Mind Medicine (MindMed) (NASDAQ:MNMD) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company working to develop therapies and treatments based on psychoactive substances. The company develops novel products including psychoactive substances and digital medicine to treat brain health disorders related to psychiatry, addiction, pain, and neurology. Digital medicine is the use of technology to measure and intervene in the service of human health and is a budding industry of its own. The company has 10 compounds in pre-clinical or clinical trials and 4 are on track to advance to Phase 1. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
Mind Medicine’s pipeline of drug candidates is based on emerging science that more than suggests psychoactive substances can be used to relieve stress and anxiety disorders in the brain. Among the many potential uses for these drugs is the treatment of anxiety and stress related to PTSD and secondary stress disorders related to the treatment of people suffering from stress and anxiety-related disorders. Psychoactive compounds have also been shown to be effective in treating autism, pain, and social disorders.
The company’s treatments are focused on neuroplasticity or the fact our brain function is tied to its structure and the structure of our brains can change over time. When used in the proper context, Mind Medicine’s treatments aid the restructuring of brain activity and how it organizes information by catalyzing plasticity. In some cases, patients under treatment learn to make positive associations in relation to stress-inducing stimuli while under the influence of the treatments.
In addition to plasticity, psychoactive drugs like LSD, psilocybin, and DMT have been shown to have experiential effects such as lowering mental barriers and reducing defensive and often reflexive mechanisms that can be an impediment to healing.
Among the benefits of using psychoactive compounds versus traditional therapeutics are the speed of efficacy and greatly reduced side effects. Psychoactive drugs can produce positive effects in patients with the first use while it may take weeks for the current treatments to take effect and they come with many side effects. In some cases, side effects of mainstream treatments include an increase in suicidal behavior.
The company develops MM-120, which is in phase 2 for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as for the treatment of chronic pain. MM-120 is LSD D-tartrate. MM-110 is a nicotinic cholinergic receptor antagonist that has completed phase 1 for the treatment of opioid withdrawal.
Mind Medicine also develops MM-402 which is for the treatment of core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. This treatment is based on MDMA and improves sociability in autistic patients without stimulants and is shown to have superior safety and tolerability.
