COMPASS Pathways, Sheppard Pratt Collaborate on Research Facility

London-based COMPASS Pathways and the Sheppard Pratt Institute for Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics in Baltimore announced that the two organizations are collaborating on a “Centre of Excellence” that will serve as a research facility and innovation lab for the development of mental healthcare therapy models, a training and certification ground for therapists, and hub for conducting clinical trials.

The Centre’s first research project will focus on COMPASS’s COMP 360 psilocybin therapy, which includes administration of psilocybin and psychological support from therapists.

The facility will be led by Scott Aaronson, MD, clinical research director at Sheppard Pratt, and it will be built on the Sheppard Pratt Towson campus. It will include four psychedelic therapy rooms, and research and training areas.

In a news release announcing the collaboration, Aaronson said the Centre will enable the two companies to research the use of psilocybin therapy for several mental illnesses, including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and PTSD.

“We are already using COMP360 psilocybin in two investigator-initiated studies in psilocybin therapy for severe treatment-resistant depression and for bipolar type II depression,” Aaronson said in the release. “We can see the enormous potential that this therapy could have on the lives of millions of people with mental health conditions around the world.”