A Discussion about Schizophrenia with Cerevel’s Chief Medical Officer

As we reflect on World Schizophrenia Day and Mental Health Awareness Month, we caught up with our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ray Sanchez, M.D., to discuss his background in psychiatry and his experience in treating people living with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia affects 24 million people worldwide and 1.5 million in the United States. It is associated with high rates of disability, morbidity, and mortality. People living with schizophrenia experience vast health disparities and discrimination due to a lack of resources and social stigma. The severity of schizophrenia varies considerably, and each person requires highly individualized care.

What inspired you to become a psychiatrist?

I developed an interest in neurology and psychiatry early in my medical education and always had a passion for treating people holistically, beyond any particular underlying disorder. Who we are as emotional people is critical to our day-to-day existence, the relationships we build, and our own well-being. I wanted to be part of the solution that addresses the whole person, not just symptoms. 

What motivated you to transition from being a healthcare practitioner to working in the life sciences industry?

One of the challenges I had as a practitioner was the frustration of not having the best or right medicine to effectively treat the symptoms of a disease. My whole motivation for joining the life science industry was to be part of a team that developed novel therapies to improve the quality of people’s lives by more effectively treating their symptoms.

The journey has been extremely rewarding. But what we do is also quite daunting because there are so many obstacles to overcome and so many important stakeholders to consider. I am proud of what we have achieved to date, but we have so much more to do. People living with schizophrenia need new treatment options.

Why is schizophrenia so difficult to treat?

Current therapies have prohibitive side effects that can be quite debilitating, resulting in patients discontinuing medicines and a high recidivism rate because of noncompliance with therapies. So, we clearly need better medicines that have fewer side effects to address this challenge. We are working on novel treatments that target new mechanisms of action – like the muscarinic pathway – that we believe could be the next generation of therapies to improve the treatment of schizophrenia by reducing side effects. We hope that patients will be treated more effectively with a better quality of life.

Tell us about the stigmas and misconceptions associated with schizophrenia.

The brain is an organ – just like the liver, kidney, and pancreas. People with schizophrenia do not have control over their mental illness any more than someone has control over their liver disease, or kidney failure, or pancreatic cancer. When you have a diseased brain, it needs to be attended to just as we would attend to any other diseased organ.

The pandemic has certainly increased the need for mental health awareness, breaking stigmas, and finding new treatments. But we still need to do better to ensure we give mental health the same attention that we give physical health.

What do you want people to know about schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is highly debilitating in many individuals, but symptomatic control is possible. As a society, we can and should be more sensitive to it and invest more in the infrastructure required to support those living with schizophrenia. This includes better healthcare infrastructure to keep patients out of the hospital, greater social service support to help integrate them back into the fabric of society, and greater investment in research to bring forward new treatment options.

I have treated many functional people living with schizophrenia who are very productive and happy. We all need to be part of that solution. Not just psychiatrists. All of us as a society need to be more receptive to the needs of people living with mental health challenges.

Raymond Sanchez, M.D., has served as Cerevel's Chief Medical Officer since January 2019. Prior to joining, Dr. Sanchez held various roles of increasing responsibility at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development and Commercialization, Inc., where he most recently served as senior vice president, global clinical development. Previously, Dr. Sanchez served as the chief medical officer of Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. and held leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Purdue Pharma.

Dr. Sanchez is currently the executive co-chair of the International Society for CNS Drug Development (ISCDD), and a trustee and member of the board of directors of the Connecticut Mental Health Center Foundation, Yale School of Medicine, as well as several other not-for-profit organizations. In 2021, he was named as one of the ‘Top 100 Leaders in Healthcare’ by the International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare.

Dr. Sanchez received an A.B. from Northwestern University and an M.D. from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He completed his residency training and fellowship in psychiatry at the Yale University Medical School, where he was appointed as an instructor.