Clearmind Gears Up For Clinical Trial To Test Drug That Treats Alcohol Addiction

Israeli psychedelics biotech Clearmind Medicine Inc. CMND is commencing the production of its proprietary drug candidate based on the MEAI molecule.

It will be used in the upcoming Phase 1 clinical trial assessing the treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).

"Like other addictions, AUD is a chronic relapsing brain disorder characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use," Clearmind’s CEO Dr. Adi Zuloff-Shani said. "Alcohol abuse is the third-most-common preventable cause of death in the US, where almost 6% struggle with this condition."

The company’s CEO stated that the non-clinical data generated so far demonstrate that the MEAI-based treatment could potentially treat a broad range of addictions and binge behaviors.

Interestingly, the drug candidate — CMND-100 — also delivered positive pre-clinical results when combined with cannabinoid-based treatment CannAmide for AUD, and when tested for cocaine addiction.

Clinical batches of CMND-100 are being produced under FDA’s Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) conditions, following MEAI's synthesis development process.

It's partly enabled by a constructive Pre-Investigational New Drug Application (pre-IND) meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the novel compound’s development.

More On MEAI

Also known as 5-methoxy-2-aminoindane (or 5-MeO-AI) or Chaperon, MEAI is a non-hallucinogenic psychoactive compound derived from MMAI. 

It is part of the indane family of molecules and was first explicitly and pharmacologically described by Profs. David Nutt and Ezekiel Golan in a peer-reviewed paper in 2017, later followed by further pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and metabolism descriptions in 2018. 

MEAI was an early replacement drug candidate for alcohol addiction, coming to market during a late 2010’s movement to replace alcohol with less-toxic alternatives.

Photo by Adam Wilson on Unsplash