Field Trip Archives - Green Market Report

Debra BorchardtMarch 15, 2023
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3min00

Field Trip Health & Wellness Ltd. (TSX-V: FTHW) (OTC: FTHWF) announced it is closing the Field Trip Health Centres located in Chicago, Washington DC, Seattle, San Diego, and Fredericton in an effort to reduce expenditures and preserve capital. The anticipated last day of operation for each of these locations will be on or around April 15, 2023.

The company said in a press release that clients in each of these locations will be receiving notice of clinic closures which will include, among other things, information on finding alternative care providers, how to access their medical records, and other information required by applicable laws and regulations.

Field Trip reported a few weeks ago that it hired a third-party consultant to review the business and suggest restructuring paths and cost cuts such as breaking leases and shuttering clinic locations, which have cost more money than they make.

Green Market Report wrote that Field Trip posted net revenue of $1.6 million for the quarter, up 23% over the year, though the company’s operating expenses totaled out to $8.1 million. The company wrote in its regulatory filing: “As of December 31, 2022, Field Trip H&W has not yet achieved profitable operations” and has a deficit of $48.7 million since its inception and $17.87 million worth of negative operating cash flows for the nine months leading up to the end of 2022.”

The company wrote at the time that it “expects to incur further losses in the development of its business, all of which creates a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

Field Trip said that the Independent Committee noted that there could be further cost reductions, restructuring, the potential sublease or closure of clinic locations, and settlement of lease obligations. The company said it does not intend to comment further on the Strategic Review, unless and until the Board has approved a specific course of action or otherwise determined that further disclosure is appropriate or required by law.


Debra BorchardtAugust 16, 2022
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4min00

Field Trip Health has changed its name to Reunion Neuroscience Inc. (TSX: FTRP)(Nasdaq: FTRP) and reported its fiscal first quarter 2023 results for the period ending June 30, 2022. Reunion reported expenses of $5 million and a net loss of $13 million. The increase in net loss from the prior year primarily reflected the company’s focus on investing in RE104 which recently began its Phase 1 clinical trial, as well as increased public company costs.

There are no revenues at this time. As of June 30, 2022, the company had approximately $52.3 million in unrestricted cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.

New Tickers

On August 11, 2022, The company completed its split of its Field Trip Discovery and Field Trip Health divisions into two independent companies. Field Trip Health, which is the clinic side of the company, was renamed Field Trip Health & Wellness Ltd. and has received listing approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture under the new ticker symbol “FTHW”.

Field Trip Discovery, which is the drug research side of the company, was renamed Reunion Neuroscience Inc. and will remain listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “REUN”. Immediately upon closing of the Arrangement, the Company consolidated its shares on a 5:1 basis, which is expected to cure the NASDAQ minimum bid price deficiency previously announced. The company said it also received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange for Field Trip H&W to list on the TSX-V under the ticker symbol “FTHW”. The first day of trading for both companies under their respective new tickers is August 17, 2022.

Reunion Research

Reunion’s lead drug is RE-104 (previously known as FT-104) and it is a proprietary, novel psychedelic drug being developed for post-partum and treatment-resistant depression as a potential fast-acting antidepressant with durable efficacy. Reunion is also developing the FT-200 series, which includes compounds with the potential for more selective serotonin receptor activity with reduced psychoactivity for potential use in more chronic treatment paradigms and indications.

On July 21, 2022, announced successful first dosings in the company’s Phase 1 Clinical Study of its first novel psychedelic molecule, RE104 (formerly FT-104), being conducted in Australia. Reunion said it expects to report results from the study in the calendar fourth quarter of 2022 and is planning to seek FDA guidance on Phase 2 studies planned for 2023. During the quarter, the company was granted a patent for claims related to RE104 entitled, “Tryptamine Prodrugs”. The patent provides exclusive rights to Reunion until 2040 for the composition of matter, formulations, methods of use and methods of manufacture for a family of hemi-ester compounds of hydroxytryptamines, including Isoprocin.

