Terran Biosciences and Blumentech S.L. announce the acquisition of a patent portfolio covering the groundbreaking discoveries of prominent psychedelics researcher Dr. Jordi Riba
NEW YORK, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Terran Biosciences (“Terran”), a biotech platform company dedicated to the development of transformational therapeutics for neurological and psychiatric diseases, has entered into an agreement with Blumentech S.L. (“Blumentech”) to acquire Blumentech’s full patent portfolio and accompanying data, which includes multiple groundbreaking discoveries by the late Dr. Jordi Riba Serrano, a renown ethno-pharmacologist and pioneer of psychedelics research.
Widely admired for his trailblazing work in the space, Dr. Riba was the first to conduct a placebo-controlled study of ayahuasca in 1999, and published extensively on the ability of the molecule DMT to induce neurogenesis. His findings demonstrated novel ways to maintain the therapeutic and neurogenic benefit of psychedelic compounds while also reducing potential side effects and increasing the potential for use across a much wider population of patients.
During his time as a senior researcher at the Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute in Barcelona, Dr. Riba founded Blumentech in 2017 as a spinout to advance his research and further explore these new possibilities and applications for psychedelics. That same year he was featured alongside Elon Musk and Kamala Harris on Rolling Stone’s list of “25 People Shaping the Future,” highlighting the visionaries who are “changing (and maybe saving) the world one brilliant idea at a time.”
Since Dr. Riba’s passing in 2020, his son Marc Riba has stepped in as a director at Blumentech to keep the work moving ahead. “My purpose is to continue my father’s legacy. His vision was to use his research to find solutions for the millions of people suffering from mental and neurological illnesses,” stated Marc, “Thanks to our great team at Blumentech, led by Gerard de Lucas, we were able to protect and expand my father’s intellectual property. Now we are happy to partner with the team at Terran, who we know will be able to ensure his important work continues and take his vision to the next level. We have been impressed by their team, IP, portfolio, and novel approach to the space, and we have faith they will be successful in delivering new therapeutic options to patients in need.”
Blumentech’s patents further complement Terran’s rapidly growing IP portfolio of over 150 patent applications in the psychedelic space, which includes patents on Terran’s orally-active DMT compound, a product of Terran’s robust medicinal chemistry drug discovery program.
Dr. Sam Clark, CEO of Terran commented “We are honored to partner with Blumentech and advance these assets as quickly as possible. Dr. Riba truly opened the door to this entire field of research, and we hope we too can open doors for patients with these innovative approaches.”
The deal also included data and patent rights assigned and licensed from several academic institutions in Spain, including: Fundació Institut de Recerca de l’Hospital de La Santa Creu i Sant Pau (FIRHSCSP), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), State Agency Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas M.P (CSIC), and Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER).
About Terran Biosciences, Inc.
Terran is a biotech platform company developing a portfolio of therapeutics and technologies for patients with neurological and psychiatric diseases. Backed by a number of life-science and tech investors, Terran has built a CNS-focused, tech-enabled drug development platform, and is rapidly advancing of number of late-stage assets, which include novel psychedelic-based therapeutics.
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