MindMed’s MM-120 May Give a New Hope for Generalized Anxiety Disorder

On January 25th Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc announced that the U.S. FDA cleared MindMed’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application, allowing the Company’s Phase 2b dose-optimization trial of MM-120. MM-120 is MindMed’s optimized form of LSD to be used in conjunction with therapy to treat generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). 

This trial is known as  MMED008 and will enroll a total of 200 participants who will receive a single administration of up to 200 µg of MM-120 or a placebo control. The study’s primary objective is to determine the reduction in anxiety symptoms for up to twelve weeks after a single administration of MM-120, compared across five treatment arms.

“FDA clearance of our Phase 2b clinical trial represents a major milestone for MindMed and the industry as a whole,” said Robert Barrow, Chief Executive Officer and Director of MindMed. Mr. Barrow continued, “With a clear regulatory path, we look forward to building on this momentum and advancing this trial as quickly and efficiently as possible, bringing us significantly closer to transforming the treatment landscape for patients who suffer from anxiety.”

How the Psychedelia as Psychological Treatment?

In recent decades, a clear regulatory path has become much more possible as attitudes have become more positive towards medical psychedelics.1 Thanks to this clear regulatory path, MM-120, MindMed’s proprietary drug candidate, has a possibility of being available to the public despite how this would be perceived decades ago. This candidate is part of MindMed’s project Lucy to combine its new drug with traditional therapy.

Since LSD’s psychoactive properties were discovered in 1943, the drug has been investigated for its applications in the treatment of anxiety associated with terminal cancer, alcoholism, opioid use disorder, and depression, among other conditions.

Despite MindMed’s attempts to use LSD for generalized anxiety disorder, psilocybin has a history of succeeding in this regard. Along with MM-120, MindMed is currently partnered with various universities for R&D like the University Hospital Basel’s Liechti Lab, the leading research center focused on the pharmacology of psychedelic substances. And complements project Lucy with an LSD neutralizer to allow the therapist to pull the patient’s out of their LSD trip when needed.

Are Psychedelic-inspired Medicines the New Hope for Mental-related Diseases?

MindMed is publicly traded on the NASDAQ, Canadian NEO, and the German stock exchange. This psychedelic medicine biotech company went public in 2020 and was founded in 2019. 

Over this short time, it has sought to discover, develop and deploy psychedelic-inspired medicines and therapies to address addiction and mental illness. With approximately 6% of U.S. adults suffering from GAD in their lifetimes, there is a large market for drugs that could successfully treat it. 

Assuming that the clinical trial goes well for MM-120, their massive profit potential is their way will be paved for the other medications in MindMed’s pipeline. The pipeline, based on psychedelic substances including psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, DMT, and an ibogaine derivative known as 18-MC, will receive a lot of legitimacy and public acceptance due to the success of MM-120. There seem to be early signs of this acceptance as shares of Mind Medicine (MindMed) were up 11% in pre-market trade on Tuesday, 26th.

Author

Eduardo Longoria