Joseph del Moral, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Reunion, said, “We are pleased to have successfully completed the split of Field Trip into two distinct companies – Reunion and Field Trip Health & Wellness. As independent companies, each will be laser-focused on executing their own strategic vision and investment priorities, and creating long-term value for their respective shareholders. The future is bright for both businesses and each is excited to continue developing and delivering innovative psychedelic-assisted treatment options.”


Dave HodesJuly 14, 2022
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8min00

The psychedelics industry today has focused mostly on finding, patenting, and taking to clinical trials some version of a psychedelic substance. 

But now that these substances are going deeper into clinical trials than ever before, the goals that researchers are working to achieve within a relatively straightforward biotech development cycle are to make psychedelics less “out there,” and transition them into more reliable and available mental health wellness treatment they are meant to be.

Here’s a look at three goals that researchers are working on now as the next phase of psychedelics development begins.

  1. Timing the good. The length of time of a psychedelic experience can vary widely from psychedelic to psychedelic. The effects of psilocybin can be felt in about 30 minutes and can last up to 8 hours. MDMA begins to come on within 20 minutes after ingestion, peaks at two hours, and lasts about 3-6 hours. Ibogaine affects the user within two hours and can last up to 48 hours. The entire powerful DMT experience begins and ends within 25 minutes. So far, the only way to control the length of the effect is by taking less of the substance. That’s why microdosing has become popular—taking just five to 10 percent of a full dose of psilocybin or LSD—limiting how long the effect lasts. Even at these small doses, the psychedelic still does the good that the user wants. Using neuroimaging technology, researchers have shown changes in brain activity and connectivity after single small doses of LSD that are similar to what’s seen with larger amounts of the drug. And a study published in “Neuropsychopharmacology” found that a microdose of psilocybin activated nearly half of the specific type of serotonin receptors that psychedelics act on to produce their hallucinogenic effects. But researchers caution more work is needed to determine what a good microdose level is based on the psychedelic used, the weight of the person using it, the functional level they want to maintain, and other factors.
  2. Engineering out the bad. The actual psychedelic experience has been described as creating moments of terror, high anxiety, ego-dissolution, mystical experiences—all of which become a barrier for people who don’t want to experience an unexpected nightmare on their way to better mental health wellness. Researchers are fixing that. One example: Researchers working with ibogaine to find ways to reduce its toxicity, hallucinogenic potential, and proclivity for inducing cardiac arrhythmias, have identified the key structural elements of its potential therapeutic molecule. They were able to engineer tabernanthalog (TBG)—a water soluble, non-hallucinogenic, non-toxic analog of ibogaine that can be prepared in a single step. They discovered that TBG promoted structural neural plasticity, reduced alcohol- and heroin-seeking behavior, and produced antidepressant-like effects in rodents. “This work demonstrates that through careful chemical design, it is possible to modify a psychedelic compound to produce a safer, non-hallucinogenic variant with therapeutic potential,” the researchers concluded. One company working on creating a non-hallucinogenic psychedelic, Delix Therapeutics, says these products offer the potential to democratize access to life-altering medicines by removing the liabilities of traditional psychedelics, according to Delix CEO Mark Rus in an interview with “Technology Networks.”

“This approach will address a number of those scalability issues by allowing people to have the option of a potentially safer, effective novel psychoplastogen (non-hallucinogenic psychedelic compound) therapeutic in their medicine cabinet.”

  1. Bringing it home. Set and setting are critical to a successful psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy session. But bringing someone into a lab-like setting with two strangers hovering over them while they are incapacitated for hours can work against the mind-calming effects that the session hopes to attain. Field Trip Health (NASDAQ: FTRP) is one of the psychedelic companies changing all that. Working together with a telehealth company, Nue Life, Field Trip offers 1 month, at-home ketamine treatments available in 10 states. Their six ketamine sessions includes four virtual group integration sessions and one health coaching session. Another company, MindBloom, was launched in 2019 as one of the first mental health and wellness platforms in psychedelic telemedicine. Each of their ketamine patients is paired with a psychiatric clinician and a psychedelic guide working with them virtually at home through six sessions. These early psychedelic telemedicine companies are just beginning to show promise, though whether psychedelic telemedicine can work with psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA is still questionable.

