Available antipsychotic treatments work by blocking dopamine receptors. The new drug, Cobenfy, takes a different approach.

The medication is the first in decades to have a different mode of action than do current drugs, achieving better symptom relief with fewer side effects.

The first new type of medication in decades to help fight against schizophrenia was approved on Thursday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Cobenfy (xanomeline/trospium chloride) could bring patients what they've long hoped for: A means of easing the hallucinations and "voices" that disrupt their lives without the weight gain and sluggishness of current dopamine-focused drugs.

The approval comes less than a year Bristol Myers Squibb paid $14 billion to acquire the developer of the drug, Karuna Therapeutics.

Bristol-Myers Squibb shares rose in premarket trade on Friday after the Food and Drug Administration approved a schizophrenia drug.

Bristol Myers Squibb Co. gained US approval for the first new type of schizophrenia drug in seven decades, opening a fresh avenue of treatment for millions with the serious mental disorder. The medication,

This drug takes the first new approach to schizophrenia treatment in decades," Farchione continued. "This approval offers a new alternative to the antipsychotic medications peo

Cobenfy gives patients an alternative to drugs with troublesome side effects.