LongeVC provides funding to psychedelic-based mental health care startup

Freedom Biosciences, a mental health care startup, has received funding from the biotech fund LongeVC for its research on psychedelics, according to a press release.

The startup is committed to developing new therapies to treat mental health conditions. For instance, Freedom Biosciences’ cofounder John Krystal, MD, chair of the department of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, determined that ketamine has antidepressant qualities. An esketamine nasal spray (Spravato, Janssen) was approved by the FDA for use in treatment-resistant depression in 2019 based on Krystal’s research, according to the release.

“Clinical research has already shown how powerful psychedelics can be in managing difficult-to-treat mental health conditions,” Dina Burkitbayeva, MBA, Freedom Biosciences cofounder and CEO, said in the release. “We are harnessing their power to offer new, more effective medicines to patients in need.”