Debra BorchardtApril 29, 2022
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7min00

Field Trip Health Ltd. (NASDAQ: FTRP) announced that its board approved a reorganization that will result in the separation of its Field Trip Discovery and Field Trip Health divisions into two independent public companies. Field Trip Discovery will be renamed Reunion Neuroscience Inc. and Field Trip Health will be renamed Field Trip Health and Wellness Ltd. Each share of the company will be exchanged for one common share of Reunion and approximately 0.86 common shares of Field Trip H&W. Following the transaction, Reunion will remain listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and Toronto Stock Exchange, and Field Trip H&W, subject to exchange approval, will list on the TSX Venture Exchange.

As the split is finalized, Field Trip H&W is expected to complete financings for gross proceeds of approximately C$20 million led by Oasis Management Company and the company. the split is the result of a decision in November 2021 to review the corporate structure.

Strategic Rationale for the Transaction

The company’s management believes that division makes sense for both companies.  Both Field Trip H&W and Reunion will have separate and focused management and governance best suited to each company’s operational and strategic needs. They will be able to establish distinct capital structures and capital allocation plans matched to the unique strategies and requirements of each company. Maintain current strategic synergies through a Collaboration Agreement, which will provide access to data, assistance in protocol development, preferential access to clinical trial sites, and other benefits and provide differentiated investment characteristics and focused investment.

Joseph del Moral, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented “Over the course of the last three years, we have built two leading companies in the emerging psychedelic industry under a single roof. This strategy has enabled us to develop practical knowledge and operational expertise in psychedelic therapies, as well as one of the most innovative drug development programs in the sector. The results of our strategic review confirmed that both parts of Field Trip are ready to be independent, standalone companies, in a separation that we believe maximizes the long-term value of each business. Importantly, the strategic synergy that underlies our original strategy will be maintained through a mutually beneficial Collaboration Agreement. We believe this is an exciting path to continue the growth of both businesses and provides our shareholders with two distinct investment theses.”

Field Trip H&W

Ronan Levy will lead Field Trip H&W as Chief Executive Officer and Mujeeb Jafferi will serve as President. Mr. Levy currently serves as Executive Chairman, and Mr. Jafferi serves as Chief Operating Officer, of Field Trip Health Ltd., respectively.

Levy said, “Since the opening of our first clinic in Toronto in 2020, we’ve been focused on developing and implementing ketamine and psilocybin assisted therapy protocols as effective treatment options for depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions. Upon completion of the Transaction, our focus will shift to scaling access so that anyone seeking treatment can safely, consciously and responsibly access psychedelic therapies. This new focus will reduce capital requirements, maximize the impact of our existing twelve locations, support new people through the launch of Field Trip at Home™ and better leverage our digital tools to reach a much larger audience.”

Field Trip H&W’s strategic focus post-Transaction will include:

  • operating its 12 Field Trip Health Centers offering psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy treatment programs, including Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) in Canada and the USA and Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) in the Netherlands.
  • launching its new offering Field Trip at Home™, a digital at-home KAP program powered by Nue Life, allowing increased accessibility and scalability for Field Trip H&W’s therapies without significant capital investment.

Reunion

Reunion will continue to operate the drug discovery division focused on research and the development of its novel molecule, FT-104, and other molecules under development, including the FT-200 series. The Company believes that FT-104 has completed the necessary non-clinical and preclinical studies necessary to enable Phase 1 study and has submitted documentation, including a Phase 1 protocol for ethics review in Australia where the Phase 1 study will be performed. Pending successful review, the Company expects that the study will start before the end of the first half of 2022 and may be completed before year-end. The FT-200 Group remains a burgeoning project with a platform for candidate synthesis and evaluation, some identified candidates, and initial intellectual property positions. Candidates in the FT-200 Group are demonstrating interesting pharmacological differences with classical psychedelics that may make them safer serotonin 2A agonists with broader use potential in mental healthcare.


