Emyria Ltd (ASX:EMD) and its partner the University of Western Australia (UWA) have received positive screening results from the third batch of MDMA analogues sent to Eurofins for analysis.
All 19 tested compounds demonstrated no ‘significant’ interaction with selected anti-targets – receptors and enzymes known to be related or involved in unwanted side effects.
Emyria has now produced and screened 125 compounds as part of the company’s “New Drug Discovery Program”, including 45 new MDMA analogues created since the beginning of the collaboration with UWA.
EMD has set multiple preclinical programs in motion to evaluate the potential of a select group of high priority compounds the company believes have the capacity to become registered medicines.
“Exciting forward progress”
“Emyria’s drug discovery and screening program with partner the University of Western Australia continues to make exciting forward progress,” Emyria managing director Dr Michael Winlo said.
“These latest positive screening results will help guide the creation of the next batch of novel MDMA-inspired compounds for our drug discovery portfolio.
“These results will also help inform which leads to advance to preclinical screening in our three, high-priority areas; next generation psychedelic-assisted therapies as well as potential treatments for unmet neurological and non-neurological conditions.”
Emyria will use the results from these screening tests to guide further drug synthesis, continuing to expand one of the world’s largest libraries of novel MDMA-inspired compounds.
“It’s exciting to see an Australian-based biotech and academic institution leading cutting-edge research into MDMA and MDMA-inspired drug discovery to help tackle unmet needs of global significance,” Tenmile – a medical tech venture capital fund – executive chair Dr Steve Burnell said.