The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has published clinical-stage biopharma Tryp Therapeutics Inc. (OTCQB:TRYPF)’s international patent application for the intravenous (IV) administration of psilocybin and psilocin.
The “Improved Methods For The Use of Psychedelics” patent application expands and strengthens the IP of TRP-8803 with an IV formulation of proprietary psilocybin and psilocin, to be administered together with psychotherapy, expected to enhance the psychedelics’ positive effects while reducing the limitations of other administration routes including oral, nasal and sublingual.
For instance, compared to oral administration, IV delivery of TRP-8803 can reduce the wait of the psychedelic experience’s onset to 30 minutes (instead of typical 1 to 2 hours), manage the duration of the experience to reduced 1 to 2 hours (instead of potential 6 to 8 hours), and achieve clinically-validated blood levels of the psychedelic.
This last point needs further detail: when psilocybin is taken orally, its bioavailability can be reduced due to first-pass metabolism, given that this pro-drug needs first to be converted to psilocin to cross the blood brain barrier and induce the psychedelic state, all of which contributes to variable blood levels of the drug.
Importantly, high blood levels are commonly associated with side effects, while low blood levels may reduce efficacy. What IV administration does is then enable more precise dosing and consequent optimal blood levels of psilocin, improving the likelihood of clinical results and efficacy in a safe way.
Furthermore, the IV delivery technology might even allow psychotherapists and patients to customize the psychedelic experience as a whole, as it would allow for better control of it by increasing or decreasing both its strength and duration, or in the eventual appearance of side effects, to terminate the drug administration.
On Tryp’s new therapeutic option, the company’s CEO Jim Gilligan said that he believes its ability to greatly reduce the in-clinic time period might not only be appealing to patients but also result in “a more scalable model for the broad and efficient rollout of psychedelic treatment.”
Robin Carhart-Harris, Ph.D., chairman of Tryp’ scientific advisory board, further stated that by allowing rapid initiation and termination of the psychedelic experience, as well as providing “highly-refined control over the depth and duration of that experience,” he believes proprietary TRP-8803 holds "a very strong potential to shift the treatment paradigm for fibromyalgia and binge eating disorder, as well as certain types of depression, pain and obsessive-compulsive disorders."
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