Emyria Ltd (ASX:EMD), has received a financial boost to further its development of a MDMA analogue drug for treatment of mental health and neurological conditions, being awarded state government funding to the tune of $499,411 to support its work in collaboration with the University of Western Australia.
The grant – which was secured through the Future Health Research and Innovation Seed Fund – will be used to push Emyria’s development work over the next 18 months, with the goal of identifying a drug candidate for development and commercialisation.
Part of this will involve screening assays and animal models taken from global collaborators, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – with this to progress development towards clinical studies.
Emyria has built its business model around developing new treatments for mental health, with a particular focus on psychological trauma and neurological conditions, and its drug-development partnership with UWA forms a significant part of this.
The collaboration has resulted in creation of a large, patented library of new chemical entities which share structural features with MDMA but are designed to yield unique clinical and neuro-cognitive effects.
From this, two specific drug development streams have been created: one to enhance and extend levodopa therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD), and another develop next-generation entactogens for drug-assisted psychotherapy, with post-traumatic stress disorder in particular focus.
To guide the collaborative work going forward, Associate Professor Matt Piggott – a leading expert on MDMA-inspired drug discovery – has been appointed to direct the medicinal chemistry and screening program.
Emyria CEO Michael Winlo said the fund would provide crucial support to the furthering of the company’s work and plans.
“We are thrilled to receive this substantial grant from the West Australian Department of Health in partnership with UWA,” he said.
“This brings the amount of non-dilutive funding won this year to over $500k creating a significant boost for Emyria’s long-term innovation pipeline and, along with our MDMA-assisted therapy evaluation program, helps reinforce our global leadership in MDMA-related treatment delivery and development.”
Emyria’s share price has risen on the news: at 12:10 AEDT, they were sitting at 4.8 cents, a rise of 17.07 percent since the market opened.