The race to patent psychoactives

Patenting cannabinoids is an established practice in life sciences, but there are a host of other controlled substances in the field of psychoactives that companies have been rushing to patent.

While the effects of drugs such as MDMA and ketamine are well documented, more companies are starting to explore their medical use cases, creating a psilocybin patent ‘gold rush’.

Patenting and approval of psychedelic treatments are in the very early stages, with legislation limiting the legal distribution of these substances just now being reconsidered for medical treatment.

While this boom in patents is recent, the medical properties of some have been known and patented for over a century. The first patent applications for MDMA for example being filed 1912.

And the use of psychoactive plants and animals in indigenous cultures goes back many thousands of years.

LSPN Connect invited three psychoactive patent specialists to discuss why this boom is happening, what can be protected and what companies can learn from the cannabis patent landscape.

Patenting best practice

The panel gave some insight on general best practices if you are looking to venture into the psychoactive market. Giving a general overview, Graham Pechenik, cannabis and psychedelics patent attorney at  Calyx Law said:

“The space is crowded right now, there are a lot of overlapping patent applications out there. It is going to be difficult resting our hopes with a single compound or even class of compounds.

“Also we aren't just talking about protecting the drugs, they are generally part of a bigger process of the means of treatment which can involve the therapists and data collection. You need to think about the IP across all aspects of the treatment, not just the compound itself.”

Gretchen Temeles, special counsel at  Duane Morris, urges companies to consider the commercial usage of the invention early on in the rights process, even if you aren't quite sure what that is yet.

“Make sure your claims actually cover the commercial product,” Temeles said. “This is really challenging for early-stage companies given that when the application is being drafted you might not even know what that is. Therefore, your application needs to be drafted in a flexible way.”

Given the capital limitations of an emerging market, Tim Schlidt,  co-founder and partner at psychedelic therapeutics investment fund Palo Santo, suggests that the quality of patents, not quantity, makes the most sense when filing to protect a treatment.

Schlidt said: “Going through the full filing process can set you back between $50-$80,000 per patent so it can be expensive for start-ups. Filing for the sake of filing might not be capitally efficient in these cases. I always say that one or two really good patents is better than a lot of bad ones.”

Indigenous considerations

As with any invention with a history of usage outside of the legal framework, particular attention should be paid to the indigenous use.

Pechenik said: “These drugs have been in indigenous use for hundreds of thousands of years so it pays for companies who are in this space to be aware of those sorts of issues and understand the effects in the marketplace. You should understand that the psychedelic space is different from the pharma space, there is an underground of these treatments that has been around for years.”

Investment opportunities

Currently, the investment opportunities for psychedelic treatments is limited, with a handful of small non-profit companies paying for the advancement of psychedelics through clinical trials such as MAPS and Brighten my Backyard.

“The amount of investment that it will take to cover the known indications of psychedelics won’t all be funded by these non-profits,” Schlidt said. “You are going to need the for-profit investors to help fund, so securing IP protection can be a way of getting a leg up in securing funding. The security of a patent is very attractive to investors.”

Watch Patenting Psychoactives—The Psilocybin Patent Race  here.

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