Company type | Public |
---|---|
[1] | |
ISIN | CA60255C8850 |
Industry | Biotechnology Mental health |
Founded | May, 2019 in Toronto, Canada |
Founder | Jamon "JR" Rahn Stephen Hurst Scott Freeman Leonard Latchman |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
Services | |
Number of employees | 57 |
Subsidiaries | MindMed Discover (Basel, Switzerland) MindMed Pty Ltd. (Perth, Western Australia) |
Website | www |
Mind Medicine Inc., also known as MindMed, is a New York-based psychedelic medicine biotech company that develops psychedelic-inspired medicines known as psychoplastogens and therapies to address addiction and mental illness. [2] [3] [4] [5]
MindMed was founded in May 2019 by Jamon A. Rahn, an entrepreneur, Y-Combinator alumnus, and former Uber executive, and Stephen Hurst, a 35-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. Rahn, who was interested in the Silicon Valley trend of psychedelic microdosing to improve focus after struggling with his own mental health and addiction issues, spent two years researching the therapeutic potential of psychedelics prior to meeting Hurst. [4] [6] [7] [8] [2]
MindMed initially focused on developing treatments for opioid withdrawal and opioid use disorder with 18-MC, a non-hallucinogenic molecule based on the psychoactive alkaloid ibogaine. [9] In June 2019, it acquired the 18-MC drug development program, previously funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and in September began to prepare 18-MC for a Phase I FDA clinical trial to enable further clinical trials targeting opioid withdrawal and opioid use disorder. Psychopharmacologist Stanley Glick, who first synthesized 18-MC with chemist Martin E. Kuehne, was later named to MindMed's board of directors and appointed chair of its scientific advisory board. [10] [11]
MindMed was the first psychedelic pharmaceutical company to go public, listing on the Canadian NEO Exchange under the symbol "MMED" and trading OTCQB as MMEDF. [12] It began trading on NASDAQ as MNMD in April 2021. [1]
In March 2020, MindMed announced that it had partnered with NYU Langone to launch a clinical training program to train psychiatrists in psychedelic therapies and research to advance and deploy psychedelic medicines. The company committed $5 million to establish the center, which will also explore 18-MC and the use of drugs, including psilocybin-assisted therapy for alcohol use disorder. [13]
In April 2020 the company entered into a long-term partnership with University Hospital Basel's Liechti Lab, gaining rights to more than ten years of the lab's data related to LSD, MDMA, and other psychedelic substances. The development of a novel compound designed to shorten the duration or stop an LSD experience that would allow LSD to be more widely used in a therapeutic environment, was subsequently announced. Later that year, a clinical trial studying the effects of DMT, the primary psychoactive ingredient in Ayahuasca, [14] [15] and clinical trials combining MDMA and LSD were announced. A study to better understand and compare the altered states of consciousness induced by psilocybin and LSD began in August 2020, [14] [15] and in October, a Phase 1 study at the Liechti Lab on the acute dose dependent effects of LSD was completed. The results of the study were published by the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology . [16] In September 2021, further results were presented by Dr. Matthias Liechti, head of the Liechti Lab, [17] at the INSIGHT Conference in Berlin. [18] The results included the first clinical evidence on the comparative effects of LSD and psilocybin, stating 100mcg of LSD produced the same acute perceptual effects as a dose of 20 mg of psilocybin in healthy volunteers. Additionally, psilocybin taken after administering antidepressants for two weeks prior, was deemed safe, as well as reduced anxiety and blood pressure without hindering the psychedelic experience. [18]
In December 2020, MindMed entered into an investigator-sponsored study agreement with Maastricht University in the Netherlands. The university provided facilities and personnel for a Phase 1 study to evaluate the effects of two low doses of LSD on mood, sleep and neuroplasticity. [19]
Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD, and known colloquially as acid or lucy, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages, LSD manifests primarily mental, visual, and auditory hallucinations. Dilated pupils, increased blood pressure, and increased body temperature are typical.
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug compound produced by more than 200 species of fungi. The most potent are members of genus Psilocybe, such as P. azurescens, P. semilanceata, and P. cyanescens, but psilocybin has also been isolated from about a dozen other genera. Psilocybin is itself biologically inactive but is quickly converted by the body to psilocin, which has mind-altering effects similar, in some aspects, to those of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescaline, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT). In general, the effects include euphoria, visual and mental hallucinations, changes in perception, distorted sense of time, and perceived spiritual experiences. It can also cause adverse reactions such as nausea and panic attacks.
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states and an expansion of consciousness. Also referred to as classic hallucinogens or serotonergic hallucinogens, the term psychedelic is sometimes used more broadly to include various types of hallucinogens, such as those which are atypical or adjacent to psychedelia like salvia and MDMA, respectively.
Psychedelic therapy refers to the proposed use of psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, and ayahuasca, to treat mental disorders. As of 2021, psychedelic drugs are controlled substances in most countries and psychedelic therapy is not legally available outside clinical trials, with some exceptions.
Buprenorphine, sold under the brand name Subutex among others, is an opioid used to treat opioid use disorder, acute pain, and chronic pain. It can be used under the tongue (sublingual), in the cheek (buccal), by injection, as a skin patch (transdermal), or as an implant. For opioid use disorder, the patient must have moderate opioid withdrawal symptoms before buprenorphine can be administered under direct observation of a health-care provider.
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is an American nonprofit organization working to raise awareness and understanding of psychedelic substances. MAPS was founded in 1986 by Rick Doblin and is now based in San Jose, California.
Ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive substance found in plants in the family Apocynaceae such as Tabernanthe iboga, Voacanga africana, and Tabernaemontana undulata. It is a psychedelic with dissociative properties.
The Beckley Foundation is a UK-based think tank and UN-accredited NGO, dedicated to activating global drug policy reform and initiating scientific research into psychoactive substances. The foundation is a charitable trust which collaborates with leading scientific and political institutions worldwide to design and develop research and global policy initiatives. It also investigates consciousness and its modulation from a multidisciplinary perspective, working in collaboration with scientists. The foundation is based at Beckley Park near Oxford, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1998, and is directed by Amanda Feilding, Countess of Wemyss.
18-Methoxycoronaridine, also known as zolunicant, is a derivative of ibogaine invented in 1996 by the research team around the pharmacologist Stanley D. Glick from the Albany Medical College and the chemists Upul K. Bandarage and Martin E. Kuehne from the University of Vermont. In animal studies it has proved to be effective at reducing self-administration of morphine, cocaine, methamphetamine, nicotine and sucrose. It has also been shown to produce anorectic effects in obese rats, most likely due to the same actions on the reward system which underlie its anti-addictive effects against drug addiction.
Amanda Claire Marian Charteris, Countess of Wemyss and March, also known as Amanda Feilding, is an English drug policy reformer, lobbyist, and research coordinator. In 1998, she founded the Foundation to Further Consciousness, later renamed to the Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust which initiates, directs, and supports neuroscientific and clinical research into the effects of psychoactive substances on the brain and cognition. She has also co-authored over 50 papers published in peer-reviewed journals, according to the Foundation. The central aim of her research is to investigate new avenues of treatment for such mental illnesses as depression, anxiety, and addiction, as well as to explore methods of enhancing well-being and creativity.
Hallucinogens are a large and diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mood, and perception as well as other changes. Most hallucinogens can be categorized as either being psychedelics, dissociatives, or deliriants.
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent, or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance that changes the function of the nervous system and results in alterations of perception, mood, cognition, and behavior. These substances have various applications, including medical use like psychedelic therapy, recreationally, or for spiritual reasons. Some categories of psychoactive drugs may be prescribed by physicians and other healthcare practitioners because of their therapeutic value.
Harris Isbell was an American pharmacologist and the director of research for the NIMH Addiction Research Center at the Public Health Service Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky from 1945 to 1963. He did extensive research on the physical and psychological effects of various drugs on humans. Early work investigated aspects of physical dependence with opiates and barbiturates, while later work investigated psychedelic drugs, including LSD. The research was extensively reported in academic journals such as the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Psychopharmacologia, and the AMA Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry.
Psychedelic microdosing involves consuming sub-threshold doses (microdoses) of serotonergic psychedelic drugs like LSD and psilocybin to potentially enhance creativity, energy, emotional balance, problem-solving abilities, and to address anxiety, depression, and addiction. This practice has gained popularity in the 21st century.
Psilocybin therapy is the use of psilocybin in treating a range of mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, addictions, obsessive compulsive disorder, and psychosis. It is one of several forms of psychedelic therapy under study. Psilocybin was popularized as a psychedelic recreational drug in the 1970s and was classified as a Schedule I drug by the DEA. Research on psilocybin as a medical treatment was restricted until the 1990s because of the sociocultural fear of dependence on this drug. As of 2022, psilocybin is the most commonly researched psychedelic due to its safety and low potential for abuse and dependence. Clinical trials are being conducted at universities and there is evidence confirming the use of psilocybin in the treatment of depression, PTSD and end of life anxiety.
Psychoplastogens are a group of small molecule drugs that produce rapid and sustained effects on neuronal structure and function, intended to manifest therapeutic benefit after a single administration. Several existing psychoplastogens have been identified and their therapeutic effects demonstrated; several are presently at various stages of development as medications including ketamine, MDMA, scopolamine, and the serotonergic psychedelics, including LSD, psilocin, DMT, and 5-MeO-DMT. Compounds of this sort are being explored as therapeutics for a variety of brain disorders including depression, addiction, and PTSD. The ability to rapidly promote neuronal changes via mechanisms of neuroplasticity was recently discovered as the common therapeutic activity and mechanism of action.
Delix Therapeutics is an American biotech company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company develops novel neuroplasticity-promoting therapeutics for central nervous system (CNS) diseases such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was co-founded in 2019 by David E. Olson and Nick Haft.
Psychedelic treatments for trauma-related disorders are the use of psychedelic substances, either alone or used in conjunction with psychotherapy, to treat trauma-related disorders. Trauma-related disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have a lifetime prevalence of around 8% in the US population. However, even though trauma-related disorders can hinder the everyday life of individuals with them, less than 50% of patients who meet criteria for PTSD diagnosis receive proper treatment. Psychotherapy is an effective treatment for trauma-related disorders. A meta-analysis of treatment outcomes has shown that 67% of patients who completed treatment for PTSD no longer met diagnostic criteria for PTSD. For those seeking evidence-based psychotherapy treatment, it is estimated that 22-24% will drop out of their treatment. In addition to psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy (medication) is an option for treating PTSD; however, research has found that pharmacotherapy is only effective for about 59% of patients. Although both forms of treatment are effective for many patients, high dropout rates of psychotherapy and treatment-resistant forms of PTSD have led to increased research in other possible forms of treatment. One such form is the use of psychedelics.
Robin Lester Carhart-Harris is a British psychopharmacologist who is Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. Previously, he founded and was Head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London.