Two Psychedelic Companies File Patent Applications For Psilocybin And MDMA Analogues, Here's What Could Change

Mydecine MYCOF and Lobe Sciences LOBEF, two companies in the psychedelics space, have filed patent applications. This is the first step in the process of receiving a patent, which needs to be granted by an overseeing body.

Mydecine's Patent On The MYCO-006 Family Of Compounds

Mydecine is a company developing innovative first- and-second-generation therapeutics for the treatment of PTSD, depression, anxiety, addiction and other mental health disorders. It has filed a new, full patent application covering the MYCO-006 family of novel short-acting MDMA analogs with the World Intellectual Property Organization.

The provisional patent application was done in July 2021. The family of MDMA-like compounds is intended to reduce harm and improve safety compared to MDMA, targeting a reduced duration with the same effects as traditional MDMA.

As Mydecine’s chief scientific officer Rob Roscow expressed: “From Rick Ingrasc's early work in the early 70’s and 80’s with couples counseling, to MAPS more recent work with PTSD, MDMA has shown strong positive results removing interpersonal distrust and communication blocks without interfering with cognition. This effect allows therapy to be more effective.”

Yet Roscow further clarified that “although MDMA has shown great promise, the effects of the drug last 8 or more hours which is not ideal for a traditional medical setting,” which is why the company is aiming at developing healthcare treatments that may be accessible to a wider crowd. 

Mydecine’s chief medical officer Dr. Rakesh Jetly added: “Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy utilizing classic MDMA can take upwards of 12 hours to complete one session and a large amount of resources. Under this model, therapists would only be able to treat 2-4 patients per month. Our hope is by decreasing the half-life of MDMA, we can create treatments that can be easily repeated at your typical healthcare facility in order to make accessible and affordable treatments for patients.”

Lobe Sciences's Patents on Psilocybin And Psilocin Analogues

Life sciences psychedelics company Lobe Sciences LOBEF has filed a provisional patent that would cover the preparation and use of its stable psilocin proprietaries and analogues.

As CEO Philip Young explained, Lobe’s patent portfolio now consists of multiple patent filings for the use and delivery of psilocybin, psilocin analogues and N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) as well as a new patent that covers the uses and preparation of multiple proprietary stable forms of the psilocin molecule. 

The company is pursuing drug development programs using two initial proprietary psilocin analogues: L-130, targeting neurological conditions such as severe anxiety, PTSD and brain traumas; and L-131, a new, psilocin-related chemical entity covered in the recently filed patent application, which is a drug candidate for a neurological disorder affecting children.

As well as drug development, Lobe is also focused on distributing non-hallucinatory doses of their therapeutics whether to patients' homes, to their physician's offices or to the emergency unit in local hospital settings.

Photo by Philipp Katzenberger on Unsplash