Braxia Scientific Corp announced its CEO, Roger McIntyre, and chief medical officer, Josh Rosenblat, has received C$918,000 in funding from the Government of Canada’s Canadian Institutes of Health Research for ketamine research.
In a statement, Toronto-based Braxia said that the funding will go towards studying the effectiveness of intravenous ketamine in combination with internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to reduce suicidality in people living with depression.
Nearly 4,000 Canadians die by suicide every year and it is the second-leading cause of death among youth and young adults.
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Ketamine both offers significant symptom relief from depression and demonstrates rapid reductions in suicidal thoughts. Alternatively, CBT may reduce suicidality, but it often takes several weeks to become effective.
CEO McIntyre told investors that the results of the study will have “tremendous implications” for public health, and will help to determine whether it is feasible to integrate virtual health platforms with intravenous ketamine – a research priority for Braxia, according to McIntyre.
"The public health imperative to reduce suicidality in the general population provides the rationale for identifying scalable strategies," McIntyre said in a statement.
"Integrating ketamine with CBT provides an opportunity to rapidly reduce suicidality and sustain the effect over the long term. Moreover, the availability of telehealth networks provides the opportunity to scale this important treatment, and has been shown to be effective and highly acceptable to patients."
The clinical trial will take place at Braxia’s Canadian Rapid Treatment Centre of Excellence in Mississauga, Ontario.
Braxia added that its application for funding was ranked fourth out of 48 potential investigations evaluated by the CIHR review committee.
"As health researchers, we are united by a common goal: to improve the health and well-being of Canadians and people throughout the world,” the CIHR wrote in awarding the funding.
“Through CIHR, the Government of Canada provides vital support to Canadian researchers, spanning the tightly linked pillars of health research, with the ultimate goal of improving health for all Canadians."
Braxia Scientific is a medical research company with clinics that provide innovative ketamine treatments for persons with depression and related disorders.
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