Drug Discovery and Development – Why Algernon Believes it is the Janis Joplin of Psychedelic Medicine Companies

The Canadian company Algernon (CSE:AGN; Frankfurt:AGW0; OTCQB:AGNPF) is the headline sponsor for the Wonderland psychedelic medicine conference held in Miami from November 3 to 5. Algernon CEO Chris Moreau expects the decision to prominently back the event will raise the company’s profile. “We view Algernon as a Janis Joplin voice singing to a junior high crowd right now,” Moreau said. “We’re sort of undiscovered, but the parents in the audience think the music is fantastic. People are looking at each other in amazement, but it’s in the school gym.”

The Vancouver–based company has three drugs in its pipeline — ifenprodil and repirinast for inflammatory disorders and the psychedelic compound DMT for ischemic stroke rehabilitation.

In late October, the company announced a research alliance with Yale University to explore using DMT in a Phase 2 depression study.

In a recent interview, Moreau shared details on its DMT focus, including its Yale partnership and its presence at Wonderland.

How did Algernon enter into a DMT research partnership with Yale?

Moreau: All of the psychedelic drugs that most people are familiar with — psilocybin, psilocin and DMT — are highly regulated. Even research scientists trying to get access to those compounds for drug development can struggle to access them. You have research-grade and clinical-grade cGMP material. Even getting access to research-grade materials that you would use in animals is difficult.

We found this out last year. When we launched our program, we reached out to a couple of our global contacts. One was in China. Another was in Canada, and there were a couple in the U.S. The Chinese company came back and said, ‘We can’t even use the name DMT in our communication. It’s completely forbidden.’ There was a university in the U.S., but it was not synthesizing enough quantity, and it was not cGMP. There were some companies in the U.S. and Europe, but they were already committed to other projects. Then, we got lucky. There was a manufacturer in Canada called Dalton Pharma. We entered into a contract with them in 2021. They had all the licenses to produce psychedelic compounds and had done a run of DMT for another company. We stepped up and said,…

Read the full story at: https://www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/why-algernon-believes-it-is-the-janis-joplin-of-psychedelic-medicine-companies/