MindMed, owners of addiction-treating 18-MC, and Broadway Gold (BRD.V) announce definite arrangement for RTO

MindMed, owners of the iboga-related 18-MC drug, is going public after firming up its reverse take-over of Broadway Gold Mining (BRD.V).

The company has attracted the likes of Bruce Linton, founder of Canopy Growth (WEED.T). MindMed intends to address the opioid crisis with a drug derived from the psychedelic African iboga shrub.

The drug, called 18-MC, is non-psychedelic and will soon be entering phase II FDA clinical trials, according to MindMed.

According to the press release, MindMed’s “immediate priority is to address the opioid crisis by developing a non-hallucinogenic version of the psychedelic ibogaine. MindMed recently raised $6.2M from investors including Linton and Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank fame.

We covered MindMed and a bevy of other psychedelic companies in our writeup of Cambridge House’s XFuture event in September. Instead of offering a service-based model where patients are administered ibogaine under doctor supervision, a costly procedure, 18-MC would be prescribed and taken home like medical cannabis.

Opioid use disorder affects the body’s ability to regulate dopamine levels, lowering the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter’s baseline when opioids aren’t being used.

Lower dopamine levels from drug abuse can cause depression and other effects which make an individual dependent on opioids to simply feel ‘normal.’

“What we hope to prove with 18-MC is that we can bring the baseline dopamine level up again and modulate it so you don’t crave the high anymore,” said JR Rahn, co-founded of MindMed.

A study out of Albany Medical College in New York found both ibogaine and 18-MC “decreases the intravenous self-administration of morphine and cocaine and the oral self-administration of ethanol and nicotine in rats.”

But Rahn said MindMed acquired 18-MC from Savant Addiction Medicine to circumvent the regulatory issues which ibogaine would likely face.

When ibogaine is administered to treat drug dependence, typically as single one-time dose [], patients commonly report sustained resolution of the withdrawal syndromes within 12–18 h, and a reduction in drug craving for prolonged time periods up to several weeks…The sudden death of a female patient, however, dampened further interest, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), critically advised by pharmaceutical industry consultants, opted not to fund additional human studies in 1995.

The Anti-Addiction Drug Ibogaine and the Heart: A Delicate Relation

Ibogaine “decreases heart rate at high doses,” according to the Albany Medical College study, and can cause heart arrhythmia.

The substance abuse treatment market is preducted to reach USD$12.43B by 2024, according to Transparency Market Research, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 12.40% between 2016 to 2024.

MindMed and Broadway’s RTO is still subject to exchange approval. Broadway’s title and interest in the Broadway and Madison mine in Montana will be spun out into another resource-focused corporation.

 

–Ethan Reyes

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