One of the founders of Google is taking on an ambitious new venture: turning psychedelics into therapeutics.
What’s happening:
- Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) co-founder Sergey Brin has backed psychedelic medicine startup Soneira with a new $15M USD investment
- The investment comes from Sergey Brin’s philanthropic venture fund known as Catalyst4
The big idea:
- Soneira is aiming to develop novel molecules that are derived from ibogaine, which have been validated in clinical research to have enormous promise for treating addiction
- However, Soneira is actually exploring novel synthetic ibogaine compounds as a potential breakthrough treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury
Going deeper:
- Ibogaine based therapeutics have been becomingly increasingly relevant of late, with the National Institute On Drug Abuse previously awarding Gilgamesh Pharma a $14M USD grant to advance the clinical development of their cardiac safe ibogaine molecule
The intrigue:
- One of the largest awaited catalysts for psychedelics is an official approval for MDMA assisted therapy as a treatment for PTSD, which is currently under Priority Reviews by the FDA after advancing through a Phase III clinical trial
