Mydecine Innovations Group Inc (OTC:MYCOF, NEO:MYCO) has announced a partnership with Combat Stress and the King's College London to utilize psilocybin as part of a psychoactive-assisted psychotherapy treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans.
Combat Stress is the leading charity aiding veterans’ mental health in the UK, providing treatment and support to former servicemen and women for over a century. They provide a range of online, community, outpatient and residential specialist mental health services to veterans with complex mental health issues related to their military service.
Combat Stress will be one of several sites for Mydecine’s upcoming clinical trials.
READ: Mydecine to partner with The Newly Institute to offer psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to patients under Health Canada's Special Access Program
Meanwhile, Mydecine said that Dominic Murphy, head of research at Combat Stress and president of the UK Psychological Trauma Society, has been named a Principal Investigator for the study, which will utilize the company’s lead psilocybin drug candidate, MYCO-001, as an adjunct to psychotherapy to treat severe PTSD in veterans that has otherwise been resistant to traditional forms of therapy.
Data collected from the study will further advance Mydecine’s drug development pipeline and its ability to bring a much-needed novel treatment to market.
“I am truly excited to be leading this study at Combat Stress,” Murphy said. “We know that the gold standard treatments for PTSD, provided by Combat Stress and other organizations, work for most veterans. However, for a minority, their symptoms do not improve. This collaboration offers great potential for research focused on new, innovative therapeutics that offer significant opportunities to bring hope to those veterans still living with the trauma of their military experiences.”
Mydecine Chief Medical Officer Rakesh Jetly noted that during his 31 years as a medical officer and psychiatrist in the Canadian Armed Forces, he has seen firsthand the impact PTSD has on vets and their families.
“Sadly, many soldiers and veterans do not respond to the evidence-based treatments readily available to them and the search is on for new safe and effective treatments. Our troops fight and sacrifice together, so it only makes sense that we help them heal together,” Jetly said.
Mydecine CEO Josh Bartch added: “This partnership serves as another significant opportunity to expand our clinical trials and deliver on our mission to develop safe and effective alternative medicine people can trust. There is a big unmet need when it comes to treating PTSD and other mental health conditions, especially within the veteran population, and this partnership demonstrates the strong progress we continue to make in bringing psychoactive-assisted psychotherapies to the forefront of the market and bring hope for all those struggling with these conditions.”
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