In the Middle Ages, witches were prevalent in the West and used psychedelics to hallucinate people in order to control the faithful.
This is the conventional perception of psychedelics, but theoretically, psychedelics can also be used for the treatment of specific diseases, such as depression. For this reason, medical research on psychedelics has never stopped.
In 1938, in the Sandoz laboratory in Basel, Switzerland, a compound called lysergsaurediethylamid was born, which became an important point in the development of psychedelics.
Lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD for short, became a notorious psychedelic because of its extreme power, and was strictly controlled by countries all over the world.
However, over the past century, biotechnology companies have not stopped researching and developing LSD. Based on LSD research, even the birth of the public company MindBio (Mind Biotherapy).
However, this company, which hopes to bring people mind therapy, may not be in a beautiful mood itself. Since May this year, MindBio shares have repeatedly dropped, down more than 60%.
In recent years, more and more psychedelic-related research, especially in the mental mental illness effect of scientists, drug companies excited, but whether such substances can become drugs, still need time to test.
From the performance of MindBio, psychedelics this kind of thing, seems to be in scientific research "revitalization", but not "revitalization".
The king of psychedelic drugs
The first record of the hallucinogenic effects of LSD was made in 1943, in the person of its inventor, Dr. Albert Hoffman.
On April 16, 1943, Hoffman found that LSD opened the door to a new world after experiencing it himself.
After taking it, he developed a feeling of drunkenness, though there was no discomfort, just an unusually active brain. The most obvious point was that all sounds became visual signals. In his brain, every sound caused an illusion of color, and there was always a constant change of shape and color, like a kaleidoscope.
Hoffman then recorded: "There was a little bit of a pleasant, mythical wonderland feeling."
Indeed, with the benefit of hindsight, LSD is a particularly potent compound for hallucinogenic effects. Whereas other drugs are dosed in milligrams or grams, LSD requires only micrograms.
A single dose of 100 micrograms, equivalent to one-tenth the weight of a grain of sand, creates a fantasy feast that lasts six to twelve hours, as Hoffman did. That's why LSD is called the king of psychedelics.
Around 1950, British intelligence tried to use LSD and mescaline (a hallucinogen extracted from the American cactus) as "truth serums" to get their targets to tell the truth after falling into a state of hallucination.
Exploring Clinical as a Need
The use of poisons as medicines is not new, and many poisons have been born out of medical use. In recent years, more and more research has been done on psychedelics, and scientists and pharmaceutical companies are excited about the effects of psychedelics, especially in psychiatric disorders.
LSD has also seen a "renaissance" in scientific exploration. MindBio, mentioned above, is a pioneer in the current development of LSD. So what are the potential applications of LSD in clinical medicine?
According to MindBio's pipeline, it is broadly divided into two categories: clinical care for patients with mental diseases or tumors.
Of the psychiatric diseases, these include irritability, depression, etc. MindBio mainly attacks the field of depression. According to MindBio's clinical design, its main hope is to bring improvement to depressed patients at the objective and subjective levels.
On the objective side, it mainly focuses on indicators such as sleep quality; on the subjective side, it focuses on the patient's mood, including emotional dimensions such as "creativity" and "happiness".
So far, the clinical study has entered the phase 2 stage. The latest data show that it has made good progress in both subjective and objective indicators. For example, patients reported being less "angry" and less "irritable".
In addition to psychiatric disorders, MindBio is also advancing clinical trials for patients with advanced tumors who do not have psychiatric disorders. In MindBio's view, although patients with advanced tumors do not have psychiatric disorders, the pain of the disease will bring corresponding symptoms.
These disorders can significantly affect patient care, as they may bring about a tendency towards reduced adherence, prolonged hospitalization, and decreased quality of life. How to improve the quality of life of patients with advanced tumors is also one of the most challenging issues in medicine.
According to MindBio's vision, LSD can bring about effects in terms of elevated mood and improved sleep, which can be very beneficial for this vulnerable patient group. Currently, the clinic is also in phase 2.
It is also based on the expectations propped up by the said clinic that MindBio finally went public on the Canadian Stock Exchange in May this year.
However, for a biotech company, going public is not the end of the road; rather, the challenges have just begun.
Although it will take time to see if LSD can become a drug, the innovative drug industry needs more companies like MindBio. After all, for biotech, the core mission is to go deep into the "no man's land" exploration.
As for the drug itself, there is no good or bad, when abused, it may be poison, poison, but when applied in a scientific and rational way, it is a clinically valuable drug.
Only with the emergence of more and more such amazingly inspired enterprises can the entire industry's R&D and innovation capacity be pushed upward.
