Diamond Therapeutics

Founded in 2018, Diamond Therapeutics is a psychedelic pharmaceutical company based in Toronto, Canada. Its initial focus is to develop rapid-acting, “sub-perceptual” psilocybin-based drugs to treat neuropsychiatric conditions. On its website, Diamond claims that its psychedelic-based products have broader therapeutic applicability without perceptual side effects.

The company raised $2.8 million in seed funding in the Spring of 2020, led by its primary investor Ontario Brain Institute (OBI). 

Diamond has funded studies in which its advisory board member Dr. Edward Sellers participated.1 In a press release about his presentation at the NIH Psilocybin Research Speaker Series in June 2021, Dr. Sellers stated, “These are the first, rigorous, dose-ranging behavioral studies to look at very low doses and concentrations of psilocybin and its metabolite psilocin, and show that hallucinogenic effects are not needed for a potential therapeutic effect.”

In partnership with contract research organization BioPharma Services, Diamond is preparing for randomized, double-blind clinical trials that “will systematically explore the effects of psilocybin over a range of very low doses,” as CEO and Founder Judy Blumstock explained in a June 2021 press release. She added, “to our knowledge, a single ascending dose study in this dose range has never been conducted.” 

According to the press release announcing an increased investment from OBI, after its phase 1 low-dose psilocybin clinical trials, Diamond intends to study its product’s efficacy in anxiety disorders. Its website states that the company is “also advancing a diverse pipeline of tryptamine analogs and small organic molecules that act by modulating selective serotonin receptors and neurotrophic receptor signaling.” In February 2021, Diamond announced a collaboration with McGill University around clinical research on therapeutic applications of low-dose LSD. 

Diamond Therapeutics’ Founder and CEO Judy Blumstock was interviewed on the Microdose Psychedelic Insights podcast in September 2020.