Psilera Raises $2.5 Million with Oversubscribed Series Seed from Leading Institutional Investors to Accelerate Clinical Pipeline Focused on DMT
Psilera will utilize funding to submit an investigational new drug (IND) for transdermal delivery of DMT and establish clinical proof-of-concept, while bolstering its scientific and clinical team to further strengthen its drug pipeline
TAMPA, Fla., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Psilera Inc., formerly Psilera Bioscience ("Psilera"), a Florida-based biotechnology company specializing in the clinical development of psychedelics and analogues, has secured $2,500,000 in a non-brokered series of seed preferred funding (the "Financing"). The influx of funding was led by Iter Investments with participation from Baird Inc., JLS Fund, Receptor, What If Ventures, as well as the company's Founders and Board of Directors.
The Financing was raised through issuance of 4,354,633 shares of series seed preferred shares at a cost basis of $0.57 per share for total proceeds of $2,500,000 and will go toward key scientific and clinical personnel hires, research, and general working purposes.
"This capital will help us expand our team and fulfill our research targets as we innovate the next generation of mental health therapies," said Dr. Chris Witowski, Co-Founder and CEO of Psilera Bioscience. "We remain patient-focused in our approach and are excited to transition into the clinic to gather safety and tolerability data from our extended-release DMT patch while continuing to strengthen our robust IP portfolio."
In addition to working on new chemical entities, Psilera previously announced receiving DEA-approval to research N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), psilocybin, and psilocin with a major focus on patient-friendly administration types. Psilera has developed a patent-pending DMT transdermal patch to be assessed in a Phase 1b clinical trial with an investigational new drug (IND) filing anticipated in H2 2021. Transdermal administration can deliver drugs directly into the bloodstream and reduce DMT metabolism while providing steady, low-dose therapies.
Innovative delivery methods combined with DMT's short duration of action could lead to a revolutionary new line of psychiatric medicines. DMT is a natural compound produced by over 50 plants species and has even been found naturally in humans. It has several advantages over other more popular psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin:
- Humans do not appear to form a tolerance to DMT as they do with other psychoactive substances
- Shorten the time needed for in-patient psychedelic therapies
- One of the only psychedelics shown to maintain neurological activity at sub-psychedelic doses, called "microdoses"
Psilera's other research objectives include preclinical animal testing of its new chemical entities (NCEs) set to begin in Q3 2021. Psilera continues to build valuable intellectual property (IP) with its Bio-Receptor Activity Intelligence Network (BRAIN) spearheaded by Drs. Jackie von Salm and Bryce Allen, a proprietary dataset to identify NCEs with modified psychedelic and therapeutic effects. By leveraging this technology, Psilera will continue to build innovative computational drug screening methods in order to significantly shorten development timelines while amplifying the number of drug candidates for development. This will be a major catalyst for Psilera to efficiently optimize its drug pipeline into lead candidates for clinical development.
"We strongly believe in Psilera's core scientific expertise and their ground-breaking research," said Dustin Robinson, Managing Principal of Iter Investments. "The Iter Investments team has extensive experience in the drug development process, and we plan to fully leverage our knowledge and network of relationships to create further value for Psilera."
About Psilera Bioscience - Psilera Inc. is a psychedelic-based biotechnology company developing its proprietary neuromodulator pipeline to target central nervous system disorders. Psilera leverages research strengths with executives from the pharmaceutical and cannabis industries to repurpose psychoactive natural products like DMT as building blocks for next generation therapies to improve mental health in the areas of mood, cognitive, and substance use disorders.
Media Contact
Colin Trethewey, Psilera, 813.480.1354, [email protected]
SOURCE Psilera
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