The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug for treatment for disorder and chronic depression. The drug, called Seroquel XR, is a product AstraZeneca. According to the company’s official website, www.astrazeneca-us.com, they are a powerful investor in biopharmaceutical research and development, their investing total of 2007 adding up to $5.2 billion. They are open to collaboration with similar companies, are devoted to bringing scientific discovery to available medicines, they conduct vast clinical trials and are thus a very respected company in their field, with great results.

The use of Seroquel XR, traditionally a drug for fighting bipolarity, has been extended beyond schizophrenia. After being approved by the FDA, it has become the first permitted drug in the U.S. for the daily treatment of manic and bipolar disorders.

Seroquel brought the company revenues of $4 billion in 2007, and the profit is expected to increase after its usage extension. Generic drug companies have already started to sell Seroquel knock-offs. The patent for the original Seroquel is valid until 2011, and the XR version’s patent expires in 2017.

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive illness, is a psychiatric diagnosis characterized by extreme mood swings. Unlike normal ups and downs everyone goes through, the disease involves episodes of abnormally elevated mood medically referred to as mania or hypomania (literally, below mania). Bipolar condition affects an individual’s mood, energy and ability to function. An estimated 8 million adults in the United States are affected by the disease.