MYND Life Sciences is a drug development company creating neuropharmaceuticals that treat mental health problems. Based in British Columbia, Canada, MYND was co-founded in 2018 by Dr. Lyle Oberg and Dr. Wilfred Jeffries. It went public on the Canadian Securities Exchange in May 2021.
Equipped with licenses from Health Canada to work with psilocybin, MYND conducts research in collaboration with the University of British Columbia’s Michael Smith Laboratories. Dr. Jeffries, who is also MYND’s Chief Science Officer, leads the company’s research efforts.
The Human Mycogene Modulation program is MYND’s lead development program, through which it is generating psilocybin-based drugs to treat Major Depressive Disorder. The company’s website defines Human Mycogene as “an enzyme that regulates various innate immune responses and has been associated with immune signalling and various autoimmune disorders.” Built on evidence linking some neurological conditions and brain inflammation, decades of research by Dr. Jeffries have illustrated that inflammation can be regulated by modulating Human Mycogene and therefore treating associated symptoms. This method of controlling Human Mycogene’s expression is the foundation of MYND’s IP, which currently includes several patents. Two are highlighted on the company’s website: MYND-604 pertains to the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, principally depression; MYND-778 pertains to the treatment of autoimmune conditions.
Discussing the company’s clinical development plans in an interview with Midas Letter, CEO Dr. Oberg stated, “We’re looking at sepsis, cytokine storm, we’re looking at depression, and we’re looking at our biomarker,” and explained that, ”if depression is caused by inflammation you can quantify and qualify that inflammation [via the biomarker],” to diagnose, monitor, and treat it. He also shared MYND’s intention to develop a depression vaccine.
The company’s biomarker development and commercialization work are done through MYND’s diagnostic division, launched in October 2021. Later that month, MYND acquired from Cava Healthcare the rights to use psilocybin-based drugs to treat dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.