Emyria Ltd (ASX:EMD) has engaged PsychoGenics, a leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled drug discovery and preclinical contract research services in neuroscience, to aid in advancing its MDMA-inspired new drug discovery program.
PsychoGenics has been contracted to leverage its proprietary SmartCube™ platform to study novel compounds from EMD’s drug discovery program developed with its partner the University of Western Australia (UWA).
“Emyria and PsychoGenics share a common vision of accelerating the development of novel drug candidates to treat major neuropsychiatric disorders,” PsychoGenics CEO Dr Emer Leahy said.
“Emyria’s leadership team and academic partners put the company at the forefront of MDMA-inspired neuropsychiatric drug development, and we are eager to help advance its preclinical program using our AI-enabled discovery engine and explore further partnership models together.”
PsychoGenics and Emyria have agreed to work collaboratively (at their own costs) in the initial phase.
Accelerating development and commercialisation
The results from the collaboration are expected to aid in selecting promising drug candidates for clinical studies and help both parties evaluate the potential for a partnership to accelerate development and commercialisation of the broader MDMA-inspired library.
“We are pleased to commence our US-based preclinical program with leading neuroscience CRO, PsychoGenics,” Emyria managing director Dr Michael Winlo said.
“PsychoGenics has successfully identified novel treatment candidates for serious and complex neuropsychiatric disorders via its proprietary SmartCube platform as well as formed innovative partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies.
“Given the increasing research and investment into novel neurological drugs and psychedelic-assisted therapies, we are excited to accelerate the identification of promising neuropsychiatric drugs and next-generation psychedelic-assisted therapies for further evaluation.
“We are also looking forward to exploring partnership models together in order to unlock value from our growing portfolio of MDMA-like drug candidates being developed with partner, UWA.”
The use of PsychoGenic’s drug screening platforms has already resulted in the discovery of several novel compounds now in clinical trials through the company’s shared-risk partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, including Sunovion and Roche.
The importation of initial compounds into the US from Australia for the collaborative partnership has already been approved by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
More than 125 novel MDMA analogues are available for assessment, created and screened by Emyria and UWA.
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