In a move that aims to provide patients in Canada with the “life-changing opportunity” to receive psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, TheraPsil and Drug Science are collaborating to launch ‘Project Solace’.
Project Solace is a medical psilocybin access and data project aiming to inform the development of regulated psilocybin therapy. The project will be working to expand legal access to medical psilocybin for patients in Canada, and collect evidence documenting psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.
Using a real-world data registry, the non-profit organisations will be collaborating to collect anonymised data through Project Solace. The data will be provided to regulatory bodies, including Health Canada, to facilitate decision-making surrounding the regulatory system for the future of medicalised psilocybin.
Access to psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in Canada is currently only authorised through Canada’s Special Access Program (SAP) in emergency situations. The SAP is Health Canada’s preferred pathway, outside of clinical trials, for patients in medical need to access legal psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy and psilocybin for medical purposes.
TheraPsil, which is dedicated to advocating for patients in medical need of psilocybin and psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, and Drug Science, an independent scientific body on drugs in the UK, emphasise that the SAP is inaccessible to many patients, as:
- The SAP is limited to emergency situations where other treatments have been tried and failed.
- Accessing the SAP requires working through layers of bureaucracy and puts unfettered discretion in the hands of the government.
- Healthcare professionals who are proficient in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, and carry the confidence to request this treatment option, are few and far between.
Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London and founder and chair of Drug Science, David Nutt, stated: “The Canadian Special Access Program has the potential to provide thousands of Canadian patients with a life-changing opportunity to receive psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy from a team of trained medical professionals.
“The clinical trial procedure is not an appropriate process for many patients due to the severity of the conditions that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy attends to treat. Project Solace will be the largest database of prescribed psilocybin in the world and real-world data gathering helps us to understand how these drugs are affecting patients.”
A patient who has been able to access a psilocybin-based medical product with TheraPsil’s support, Thomas Hartle, commented: “Getting access to this proven treatment through the SAP is bittersweet for me. I am grateful to receive the treatment.
“However, the vast majority of Canadians who need this therapy do not have access to the level of professional support that TheraPsil provided to me, and that played such a great role in my SAP application being approved.”
Aims of the project
The project aims to expand legal access to psilocybin medicine for patients in Canada suffering from conditions such as end-of-life distress, Major Depressive Disorder and other serious conditions, which have failed to respond to traditional treatment options.
It also aims to develop a substantial body of evidence, using a real-world data registry, to document clinical effectiveness, safety and clinician and patient reported outcomes in patients who have received psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy through Canada’s Special Access Program (the SAP), or, under exemptions authorizing possession of psilocybin.
Through Project Solace, TheraPsil will support prescribing healthcare practitioners in Canada to feel confident and capable to request psilocybin-based medical products on behalf of their patients through the SAP.
As part of ensuring patient safety and treatment efficacy, TheraPsil will also identify and connect prescribing healthcare professionals with trained treatment therapy teams across Canada that will support patients in medical need through the facilitation of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.
Director of research at TheraPsil, Julia Joyes, Msc, highlighted: “The SAP represents a giant leap forward in our healthcare system, allowing unprecedented early access to medications that are clearly on the path to full Health Canada approval.
“This expanded access also presents an invaluable opportunity to collect real-world data on the use of psychedelic medicine in clinical practice.
“We should certainly cherish this opportunity.”
TheraPsil will help patients connect to prescribing healthcare professionals who can request cGMP psilocybin from licensed dealers enrolled in Project Solace – including HAVN Life Sciences, Filament Health and Psygen.
Project Solace plans to begin assisting patients in five primary regions in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, and plans to expand as additional treatment teams are onboarded.
The data will be released to licensed dealers enrolled in Project Solace and the general public.
Patients who consent to participate in Project Solace will complete standard healthcare questions at various points in their psilocybin-therapy journey.
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