Psychedelic pioneer is unfazed about MDMA’s prospects, despite FDA setback
“I’m not going to go smoke pot and hang out on my couch for the next 20 years,” he said in an interview, criticizing the agency for failing to grasp the drug’s potential to relieve suffering.
Still, it has been a brutally rough stretch for Doblin and MAPS, which over decades have shepherded an illegal psychedelic drug through clinical trials to prove its therapeutic value. Lykos Therapeutics, which was until this year the for-profit arm of MAPS, conducted two major studies showing MDMA combined with therapy benefited people with PTSD over a placebo. But the FDA cited doubts about the underlying data, echoing concerns from an advisory panel. Lykos said on Aug. 15 it would lay off 75 percent of its staff and Doblin, who had been on the board since MAPS created it in 2015, would depart. Many consider Doblin a visionary, the driving force behind the first application of its kind for a psychedelic that the FDA accepted for review, but the regard is not universal. Critics say that the evangelizing by Doblin and MAPS — which extends to endorsing therapists taking MDMA themselves — has skewed their scientific work.
Original Article (Washington Post):
Psychedelic pioneer is unfazed about MDMA’s prospects, despite FDA setback
Artwork Fair Use: Victoria Lee Croasdell
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