PharmAla receives MDMA research grant from Ontario Centre of Innovation

James Spargo | June 12, 2023 | News story | Research and Development MDMA, PharmAla, Psychiatry, in silico, research grant 

Canadian biotechnology company PharmAla has announced that it has been awarded a research grant from the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI), in conjunction with the University of Windsor, for the in silico testing of its MDXX molecules, including MDMA. The project value is $50,000.

Despite Racemic MDMA hydrochloride’s success in phase 2 and 3 trials, it has significant side effects which need improving in order to provide safer treatment options. PharmaAla has indicated that it believes racemic MDMA could be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by 2024 once the toxicology profile of the drug has been reduced.

In order to do this, the company will employ in silico modelling, which uses computational models that can be used to make predictions, suggest hypotheses and provide discoveries for the medicine, without human testing.

Dr Harpreet Kaur, PharmAla’s VP of Research, commented: “In-silico modelling is a crucial element of drug discovery, allowing for faster and more accurate prediction of which molecules will ‘hit’ our very specific targets, and thus be successful when sent to our pre-clinical partners at UAMS. While we have already been working closely with the team at the University of Windsor, it’s gratifying to see that the OCI believes in our work strongly enough to match our investment 1:1.”

Nick Kadysh, CEO of PharmAla Biotech, stated: “Part of the reason we have gained trust with regulators over our short two years of work is because we lead with data. To do that, our research team encompasses a diverse group of scientists: preclinical researchers completing animal model research; in-silico drug discovery; and, very soon, clinical research. The OCI grant will allow us to bolster the funnel of our drug pipeline and develop valuable IP with non-dilutive funding. We thank OCI for their confidence in the merits of our research.”

James Spargo


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