This is a list of investigational anxiety disorder drugs, or drugs that are currently under development for clinical use in the treatment of anxiety disorders (type unspecified) but are not yet approved.
Chemical/generic names are listed first, with developmental code names, synonyms, and brand names in parentheses. The format of list items is "Name (Synonyms) – Mechanism of Action [Reference]".
This list was last comprehensively updated in September 2025. It is likely to become outdated with time.
The company zeroed in on a molecule derived from a South African succulent known to scientists as Sceletium tortuosum and commonly referred to as kanna. [...] the company's drug "was inspired by a unique natural product found among the diverse molecules," but did not confirm if it came from mesembrine. Chewing kanna is linked to rapid calming action within 30 to 60 minutes, [...] Other researchers have previously shown that kanna inhibits the serotonin transporter, an important protein that moves serotonin in and out of the junctions between brain cells. Antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) also block the serotonin transporter, but typically take four to six weeks for their effects to kick in, creating a puzzle about why the succulent compound worked so quickly. "We were convinced, quite frankly, that it must be hitting some target that we don't know about," Hooker said. "And we went deep. We looked at many hundreds, if not a thousand or more targets." It turned out that the molecule was binding to the serotonin transporter — a bit of a disappointment at first, given the startup's novel mechanism mandate. However, while SSRIs directly block the ability of serotonin to bind to the transporter, Hooker said he was surprised to find that Sensorium's compound binds to a different site on the protein that doesn't compete with serotonin binding. Hooker is writing a paper to describe the mechanism in more detail. The company is also still trying to figure out exactly why touching the transporter differently has such a seemingly rapid action. Early work suggests it is rooted in downstream signaling proteins called kinases that "fundamentally tune the circuit differently," he said. [...] Sensorium has created hundreds of derivatives of the natural molecule to make a version dubbed SNTX-2643, which can be taken orally once a day. Hooker hopes it will provide an alternative to anxiety medications, including SSRIs and benzodiazepines. Hooker declined to say when the Phase 1 study would wrap up.