Dave Hodes
On December 20, 2021, breakthrough research at the Usona Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit medical research organization based in Madison, Wisconsin, revealed the true crystal forms of pharmaceutical psilocybin. It’s a new discovery of characteristics of the polymorphs of the plant that have always existed but were not detected until now.
But that discovery has ignited controversy within the psychedelics industry about synthetic psilocybin patents being sought by Compass Pathways (NASDAQ: CMPS), one of the leading psychedelics product development companies, using what they said is their original discovery of essentially the same polymorph that the Usona research reported already existed.
The new Usona Institute study laid out the experimental challenges to solve the crystallographic puzzle of synthetic psilocybin, bringing clarity to the polymorphs (unique crystalline arrangements) that naturally occur from the production of synthetic psilocybin.
Usona claims that the study conclusively shows that three psilocybin polymorphs repeatedly occur from the well-known crystallization process, and that they have appeared in numerous places throughout the history of synthesizing psilocybin since 1959.
In short, the study finds that there is nothing new to see here.
But Compass Pathways sees it differently. The company said they invented the crystalline form of psilocybin used in their synthesized psilocybin formulations, polymorph A, and want to patent it. Not so fast, the experts says.
The rise of the patent conundrum
The team of Usona chemists and collaborating crystallographers say that they already solved key psilocybin crystal structures using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) data collected on psilocybin at the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron at Argonne National Laboratory.
In the Usona process-scale crystallographic research investigation, three crystalline forms of psilocybin were repeatedly observed: hydrate A, polymorph A, and polymorph B. The crystal structure for hydrate A had already been solved using X-ray diffraction.
Usona’s study presents key new crystal structure solutions for the two anhydrates, polymorphs A and B, previously unidentified but part of the crystal structure dating back to when the crystalline structure was first reported in the 1970’s.
Dr. Alexander Sherwood, lead author of the study and medicinal chemist at Usona, said they were just following clues available to any researcher to put together a full, clear picture of the three psilocybin polymorphs. “The process for isolating and crystallizing pure psilocybin has been consistently reproduced since first reported in 1959, and many different clues throughout history pointed to three psilocybin polymorphs resulting from that process,” he said. “The crystal structure solutions unified all the old evidence and data with precision and elegance. Once we put it all into one place, the full picture came together to tell a complete and compelling story about psilocybin crystallization.”
Then.. the twist
That data, that new discovery information from a non-profit company just wanting to advance the science of psilocybin, is creating conflicts between purists who say psilocybin should not be subject to patents and companies looking to build capitalist enterprises based on patenting such new product discoveries.
That’s where Compass Pathways comes in. Compass Pathways has developed a synthesized formulation of psilocybin, COMP 360, which uses crystalline psilocybin, and, in November, 2021, was granted its fifth U.S. patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)—U.S. Patent No. 11,180,517—which covers methods of treating treatment-resistant depression (TRD) with crystalline psilocybin.
A petition filed December 15 will challenge the patent granted on March 16, 2021. Additional petitions challenging Compass’ patents from the Freedom to Operate (FTO), a non-profit seeking to advance science and education by fighting bad and mistakenly issued patents, are expected.
The December 15 FTO petition quoted expert declarations filed with it from Dr. Sven Lidin (dean at the Lund University in Sweden) and Dr. James Kaduk (professor of chemistry at Illinois Tech and contributor to the Usona study) who explained that “’Polymorph A’ is a mixture of known psilocybin polymorphs, not a new polymorph as claimed. Compass’s patent is therefore invalid as claiming a nonexistent polymorph..”
So can Compass still claim to have identified a new crystalline structure—a so-called novel variant as mentioned in their patent application—for their synthetic psilocybin? Or does this finding by Usona and statements in the filing challenging Compass now negate the Compass Pathway’s synthetic psilocybin patents?
Usona reseachers also addressed this in their study: “Revision is recommended on characterizations in recently granted patents that include descriptions of crystalline psilocybin inappropriately reported as a single-phase ‘isostructural variant.’”
In other words, the Compass patents using crystalline psilocybin are at best controversial—and at worst, null and void.
But the Usona Institute v. Compass Pathways disagreement serves to illustrate a deeper and growing issue between non-profit psychedelics companies like Usona who just want to create and advance better therapies to treat human conditions, and for-profit companies like Compass who want to build an enterprise trying to control access and use of a natural product.
The questions for the psychedelics community are: Who can commercialize, and control, psilocybin? Or.. should that ever happen?
“No one objects to Compass manufacturing and distributing psilocybin for medical uses, and certainly not me,” Carey Turnbull, founder and director of FTO, in a letter from the founder. “On the other hand, Compass has used their resources to try to prevent anyone but themselves from manufacturing and distributing psilocybin. That’s the rub.”
He continues: “(Compass) is attempting to patent things they should know they did not invent. Patents are not a systemic fault of the system; bad patents that attempt to appropriate pre-existing knowledge from the public commons and then ransom it back to the human race are a misuse of that system.”
