor /partial antagonist combined with receptor agonism, intended to combine antipsychotic efficacy with anxiolytic and antidepressant-like activity.
Safetyrisks and cautions, not medical advice
Nobody has published a record of SSR181507 being given to a person. Its entire public file is rodent pharmacology from Sanofi laboratories in the early 2000s, with no registered trial, no volunteer pharmacokinetics and not one recorded side effect, so its risk profile in people is undefined. What can be said is what the mechanism implies rather than what was measured: dopamine D2 blockade carries the familiar class hazards of movement side effects, raised prolactin and sedation, and the 5-HT1A agonism was designed to soften exactly those. Whether that trade actually worked was never put to the test.
History
Developed by Sanofi-Synthelabo (predecessor to Sanofi-Aventis); extensively characterized in rodent pharmacology studies published 2003-2005, with no evidence of a published human clinical trial afterward, suggesting the program was quietly discontinued before or during early clinical testing.
Subjective profileweighing the evidence above
A textbook case of a rationally designed dual-mechanism antipsychotic that generated strong preclinical papers and then simply vanished from the literature.
Resources
This entry is here for reference.
Research
- 1.SSR181507, a Dopamine D2 Receptor Antagonist and 5-HT1A Receptor Agonist. I: Neurochemical and Electrophysiological Profile
- 2.SSR181507, a dopamine D2 receptor antagonist and 5-HT1A receptor agonist. II: Behavioral profile predictive of an atypical antipsychotic activity
2 listed here; entry last updated July 2026
Reviews
My notesprivate to this device
FAQ
Did SSR181507 ever reach human trials?
There is no published record of human clinical trial results; the public literature on it is limited to rodent pharmacology studies from the early-to-mid 2000s.
Why include a compound with no human data in a drug archive?
Part of the museum's point is showing how many pharma candidates get extensively characterized in animals, generate real published science, and then disappear without any public explanation, which SSR181507 illustrates about as clearly as any compound here.
Limitations of the evidence
- no published human safety or efficacy data exists
Adverse effects
- remains unclear whether it ever reached human trials at all
Notes and cautions
- development status and reason for discontinuation were never publicly disclosed