Psyched: Compass Launches Center Of Excellence, Entheon Purchases HaluGen, Atai Buys Majority Stake In Recognify

Compass Launches Center Of Excellence

Compass Pathways CMPS officially launched the Centre of Excellence, in collaboration with The Sheppard Pratt Institute for Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics in Baltimore, Maryland.

This “clinic model” will study and build the best therapy models for psychedelics treatment and work as a site for clinical trials as well as a laboratory for innovation. It will also explore research around COMP360, Compass’ psilocybin drug candidate.

Scott Aaronson MD, Director of Clinical Research at Sheppard Pratt, will lead the center.

“Sheppard Pratt has a long history of excellence in clinical service delivery and commitment to its community of patients,” Compass Pathways CEO George Goldsmith said. “Our Centers of Excellence, beginning with this centre led by the distinguished team at Sheppard Pratt, will help to accelerate our combined work so that we can bring evidence-based innovation, on a large scale, to the people who need it the most."

Psychedelics Companies Welcome New Team Members

MindMed MMED MMEDF appointed Robert Barrow as chief development officer. Barrow is a pharmaceutical scientist and executive who has served as director of drug development and discovery at the Usona Institute, a leading psilocybin research non-profit.

Barrow was instrumental in launching Phase 2 clinical trials for psilocybin in the treatment of major depressive disorder at Usona and in obtaining Breakthrough Therapy Designation for the program with the FDA.

Champignon Brands SHRM has made two new team additions with Stephen R. Brooks as new chief financial officer and Peter Rizakos as the company’s new general counsel.

Brooks is a finance professional with over 25 years experience, formerly CFO of Sim International, CFO of the Ottawa Senators NHL hockey club and senior vice-president of the Toronto Blue Jays and Rogers Centre.

Rizakos adds 30 years of experience as a corporate and securities lawyer, most recently as general counsel for Ontario-based Marret Asset Management Inc.

Mydecine Innovations Group MYCO MYCOF has named Gordon Neal to the Board of Directors and welcomed Dean Ditto as Chief Financial Officer.

Delic Corp. DELC welcomed talent manager and Hollywood film agent Shep Gordon to its advisory board.

Entheon Buys Pre-Testing Genetics Platform

Entheon Biomedical Corp. ENBI acquired 100% of biotech company HaluGen Life Sciences Inc. in exchange for 5.1 million Entheon shares.

HaluGen is attempting to commercialize a test to help identify genetic traits predictive of a patient’s reaction to hallucinogenic drugs. Its platform is expected to help evaluate an individual’s sensitivity and risk profile before the initiation of a treatment using psychedelic drugs.

The acquisition is expected to improve the company’s tools to screen patients for underlying psychiatric disorders prior to undertaking psychedelics assisted psychotherapy (PAP), and gather data linking genetics to outcomes.

“By adding this layer of personalized medicine and data, we seek to add an additional measure of safety and predictability to PAP, and to aggregate data that can be used to infer appropriateness of specific molecules in PAP,” Entheon CEO Timothy Ko says.

Atai Purchases Stake In Schizophrenia Treatment Platform

Biotech investment platform Atai Life Sciences announced a new addition to its portfolio, as it acquired a majority stake in Recognify Life Sciences, a company developing treatment for cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia.

Recognify's main drug candidate, RL-007, has been found to produce a modulating effect on mechanisms that are pivotal to learning and memory. The compound has been tested in 508 subjects in seven Phase I clinical trials and two Phase II studies.

“We find the previous studies of RL-007 to be very promising in its modulating effect and look forward to launching our Phase II clinical trial focused on its use as a treatment of CIAS," said Atai co-founder Srinivas Rao.

Recognify founder Thomas Südhof says RL-007 is unique in that it enhances mechanisms of neuronal signaling, learning and memory, apparently without the side effects associated with other compounds acting on these mechanisms.

The Milestone Round

Mind Cure Health MCUR MCURF signed a letter of intent to begin a strategic collaboration with ATMA Journey Centers, a Canadian treatment center that has recently treated a patient under a Health Canada Section 56 exemption to use a controlled substance legally.

Mind Cure plans to use ATMA’s patient data to feed iSTRYM, its digital therapeutics platform.

Cybin CYBN will partner with Kernel for its upcoming clinical work. By using Kernel’s neuroimaging system — a non-invasive head-worn device called Flow — Cybin can detect changes in the brain through the skull, measuring local neural activity during a psychedelic experience. Cybin-sponsored studies using Flow are expected to commence in the second quarter of 2020.

Revive Therapeutics RVV RVVTF has announced a new research collaboration with North Carolina State University. The partnership intends to develop a method of producing biosynthetic psilocybin from a genetically-modified version of the E. coli bacteria.