Dave HodesApril 19, 2022
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8min00

The year 2021 has not been kind to the psychedelics industry. The stock performances of the 60 publicly traded psychedelics companies on the Psychedelic Stock Index have been trending steadily downward since February 22, 2021, to their lowest point since the index began on June 1, 2020.

The pandemic has definitely affected psychedelic business development. Nevertheless, a few companies are getting closer to offering products and expanding therapy services. So a looming perfect storm of more psychedelic companies laying the groundwork for further development may encourage a business rebound in 2022.

Here are our picks for the five psychedelic companies to watch in 2022:

Atai Life Sciences, Berlin, Germany – listed on NASDAQ (ATAI) since July, 2021 – Market cap $999 million

Atai Life Sciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to transform the treatment of mental health disorders, is also one of the largest shareholders in Compass Pathways. In December, 2021, Atai Impact, launched in October, 2021 as the philanthropic program of Atai Life Sciences, announced its first major initiative, the establishment of the Atai $2 million Fellowship Fund in Psychedelic Neuroscience in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics. The company also entered into a series of joint ventures and acquisitions in 2021, including with Psyber, a globally based startup focused on the development of brain-computer interface-enabled digital therapeutics for treating mental health issues. What’s coming in 2022: In January, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave Atai Investigational New Drug (IND) clearance to conduct a clinical study of ketamine. Atai plans to initiate the study early this year through its platform company Perception Neuroscience.

Compass Pathways, London, England – listed on NASDAQ (CMPS) since September 2020 – Market cap $751 million

Compass Pathways is a mental health care company dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health. Compass has completed a phase IIb clinical trial of psilocybin therapy for treatment resistant depression in 22 sites across Europe and North America, one of the largest randomized, controlled, double-blind psilocybin therapy clinical trial ever conducted. Compass is also running a phase II clinical trial of COMP360 psilocybin therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  What’s coming in 2022: The company is preparing for a meeting with the FDA in early 2022 to finalize a program using their psilocybin therapy, and anticipates commencing that program late in 2022.

 

Cybin, Toronto, Ontario, CNlisted on NYSE (CYBN) since August 2021 – Market cap $192 million

Cybin is a leading biotechnology company focused on progressing psychedelic therapeutics by utilizing proprietary drug discovery platforms, innovative drug delivery systems, novel formulation approaches and treatment regimens for psychiatric disorders. It was the first psychedelics company to trade on the NYSE in August, 2021. The company has raised just over $96 million to date to fund clinical trials, M&A and IP strategies. What’s coming in 2022: In October 26, 2021, the FDA authorized an IND application to proceed with the company’s sponsored feasibility study using Kernel’s Flow technology to measure ketamine’s psychedelic effect on cerebral cortex hemodynamics (brain flow blood). Kernel Flow uses pulsed light instead of continuous wave light to increase measured brain information. Kernel Flow is a wearable device the size and look of a bicycle helmet. In the future, it could be more broadly used for neuroscientific or physiological studies of brain activity during psychedelic use.

 

Field Trip Health, Toronto, CN – listed on NASDAQ (FTRP) since July 2021 – Market cap $149 million

Field Trip does research and development on novel, psychedelic-inspired regulated medicines, and operates clinics that deliver ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in Canada and the United States. Field Trip currently operates and/or owns nine clinics in Toronto, Ontario; Fredericton, 

New Brunswick; New York, New York; Santa Monica, California; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. What’s coming in 2022: The company is planning to build an additional nine Field Trip Health Centers in Vancouver, British Columbia; San Diego, California; Washington, DC; Stamford, Connecticut; San Carlos, California; Austin, Texas; Scottsdale, Arizona; Dallas, Texas; and Miami, Florida. On January, 2022, Field Trip announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a Notice of Allowance for Field Trip’s patent application for their first novel psychedelic molecule in development. Field Trip expects the patent to be issued in February, 2022.

 

MindMed, New York, NY – listed on NASDAQ (MNMD) since April 2021. Market cap $357 million.

