Tryp Therapeutics signed a letter of intent with Massachusetts General Hospital for a clinical study investigating the use of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome.

The planned study will evaluate the effect of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in patients with treatment-resistant IBS who experience chronic abdominal pain and other debilitating gastrointestinal symptoms. Many of these patients also suffer from fibromyalgia, anxiety, and fatigue. The primary efficacy endpoint of the study will be the improvement of abdominal pain. The study will also explore changes in brain connectivity and responses to pain at baseline, at four weeks, six months, and twelve months post-session, along with numerous other secondary endpoints.  Here’s more: https://tryptherapeutics.com/updates/tryp-therapeutics-and-massachusetts-general-hospital-sign-letter-of-intent-for-clinical-study-investigating-the-use-of-psilocybin-assisted-psychotherapy-for-the-treatment-of-patients-suffering-from-irritable-bowel-syndrome-ibs

Tryp also announced interim results for its Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of binge eating disorder with psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. Highlights included the following …

• Across all patients, daily binge eating episodes were reduced by an average of 80.4% from baseline during the four-week post-dosing measurement period, with all patients reporting a daily reduction in binge eating episodes of at least 60% from baseline
• 4 of 5 patients reported at least a 75% reduction in daily binge eating episodes from baseline during the four-week post-dosing measurement period
• The number of daily instances of patients feeling that they had lost control over their eating was reduced by an average of 81.6% during the four-week post-dosing measurement period, with 4 of 5 patients reporting a reduction of greater than 70%

You can read more about these results here: https://tryptherapeutics.com/updates/tryp-therapeutics-announces-interim-results-for-its-phase-ii-clinical-trial-for-the-treatment-of-binge-eating-disorder-with-psilocybin-assisted-psychotherapy

Oregon became the first state in the nation to allow adults to use psilocybin. Now, anyone 21 and older can legally access psilocybin services in the state under the supervision of a state-certified facilitator. Worth noting, one of our portfolio companies, Fluence, is directly benefiting from this as it was given a license last year to train these state-certified facilitators. You can read more about Oregon’s new psilocybin services here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/adults-can-now-use-magic-mushrooms-with-supervision-in-oregon-180981386/

And you can read more about how Fluence is involved here: https://integration-communications.prowly.com/207580-fluence-receives-oregon-state-license-to-train-psilocybin-facilitators

A trio of New York state lawmakers introduced a bill to legalize natural psychedelics. If passed, the bill would amend New York state law to legalize the “possession, use, cultivation, production, creation, analysis, gifting, exchange, or sharing by or between natural persons of twenty-one years of age or older of a natural plant or fungus-based hallucinogen.” The bill would apply to natural psychedelics including DMT, ibogaine, mescaline, psilocybin, and psilocin. The legislation would also legalize the use of natural psychedelics for religious purposes and allows people to provide psychedelic services “with or without remuneration.” Check it out: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajherrington/2023/01/04/new-york-lawmakers-introduce-psychedelics-legalization-bill/?sh=771360633cf9

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Did you know an American biochemist attributed his Nobel Prize-winning discovery to using LSD?

Kary Mullis (1944–2019) won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR, first demonstrated by Mullis in 1983, is a method for making billions of copies of a DNA sample very rapidly, and it is still an indispensable tool in laboratories forty years later—testing for COVID-19 being just one of its many uses.

According to Mullis, he might never have made his discovery if he wasn’t an avid user of psychedelics. He once said, “Would I have invented PCR if I hadn’t taken LSD? I seriously doubt it… I could sit on a DNA molecule and watch the polymers go by. I learnt that partly on psychedelic drugs.” And apparently, he told Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD, the same thing.

You can read more about LSD and scientific creativity here.