FDA accelerates review of new psychedelic mental health treatments

Damian Garde covers the global pharmaceutical industry as a general live and feature journalism reporter and contributes to STAT’s industry-leading events.

The Food and Drug Administration will accelerate its review of psychedelic drugs developed by Compass Pathways, Usona Institute and Transcend Therapeutics for mental disorders as part of the Trump administration’s plan to increase access to controversial but promising drugs.

The agency will specifically grant priority review vouchers to Compass’ psilocybin product for treatment-resistant depression, Usona’s drug-like drug for major depressive disorder, and Transcend’s MDMA-like drug for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The FDA identified the drugs that received vouchers, but not the companies that developed them. Compass confirmed it received the vouchers, but the other companies were identified by people familiar with the matter.

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