MindMed is a clinical-stage biotech company that seeks to discover, develop and deploy psychedelic-inspired medicines and therapies to address mental health and addiction. What’s coming in 2022: On January 4, 2022, the company announced the completion of its Phase 1 clinical trial of 18-MC, the company’s non-hallucinogenic proprietary derivative of ibogaine, being developed for the treatment of indications linked to opioid use disorder. This phase 1 single and multiple ascending dose trial conducted at a single clinical research site in Perth, Australia, evaluated the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and effects on the cognitive activity of 18-MC in healthy volunteers. The trial was completed in December 2021 with results expected in early 2022.

Sources: Company SEC filings; Yahoo! Finance; Psychedelic Stock Index; company websites and press releases


Dave HodesApril 5, 2022
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8min00

Most people in the psychedelics industry believe that the growing superstar of psychedelic medicines is psilocybin—the “psychedelic du jour” as one scientist put it to Psychedelia.

But ketamine is quickly changing that perception.

Ketamine was introduced to the market in 1970 as a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved anesthetic after clinical trials that began following its formulation in 1962. More than 20,000 research papers have been published on ketamine since 1965, mostly about its use as an anesthetic, according to a study

From the 1970s through the 1990s, ketamine usage increased both medically and recreationally.

In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, ketamine began to show evidence as an effective antidepressant. Since 2006, 225 random controlled trials, 51 meta-analyses, and more than 565 reviews have reported on ketamine’s effectiveness at alleviating refractory depression and anxiety, and more recently, suicidality and pain management.

Ketamine is also being investigated for use with eating disorders (though researchers say that more empirical research is needed).

The biggest advantage of ketamine is that it is generally believed to be an FDA-approved drug for psychedelic therapy. But an FDA alert issued in February stated that ketamine is not FDA-approved for the treatment of any psychiatric disorder, blurring the understanding of exactly how it should be used. 

However, the “S” form of ketamine, which is derived from ketamine and known as Johnson and Johnson’s Spravato (esketamine), is a Schedule III controlled substance that was approved by FDA in 2019 as a nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression in adults, and depressive symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder with acute suicidal ideation or behavior.

What’s more, questions about the efficacy of ketamine have arisen from research that suggests ketamine use can create psychiatric, cardiovascular, neurological, and other side effects. 

But those issues haven’t stopped its growing popularity as a treatment for depression and other neurological disorders. It makes ketamine a target for more research. And that is happening.

For example, in November 2021, Yale Department of Psychiatry researchers were awarded a $2 million grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research to conduct a clinical trial of ketamine to treat depression in people with Parkinson’s disease. It is the first investigation of ketamine as an antidepressant in a neurological disorder.

Research and development activities for ketamine companies is on the rise as well.

PharmaTher (OTCQB: PHRRF) (CSE: PHRM), created to develop and commercialize specialty ketamine pharmaceuticals for mental health, is planning a Phase 3 clinical study to allow for FDA approval of Ketarx, their ketamine treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

Seelos Therapeutics (US:SEEL) is currently pursuing a two-part Phase 2 clinical trial for intranasal delivery of ketamine, with results expected in December 2022.

Atai Life Sciences N.V. (Nasdaq: ATAI), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced in January that the FDA has given Investigational New Drug (IND) clearance to conduct a clinical study of ketamine. Atai plans to initiate the study early this year through its platform company, Perception Neuroscience.

Field Trip Health, (NASDAQ: FTRP) the largest provider of psychedelic-assisted therapies in Canada, continues to open ketamine clinics for therapeutic use across the U.S. and Canada, with the goal of opening up to 75 ketamine clinics by 2023 to join Field Trip clinics that are already operating in such locations as downtown New York and Los Angeles (both cities also have multiple private ketamine therapy businesses not associated with Field Trip). 

Field Trip began operations in March 2020. They recently applied to the Canadian government to legally use psilocybin and MDMA-assisted therapies under Canada’s Special Access Program.

