Algernon Pharmaceuticals (AGN.C) filed a combined clinical trials of investigational medicinal products and ethics approval application with the United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for its planned Phase 1 DMT clinical human stroke study on January 18, 2022.
The filing came as a result of their intellectual property patent application, originally filed in early 2021 for AP-188, wherein the company included novel salt forms of DMT. The novel salt form is a new and separate structure from the original compound and is considered a new composition of matter.
What is DMT, anyway?
DMT is short for N,N-dimethyltryptamine. It’s a hallucinogenic tryptamine drug not unlike other psychedelics like LSD, ketamine, psilocybin and psilocyin. It occurs naturally in many plant species and animals, including humans, and has been used in religious ceremonies by indigenous people in the Amazon basin. DMT can also be synthesized in a laboratory.
It’s the perfect kind of drug for Algernon.
Algernon is itself a drug repurposing company that investigates safe, prior-approved drugs, including naturally occurring compounds (like DMT) for new disease applications, moving them through human trials and developing new formulations which they then get the regulatory nod for in global markets. Specifically, Algernon chases down compounds that have enjoyed prior approval in the US and Europe to avoid off-label prescription writing.
Stroke
The company’s IP surrounding DMT includes patent applications for the salt forms, but also dosing, formulation and method of use patent applications for assisting with stroke rehab.
Previous preclinical studies (on rats) have demonstrated that DMT helps reduce tissue damage and promote neurogenesis (or regeneration of healthy brain tissue), as well as structural and functional neural plasticity. These factors help the brain form and reorganize synaptic connections, which are required for healing after a brain injury.
Algernon Pharmaceuticals is up $0.07 today and presently trading at $8.38.
—Joseph Morton
