If psychedelics IP is your thing this is a good read…Here’s the introduction
One of the leading companies racing to develop psychedelics as legal medicines was granted a patent last week for a formulation of psilocybin — the hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms — a decision that highlights the increasingly intense battle around intellectual property for potential medicines in this rapidly growing sector.
This is Compass Pathways’ fourth U.S. patent, but its first for a form of psilocybin the company isn’t using in its clinical trials on treatment-resistant depression. The patent works to “expand their intellectual property kingdom,” said Mason Marks, senior fellow and project lead on the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation at Harvard Law School: “Like a landlord would want to expand and buy more properties, they’re trying to lock up as much IP as they can to solidify their position in the market.”
The patent, which covers a form of synthetic psilocybin known as “Form A hydrate” and methods of producing it, is useful to Compass as a way to restrict competitors who may be working with a different form of psilocybin. If another company creates psilocybin using that particular structure, then Compass will now have grounds to block them.
“I have no doubts the reasons behind this are to protect a competitive position around psilocybin,” said Graham Pechenik, patent attorney and founder of Calyx Law. The latest patent decision is likely to be challenged by those who believe that Form A hydrate is not new, and so cannot be patented.
Compass defended its decision to seek a patent for its formulation. “As always we’re expecting challenges,” said Compass’s co-founder and president Lars Christian Wilde. “We believe what we’ve found is novel and inventive. … We’re confident in our IP strategy.”
Read full article https://www.statnews.com/2021/10/26/psilocybin-patent-highlights-swirling-battle-over-psychedelics-intellectual-property/