The use of ketamine as a fast-acting antidepressant in treatment-resistant patients has boosted the interest in the mechanism of action both in psychiatry and in the wider area of neuroscience. “Ketamine can make a genuine leap forward in the therapy of depression,” a study concluded. “Its clear effectiveness in reducing symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation, either after a single administration, or especially when administered repeatedly in addition to another antidepressant, is an extremely promising factor in the treatment of depression. Furthermore, research on new molecules designed to reproduce the rapid and sustained antidepressant effects of ketamine, without its adverse effects, allows us to assume that a new era in the pharmacology of antidepressants has already begun.”


Dave HodesMarch 2, 2022
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8min00

A psychedelic experience can be very gratifying, and indeed, profoundly life-changing. As the demand grows for having such an experience, new ways to go on that journey in a safe and complete manner outside of a clinical trial have emerged.

These are not the psychedelic retreats in places like The Netherlands and Jamaica and other vacation-destination places where psychedelic experience seekers spend three or more days and pay thousands for the journey they want to go on with psychedelics in what is essentially an exotic vacation with a twist for the well-heeled.

Now there are better, more convenient ways to take that profound journey at home. Anybody who wants to can now find a different sort of psychedelic experience, in a more cost-effective way than a retreat—safe and comfortable at home, monitored by a team of medical specialists, and directed before and after their experience via online consultations.

Call it a new take on set and setting, which is the hypothesis that the effects of psychedelic drugs are dependent first and foremost upon set (personality, preparation, expectation, and intention of the person having the experience) and setting (the physical, social, and cultural environment in which the experience takes place). 

Set and setting have become a more critical part of the psychedelic experience than when the concept was invented by psychedelics guru Timothy Leary in the 1960s. Current research suggests that these nonpharmacological effects are responsible for a major part, if not a majority, of therapeutic benefits in a variety of accepted drug treatments.

One company providing this new type of psychedelic experience is Las Vegas-based Better U, offering ketamine treatment, functional medicine, proprietary treatment protocols, and integration within the comfort of your own home, guided by a team of psychiatrists, therapists and psychedelic medicine experts.

The Better U team guides the experiencer through thinking about what they want to accomplish, with online information to get someone ready for the experience, and for what they should expect after the experience. 

The process is called a “mental health reset,” starting with a free assessment followed by an online visit with a doctor to setup a custom treatment program. 

The at-home ketamine treatment session begins after ketamine is delivered to the home that will be self-administered. The team then follows a treatment preparation process designed for that person based on what they said they want to accomplish and follows up with post-session integration. 

Better U offers two choices for the at-home psychedelic experience: The four treatment introduction for $149 per treatment; and the 8 treatment complete program for $129 per treatment.

Another company, Mindbloom headquartered in New York, follows a similar online model using ketamine with a slightly different treatment and followup structure. Pricing is $99 a month for 6 treatments for new clients, which includes psychiatric clinician consults, and 3 guide sessions; or $58 a month for returning clients that also includes 6 ketamine treatments and a psychiatric clinician consult.

If you really want to do it simpler—and a bit riskier because there is no one overseeing you—you can use the Trip app, a mobile app from Toronto-based Field Trip Psychedelics (NASDAQ: FTRP) available for both Android and iPhone devices. 

The app allows people from anywhere in the world to access tools that support self-exploration and consciousness expansion through meditation, breathwork, and more. 

A user starts a “trip” at the touch of a button and breaks the experience into four stages: Preparation, Exploration, Reflection, and Integration. It is designed to help the users start the working of emotional processing and integration of what they experience in their consciousness expansion efforts.

The app supports users with intention setting, mood tracking, guided journaling and integration, and personalized music that has been designed to help guide them through emotions associated with different intentions. 

Trip is designed to assist self-guided consciousness explorers to expand their minds, break from everyday thinking and develop a deeper connection to their emotions and psyche. 

The Trip app does not specify which psychedelic substance a user should be doing, nor does it encourage a user to be using a psychedelic while on the app. Instead it guides users through a set of structured questions to share and reflect on key insights or emotions that may have emerged during a trip, encourages the emotional processing to begin, and enables users to revisit their experiences and develop insights by aggregating data from recent trips.

