BetterLife Pharma Inc (OTCQB:BETRF) (CSE:BETR) announced Tuesday that Health Canada has confirmed that LSD derivative 2-bromo-LSD is not classified as a controlled substance.
In a statement, CEO Ahmad Doroudian told shareholders that confirmation of the status is a “significant first step” for the Vancouver-based company to begin its IND-enabling pre-clinical studies of its psychedelic product TD-0148A.
As a result, BetterLife will not face major regulatory hurdles during the development process of TD-0148A that other psychedelic products will encounter, according to Doroudian.
READ: BetterLife Pharma seeks patent protection for new 2-Bromo-LSD formulations to treat depression and mood disorders
“We believe that there is a great need for novel non-hallucinogenic treatments of mental disorders that can be dispensed at the pharmacy level and safely administered at home. BetterLife’s TD-0148A is one such treatment,” Doroudian told investors.
2-Bromo-LSD is a nontoxic second-generation LSD-derived molecule that mimics the therapeutic potential of LSD, without the psychedelic effects or hallucinations. BetterLife is developing the formulation to help tread depression and mood disorders.
Doroudian was quoted in a recent edition of Forbes magazine emphasizing the challenges that current regulations impose on the development of psychedelics and LSD-based compounds.
BetterLife also develops drug candidates from a broad set of complementary interferon-based technologies that have the potential to engage the immune system to fight virus infections, such as coronavirus (COVID-19) and human papillomavirus, or to directly inhibit tumors to treat specific types of cancer.
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