Emyria Ltd (ASX:EMD) has substantially expanded its proprietary MDMA analogue library through its partnership with the University of Western Australia (UWA).
Last year, Emyria secured exclusive rights to a library of more than 100 novel MDMA analogues from the University of Western Australia, creating a novel drug-discovery pipeline.
A further 17 novel MDMA analogues have been uniquely synthesised and characterised by the partnership, informed by the recent successful screening of the first batch of 68 compounds.
“Effectively doubles size” of library
“Emyria’s program to develop unique and proprietary MDMA-analogues for psychedelic assisted therapies and other neuropsychiatric disorders is making substantial progress,” Emyria managing director Dr Michael Winlo said.
“Following our recent positive screening results, a further 17 unique compounds have already been developed with partner UWA, and are now ready for screening.
“Many more are within reach with robust synthetic methodology well established, and key starting materials in hand.
“Furthermore, we have developed a method of separating our racemic analogues into distinct chemical entities.
“This is notable because it effectively doubles the size of our screenable library and major Regulatory Agencies, like the FDA, prefer chiral drugs to be evaluated as single enantiomers.”
Emyria is applying a method to separate racemic library compounds into distinct enantiomers (ie two mirror image structures that can exist alone or together as molecules) to its current library of compounds alongside UWA.
The company says this method could effectively double the size of the entire MDMA analogue library while also offering reduced potential for off-target side effects from individual enantiomers.
Second patent family in the works
“We are currently working with Professor Iain McGregor, an expert in characterising the effects of novel psychoactive substances, as well as A/Prof Matt Piggott and Prof Mat Martin-Iverson, to select animal screening and evaluation programs,” Dr Winlo continued.
“A second patent family is being developed alongside this work.
“I look forward to updating the market with further progress and results as we advance against our development milestones in the coming months.”
Emyria is in the midst of planning preclinical animal models to test high priority compounds and preparing the second MDMA-analogue patent family to be filed.
Initial screens have not raised any safety concerns and the company has already identified several novel compounds Emyria believes warrant further interest, having therapeutic potential in the areas of psychedelic assisted therapy and neurological and non-neurological treatments.
About Emyria
Emyria Ltd (ASX:EMD) is a data-backed, drug development company that helps pharmaceutical companies to accelerate drug development by pioneering new ways to collect, standardise and analyse dynamic patient data and clinical evidence.
The company’s drug development programs are informed by insights generated from extensive analysis of Emyria Data - deep, ethically sourced clinical evidence that is gathered with patients across its independent clinical services.
Emyria is also engaged in developing new care models for patients with unmet needs by using novel treatments and by bringing together patients, clinicians, researchers and medical innovators.