On the surface, while these new at-home tools and techniques for getting more people access to psychedelics seem to be simply about convenience, they actually go much further into advancing psychedelics and mental health treatment. 

The concept of set and setting can be crucial not only for psychedelic research but also for advancing drug research and developing more effective drug policy. 

As noted in one study about set and setting, studying the ways nondrug factors shape the effects of drugs both inside the lab as well as outside it “can significantly contribute to our understanding of the ways drugs act in the real world and allow us to make strides by focusing not only on the science of psychopharmacology, but also on the art of using psychopharmacological agents, thereby optimizing their patterns of use.”


StaffFebruary 15, 2022
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3min00

Field Trip Health Ltd. (NASDAQ: FTRP) reported its third fiscal quarter 2022 results for the three months ending December 31, 2021 and gave a business update. Field Trip reported that it had earned patient services revenues of $1,360,811, an increase of 50% over the prior quarter and 330% year over year. The company also noted that it had approximately $74.5 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments at the end of 2021.

The company also delivered a net loss for the third fiscal quarter of $14 million, which the company attributed to total operating costs of $15 million of which $2 million was related to non-cash share-based compensation and $1 million was related to non-cash depreciation and amortization and a foreign exchange loss $479,255. The company noted that this compares with a net loss of $8,275,669 in the third fiscal quarter of 2021. The increase from the prior year primarily reflects the company’s focus on growing the business and continued investment in its drug development pipeline and best-in-class clinic infrastructure.

Vicki Reed, Chief Growth Officer, said, “Since joining Field Trip, we have implemented a number of marketing and client acquisition strategies to increase conversion. The effects of these changes, along with our strong organic engagement, have led to positive growth trends and a significant improvement in our client conversions through digital acquisition channels. We achieved this despite the ongoing effect of COVID-19 along with what is typically a seasonally slower quarter. We expect to see continued improvement in our marketing efficiency and revenue growth in the coming quarters.”

New Clinics

Third fiscal quarter 2021 patient services revenues were generated from three clinics, Toronto, New York, and Santa Monica. The quarter-over-quarter revenue increase was in part due to the three additional clinics as compared to the prior quarter. During the quarter, Field Trip opened clinics in Seattle, Washington, Fredericton, New Brunswick, and San Diego, California. Subsequent to the quarter, the Company announced the opening of its Vancouver, BC and Washington DC locations. The Company’s focus on operational improvements, together with the effects of COVID, impacted the timing of the construction of our remaining clinics and the Company is evaluating the timing and scope of its expansion strategy as part of its previously announced strategic review.

During the quarter, Field Trip progressed its strategy of building the leading psychedelic therapy company through its Field Trip Health division and continued to invest in its lead drug development program through its Field Trip Discovery division with FT-104, and its pipeline expansion, currently under the heading of FT-200 Group (Field Trip Discovery), while conducting activities associated with the Strategic Review.


Debra BorchardtJanuary 11, 2022
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4min00

Field Trip Health Ltd. (NASDAQ: FTRP) announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for Field Trip’s patent application No. 17/364,047 for claims related to FT-104 (informally known as “Isoprocin Glutarate”), Field Trip’s first novel psychedelic molecule in development. FT-104 is being developed as a more efficient treatment with the experience lasting less than four hours. It has a potency and pharmacology similar to psilocybin and the cost and accessibility are also better with this compound. Claims in the allowed patent application titled, “Tryptamine Prodrugs”, cover the composition of matter, use, and manufacturing of a family of hemi-ester compounds of hydroxytryptamines, including FT-104.

Dr. Nathan Bryson, Field Trip’s Chief Science Officer said in a statement, “Since inception, the strategy at Field Trip for our first development project was to create a novel drug substance that could produce a consistent trip time, in the range of three hours. We achieved this by combining a novel prodrug strategy to make demonstrable improvements on a known class of psychedelic substances. To further de-risk the project, we filed a Track One U.S. patent application on June 30, 2021, in order to accelerate the decision by examiners and achieve allowance, and granting, as early as possible in the development process. We are elated that the USPTO has formally allowed our patent application within seven months of filing and are now poised to continue development of FT-104 knowing that we have a robust intellectual property position to build on.”

