Filament Health has been issued two new patents for the extraction and standardisation of natural psilocybin and associated psychedelic compounds.
Clinical-stage natural psychedelic drug development company Filament Health has had its latest patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The patents describe technology for transforming variable psychedelic raw materials into pharmaceutical-grade, standardised drug candidates. The company has confirmed that its IP portfolio now consists of ten patents for methods of extracting and standardising natural psychedelic compounds.
Director of Intellectual Property at Filament Health, Taran Grey, stated: “When Filament was founded, conventional wisdom held that producing stable psilocin was impossible.
“We have since been granted patent protection for successful production of psilocin at all stages of manufacture: from extraction to purification to standardisation and beyond. For example, our latest issued patents around non-ingestive administration are demonstrable evidence of our team’s talent for innovation.
“The fact that we have never had a patent application denied, compared to the industry average of a less than 50% success rate, is further validation of this talent.”
In 2021, Filament was issued the first-ever patent for the extraction and standardisation of natural psilocybin. Since then, the Company has been issued a total of five patents by the USPTO and five by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.
The company’s extraction of standardised, natural psilocin – a molecule that is typically unstable – will be used in FDA-approved human trials.
Filament Health, which says that “natural extraction is the best way to tap into the drug discovery potential of psychedelic species”, is aiming to create pharmaceutical-grade drug candidates from natural compounds rather than synthesising new molecules.
The company recently announced that it has created pharmaceutical-grade ayahuasca -an Amazonian brew made of
Speaking to The Star, CEO of Filament Health, Ben Lightburn, stated that he hopes the company’s pharmaceutical-grade ayahuasca will enable researchers to conduct clinical trials and that the company is working toward FDA-approved trial next year.
He told the publication: “…what’s interesting about that is that the FDA has what’s called a ‘botanical drug pathway.’ So when you’re making a drug based on a natural substance that’s been in traditional use, you can actually use the historical evidence for the safety and efficacy of that particular botanical substance in support of your application.”
