Enveric, MindBio partner to advance psilocin prodrugs for mental health disorders
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Enveric Biosciences announced it has signed a nonbinding term sheet to out-license a class of novel psilocin prodrugs to MindBio Therapeutics, an agreement that could yield more than $66 million in sales.
“At Enveric, our drug-discovery engine has created more promising, patented therapeutics than we can commercialize alone, so finding a partner such as MindBio Therapeutics, that shares our passion to develop much-needed treatments for neuropsychiatric indications like depression, is a big win,” Joseph Tucker, PhD, Enveric Biosciences CEO, told Healio in an email.
According to an Enveric press release, the company’s psilocin prodrug molecules are designed to release therapeutic levels of systemic psilocin at varying rates for treatment of anxiety, depression and substance abuse disorders. Other features include enhanced gastrointestinal stability, increased absorption properties and variable cleavable substitutions producing altered pharmacokinetic properties.
Terms of the signing permit MindBio to advance a drug candidate from Enveric’s novel psilocin prodrug class for neuropsychiatric indications. Upon entering into a definitive agreement, MindBio would receive an exclusive, global license to the formulations, drugs, method of use and devices developed to utilize the compound. MindBio would also assume responsibility for all future preclinical, clinical and commercial development on a royalty-bearing basis for all human and animal pharmaceutical applications, the also additionally revealed in the release.
Should a definitive agreement be reached, MindBio would pay Enveric development and sales milestones up to an aggregate $66.5 million as well as royalties ranging from 2.5% to 10% on all future sales.
“Enveric’s efforts are directed to maximize benefit to the patient and return to the shareholder by advancing as many of our drug candidates as possible, and these efforts are significantly facilitated when we find opportunities to do so in concert with equally committed partners,” Tucker told Healio.