Notices of Allowance are issued by the USPTO after it has thoroughly examined a patent application to ensure it complies with all requirements under United States patent law. This includes a rigorous evaluation to confirm that the claimed subject material is both novel and non-obvious with respect to prior art. The formal granting of the patent will occur in a subsequent administrative step.

FT-104 is a more soluble, more stable prodrug form of 4-hydroxy-N,N-diisopropyltryptamine (4-HO-DiPT or “Isoprocin”). The psychedelic compound, 4-HO-DiPT, was previously synthesized by Alexander (Sasha) Shulgin, a chemist and psychopharmacologist, who not only self-administered many of the substances he made but also reported their psychoactive effects in the collective works called “Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved,” or TIHKAL for short. In his works, Shulgin stated: “​​I truly doubt that there is another psychedelic drug, anywhere, that can match [4-HO-DiPT] for speed, intensity, brevity, and sensitive to dose, at least one that is active orally,” adding that “To be on a trip, then to be back pretty much in two hours and really baseline in another hour? Most unusual. If there will ever be an acceptance of drugs such as these, in a psychotherapeutic context, a short duration is of extreme value to both the patient and the therapist.”

Joseph del Moral, Field Trip’s CEO added: “We designed FT-104 to provide a more convenient, practical, and consistent experience while retaining the characteristics of a classical serotonin psychedelic. These aspects are important therapeutic and commercial differentiators which may truly separate FT-104 from psilocybin for clinical operators and for patients seeking psychedelic psychotherapy.”


Julie AitchesonMay 20, 2021
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The results of Field Trip Health Ltd.’s (OTC: FTRPF) first annual “State of Mind” survey hold few surprises for those who have followed the news around the effects of the pandemic on mental health. Field Trip Health is the largest provider of psychedelic therapies in the world and initiated this survey to look into the state of mental and emotional health in the U.S., and to get a sense of how receptive respondents are towards incorporating psychedelics into treatment. 

Though there have been positive stories about those who took time to reconnect with family, enjoy a slower pace of life, and exercise more during the Covid crisis, over eight out of ten Americans surveyed by Field Trip reported at least one symptom of depression. This contrasts with the 76 percent of respondents who self-identified their mental health as “good” or better, which demonstrates a possible lack of understanding around the metrics of mental health and as well as a disparity between those metrics and self-perception. Younger Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 posted the highest results in self-reported symptoms of depression, while only 10 percent of those 65 years and older reported the same. Out of all respondents surveyed, a striking 1 in 4 reported that they have felt that they would be better off dead or thought of injuring themselves. 

Field Trip’s survey also revealed that while a substantial number of respondents (42%) are relying on the support of a therapist, counselor, or other mental health professionals for support, many Americans have turned to drugs and other vices as coping mechanisms to deal with negative thoughts or emotions. Those mechanisms include alcohol (with 37% reporting increased consumption since the pandemic began), porn, overeating, and gambling. The use of prescription medications and opioids increased as well. The survey also revealed that women were more likely than men to indicate negative mental health states and appear to have borne the brunt of negative mental health outcomes during the pandemic in addition to (and no doubt compounded by) the negative impacts on their professional and financial security.

While the survey results might not have been encouraging as far as the current state of mental health in the U.S. is concerned, it was optimistic regarding the role psychedelics might play in addressing the fallout from the last fifteen months of pandemic stress. Despite the fact that 70 percent of Americans reported never having tried psychedelics, a full 37 percent would support the use of psychedelic-assisted therapies after a description of the process, 24% would be open to trying those therapies, and 23% of respondents were curious to learn more about them. With more states making moves to legalize the use of psychedelics for the treatment of mental illnesses including PTSD and other trauma-related disorders, the receptivity to psychedelics as a therapeutic adjunct reported by Field Trip suggests that when those therapies become available, there will be a sizable population ready to seek them out.

 


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