A Canadian-based company recently received funding from Southern Research to help develop a mental health-related drug.
Diamond Therapeutics, which has a subsidiary registered in Alabama, is an early-stage therapeutics development company that focuses on drugs for neuropsychiatric and mental health conditions. The funding came from Southern Research's total investment of $2.5 million from its Therapeutic Development Fund into eight biotech companies.
Diamond’s current drug project is centered around psilocybin, a psychedelic compound found in mushrooms but doesn’t have hallucinogenic effects in low doses. The hypothesis Diamond Therapeutics scientists are hoping to prove is that low doses of this compound will have soothing effects for individuals with mental health issues.
"The kinds of drugs that we're looking at at Diamond are all based on serotonin neurotransmitters, and what that really means is a lot of molecules that bind to serotonin receptors, an important class in this case, are the psychedelics, so we're really trying to leverage all that's been recently discovered there,” said Jeffrey Sprouse, head of discovery at Diamond Therapeutics.
Judy Blumstock, co-founder and CEO of Diamond Therapeutics, said the funding from Southern Research is invaluable in aiding the process for obtaining FDA approval of the drug.
“We know that (the drug) works on serotonin receptors and other receptors as well, but exactly what they’re doing is still being investigated,” she said. “Funding like this that allows us to do projects that are very early stage is not easy to come by (and) money to prove these very early scientific hypotheses is crucial, so that’s what we’re the most grateful for.”
Diamond Therapeutics was first connected to Southern Research through William J. Tyler, who is the scientific adviser for Diamond and a professor of biomedical engineering at UAB. Both Blumstock and Sprouse have visited Birmingham numerous times and are impressed by the biotech and therapeutic industries here.
“The fact that there's a resource like Southern Research in the market is very, very unusual; not every jurisdiction has that,” Blumstock said. “What I've been impressed with is and what I wasn't aware of... is just the enormity of the research in the medical school; walking around the campus and just being wowed by the facilities – it's very impressive.”
Blumstock said raising funding for the development of mental health drugs isn’t as difficult as it used to be, largely because of the effects of Covid-19 on mental health awareness. Blumstock also referenced a statistic that mental health issues are 1.5 times more burdensome than all types of cancer combined, further supporting the need for more mental health-focused drugs in the market.
“The trend is now that people are investing in it and looking at it very seriously, which is such a big change from 10 years ago,” Blumstock said. "People are very open-minded to (psychedelic drugs) because I think they recognize that the existing drugs out there have issues, and for a lot of people, they don't get relief from their symptoms with the existing drugs.”
Sprouse said he is hoping to continue working with UAB and Southern Research to develop the psilocybin drug and gain FDA approval to eventually put it out on the market.
“It's kind of a perfect situation for us because there's a lot of expertise at UAB. It's a win-win whichever direction you look,” he said. "We're very appreciative to Alabama and very excited about the possibility of really establishing something significant here.
