Psychedelics Company Raises $100 Million in Push To Legalize Selling MDMA for PTSD

A key player in the competitive pharmaceutical psychedelics industry has raised over $100 million to fund a final push to get government approval to legally sell MDMA in the U.S. to those struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.  

The nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, raised the money in a Series A funding round through a subsidiary previously known as the MAPS Public Benefit Corporation, or MAPS PBC. In a release on Friday announcing the news of the cash infusion, the organization also said it was renaming the public benefit company Lykos Therapeutics.

Lykos is part of a growing number of players in the industry racing to get money as they push to get legal psychedelic drugs to market. Last month, the organization submitted an application to the FDA that included data from a series of clinical trials related to the use of MDMA for PTSD. The federal agency is currently deciding whether to officially review the application, a process that would take months. 

If the application proves successful, the Drug Enforcement Administration would need “to reschedule MDMA making it available for prescription medical use,” the organization has said, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

In a release, MAPS founders and president Rick Doblin said Lykos was wholly “focused on obtaining FDA approval and insurance coverage for prescription use of MDMA-assisted therapy by appropriate patients with PTSD.”

But the process has been expensive, and Lykos was described in the press as “strapped for cash” last summer and reportedly in need of the funding in order to continue on through 2024. The hope is that the oversubscribed funding round will keep them afloat until the FDA approves their ability to sell MDMA. 

Lykos said Friday said additional funding was proof that the company was on the right track. 

“In a testament to Lykos’ remarkable progress in its research program, investors joining our cause are making it possible to build the commercial infrastructure required to deliver MDMA-assisted therapy to many in need, if FDA-approved,” Fede Menapace, the deputy director at Maps, said in a release. 

This post has been updated to clarify that Lykos Therapeutics, not MAPS, raised the money.