Psyched: GH Research Debuts on Nasdaq, Compass Reaches Psilocybin Research Milestone, Maxim Gives BUY Rating to 10 Psychedelics Companies

Irish 5-MeO-DMT Company GH Research Debuts On Nasdaq

GH Research, a Dublin-based company studying the potential of 5-MeO-DMT for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders, is now listing its stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol “GHRS.” 

The company had an IPO of 10 million shares at an initial price of $16 per share for total proceeds of approximately $160 million. Shares opened for the public last Friday at $22.

The company’s flagship drug candidate, GH001 (an inhalable 5-MeO-DMT analog) is being studied for the treatment of chronic depression, along with proprietary therapies. The company completed a phase 1 clinical study in healthy volunteers late last year, which tested for safety and efficacy.

GH Research closed a series B financing round for $125 million in April, which allowed it to move to a Phase 1/2 clinical trial testing the product in patients with treatment-resistant depression.

The company's goal is to develop a way of administering GH001 in single-day, individualized interventions, leading to a possible fast and durable remission of depression symptoms.

GH002, an injectable version of 5-MeO-DMT, is currently being studied in preclinical stages.

Compass Pathways Completes Target Administration Of Psilocybin In Phase 2b Study

Compass Pathways CMPS announced it has completed a key milestone on its path to obtaining FDA approval for psilocybin in the treatment of depression.

The company reported that it has completed psilocybin administration to all 216 patients that were targeted for its phase 2b clinical trial for treatment-resistant depression. 

The trial, which is using a proprietary version of isolated psilocybin known as COMP360, is the world’s largest psilocybin therapy trial to date and could lead the company toward securing five to seven years of market exclusivity for psilocybin treatment in the U.S. if approved.

The study is being performed at 22 trial sites in 10 countries and is looking at the safety and efficacy of psilocybin therapy, administering different doses of psilocybin in conjunction with psychological support from trained therapists. 

Patients will be monitored for 12 weeks after their sessions. The company expects to report data from the trial before the end of this year.

Filament and Awakn Life Sciences Go Public On The NEO Exchange

Awakn Life Sciences Corp. AWKN and Filament Health Corp. FH began trading on the NEO exchange last week.

Awakn is directing much of its efforts toward building an infrastructure to provide Ketamine and MDMA treatment for patients struggling with addiction disorders in the UK.

“Twenty percent of the global population is suffering from an addiction. Be it to alcohol, opioids, prescriptions, nicotine, gambling addiction, pornography addiction, sex addiction…” said CEO Anthony Tennyson in an interview with Benzinga.

The company’s pipeline for the short and medium-term is focusing on developing protocols that can lead to the approval of generic MDMA and Ketamine in the UK. 

Awakn is currently building a psychedelics-assisted therapy clinic in Bristol and plans to launch branches in London and Manchester before the end of the year.

Filament is a drug discovery and extraction company focused exclusively on natural psychedelics. The company has in-house GMP manufacturing capabilities and a Health Canada psilocybin dealer’s license.

Filament is developing an IP portfolio based on novel extraction and purification methods and is aiming to address the global mental health crisis.

California Psychedelics Bill Passes New Assembly Committee

SB 519, a California bill meant to decriminalize the possession of psychedelic substances, reached a new milestone in the State Assembly.

The bill had already received full Senate approval in early June and recently passed a 5 to 3 vote in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

The legislation would remove penalties on the possession and social sharing of magic mushrooms, DMT, ibogaine, LSD and MDMA among others.

The bill will now be voted on by the Public Health and the Appropriations Committees. If it passes, it will then go to a full vote in the Assembly.

Maxim Group Gives Buy Rating To 10 Psychedelic Stocks

Institutional analysts are taking a liking to the medicinal psychedelics industry. This week, investment bank Maxim Group initiated coverage of 10 companies in the psychedelics space, giving a bullish Buy rating to all of them.

• Compass Pathways plc CMPS
• Cybin Inc. CLXPF
• Enveric Biosciences Inc. ENVB
• Field Trip Health Ltd. FTRPF
• Mind Cure Health MCURF
• Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc. MNMD
• Mindset Pharma Inc. MSSTF
• Mydecine Innovations Group MYCOF
• PharmaTher Holdings Ltd. PHRRF
• PsyBio Therapeutics Corp. PSYBF

Check out Benzinga’s coverage of the report for the firm’s full price target quotes.

Cybin Co Reports $51 Million In Cash As Stifel Ups Price Target To $12

On Monday, Cybin Inc. CLXPF reported a net loss of CA$32.2 million ($26 million) for the year ended March 31, 2021, with cash equivalents of about CA$64 million ($51 million) by that date.

A report released last week by Stifel praised Cybin’s novel molecules for their “strong potential for IP protection and a long period of outsized returns.”

Stifel raised the price target on Cybin stock from CA$11 to CA$15 ($12) and continued a “speculative buy” rating, meaning that the firm expects “a total return of greater than 30% over the next 12 months, with total return equal to the percentage price change plus dividend yield, accompanied by substantially higher than normal risk.”

Stifel based this analysis on the company’s recent announcement of choosing social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder as target indications for CYB004, a novel molecule in the psychedelic class. These indications hold a large potential patient pool, having been amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic and that often go untreated.

Psilera Closes $2.5 Million Seed Round

Florida-based Psilera Inc. has secured $2.5 million in funding for research, personnel hiring and general working purposes.

The company issued approximately 4.3 million shares to private buyers at a cost of $0.57 per share.

Psilera has developed a patent-pending DMT transdermal patch that it expects to put through a phase 1b clinical trial. For that, it anticipates filing an investigational new drug application with the FDA before the end of the year. 

Earlier this year, the company received DEA approval to research DMT, psilocybin, and psilocin.

“Innovative delivery methods combined with DMT’s short duration of action could lead to a revolutionary new line of psychiatric medicines,” reported the company, touting the benefits of DMT in contrast to other psychedelics like psilocybin.

The company is also developing an IP portfolio of novel molecules, which will move into animal trials later this year. Psilera is also leveraging computational drug screening methods to inform its drug development pipeline.

The Milestone Round

Mydecine MYCO MYCOF has selected substance use disorder and smoking cessation as initial target indications for its proprietary psychedelic molecule MYCO-004, a patch-delivered tryptamine compound with short duration and long-term compound stability.

PsyBio Therapeutics Corp. PSYB PSYBF has begun pilot-scale batch manufacturing of its psilocybin product in Europe, using the company’s proprietary method for producing psilocybin from bacteria. The company will also be producing other molecules in partnership with Biose Industrie, a French drug manufacturer in an effort to advance PsyBio’s clinical research into the European Union.

Wesana Health WESA has announced a new partnership with the University of South Carolina to develop and build a facility that will do research and product development on traumatic brain injury and improved neurological performance. Wesana will invest $1.5 million in the facility, where it plans to perform clinical drug development as well as develop intellectual property.

Braxia Scientific Corp. BRAX BRAXF is launching a psilocybin-assisted clinical therapy training program with the aim of training physicians, psychologists and psychotherapists to implement psilocybin therapy for patients with depression.