Delix to synthesize psychedelic drugs
C&EN Global Enterprise October 4, 2021 Ryan Cross
A Boston-based start-up, Delix Therapeutics, has raised $70 million in series A financing to develop therapies inspired by psychedelics for neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. The company is part of a growing movement to repurpose recreational drugs into mainstream medicine, as psilocybin emerges as a promising experimental therapy for major depressive disorder. However, many clinical trials of psychedelics require trained psychotherapists to guide patients through drug-induced hallucinations. Delix aims to create psychedelic-inspired compounds that heal without hallucinations, an approach based on work from a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis whose 2018 study in animals showed that multiple compounds could promote neural plasticity without hallucinogenic effects.