Truffle Report has compiled a roundup of major psychedelic business news stories from November 15-19, making it easier for you to access these insights in one place.
Quarterly Financial Results
Truffle Report already covered quarterly financial reports for atai Life Sciences, MindMed, Cybin, and Filament Health earlier this week. We’ve since seen additional results posted by several other industry players, including Field Trip Health and Mydecine Innovations.
Field Trip announced that as of September 30, 2021, it had approximately $88 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments.
During this most recent quarter, Field Trip commenced trading on the Nasdaq, expanded its clinical infrastructure, and announced that it’s proprietary FT-104 psilocybin derivative would target treatment-resistant depression and postpartum depression as its lead indications.
Mydecine declared that as of September 30, 2021, it held cash and cash equivalents of $1.6 million.
“During the third quarter of 2021, we entered into a 5-year research agreement with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, one of the most experienced university departments in conducting clinical research related to the therapeutic use of psychedelics. In collaboration with JHU, we are rapidly progressing one of our lead candidates, MYCO-001, through clinical trials with the upcoming seamless Phase 2/3 smoking cessation clinical trial, and their NIDA grant-funded smoking cessation study which will use MYCO-001. This marks the first time in over 50 years that the U.S government has funded a study of a psychedelic compound for therapeutics,” stated Joshua Bartch, CEO of Mydecine. “As we prepare for the launch of these trials, we expect to meet with the FDA for Pre-Investigational New Drug Application meetings in early 2022, another step closer to bringing to market more effective treatments for today’s unmet needs in mental health and addiction.”
Psychedelic Business News: MindMed’s Sleep Program
On Tuesday, MindMed announced that it had launched recruitment for a new study designed to evaluate “the effects of daytime and evening administration of repeated low doses of LSD.”
Using digital measurement devices, researchers will seek to quantify the impact of microdoses of LSD on brain plasticity markers, and determine potential correlations with “sleep measures, mood, cognitive performance, regulation of emotions, quality of life, and immune system response.”
“Research into the practice of taking repeated low doses of psychedelics starts with the basics, looking at whether there is a time of day that influences the impact of these treatments,” said lead researcher Dr. Kim Kuypers of Maastricht University. “We are investigating whether the repeated intake of lower doses could lead to realignment of patterns of thinking that would enable individuals to access levels of self-awareness that can provide an enriched experience of life.”
PsyBio Therapeutics Announces New Manufacturing Patents
PsyBio Therapeutics Corp. announced the filing of six provisional manufacturing patent applications to further expand its intellectual property portfolio on Friday morning.
“These patent filings are critical components of PsyBio’s corporate development strategy. Continuing to add intellectual property protection provides us with certainty when developing technology for the exclusive use of our team as we continue to develop proprietary bacterial strains,” stated Michael Spigarelli, MD, PhD, MBA, PsyBio’s Chief Medical Officer. “These additional patent filings are key as PsyBio moves towards the initiation of appropriately approved safety and efficacy clinical trials for our selected compounds within the production and manufacturing arena, for the Company as well as for our investors.”
MYND Therapeutics Alzheimer’s Diagnostics
MYND Life Sciences announced on Monday that it’s diagnostic research subsidiary has commenced a clinical investigation into a testing procedure identifying and monitoring Alzheimer’s Disease utilizing a “proprietary anti-inflammatory peptide” biomarker. Clinical validations are expected to take place in 2022, with the goal of creating mechanisms “to monitor and potentially diagnose inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system such as Alzheimer’s Disease.”
“Our research team has begun to research and explore the potential application of our proprietary MAP biomarker for use in the identification of Alzheimer’s disease”, stated Dr. Lyle Oberg, CEO of MYND. “The ability to make an early, accurate, dependable diagnosis in Alzheimer’s Disease patients thereby allowing for earlier intervention is a huge step forward in the fight against this terrible disease. We are extremely excited that the MAP biomarker has the potential to bridge that gap. The Company’s ultimate goal specific to diagnostics is to provide a cost-effective, easy to use diagnostic test kit that can be administered from anywhere with a dried blood spot. Helping families and health care practitioners with an effective tool for early diagnosis, monitoring and treatment for the millions impacted by this disease will be a significant innovation in central nervous system medicine”.
