Clinical stage biotech company Emyria (ASX:EMD) has partnered with specialist trauma psychiatric service The Pax Centre (PAX).

The company says the partnership with PAX aims to develop a scalable care program for the safe provision of MDMA-assisted therapy, in the community, for patients with treatment resistant PTSD.

Emyria notes under the partnership PAX will provide specialist psychiatrists, trained therapists, and facilities. Meanwhile, the company will manage clinical trial design, real-world data generation, data monitoring, and MDMA supply following the recent securing of patient-ready MDMA.

“As the burden of PTSD grows, the interest and demand for new treatment options increases amongst patients and specialists”

The company also reports this collaboration represents part of its long-term goal of establishing a network of trained therapists and psychiatrists to provide MDMA-assisted therapy through ethics approved clinical trials and the authorised prescriber pathway to diagnosed patients from 1 July 2023.

It is reported the care program will begin as an ethics-approved clinical trial until PAX psychiatrists have obtained authorised prescriber statues and a cost model has been developed.

Commenting on the partnership, Emyria Managing Director Dr Michael Winlo said: “As the burden of PTSD grows, the interest and demand for new treatment options increases amongst patients and specialists.

Following the TGA’s recent decision to reschedule MDMA to a controlled medicine, we believe the demand amongst psychiatry groups for a safe, cost-effective, and evidence-based care program to deliver MDMA-assisted therapy in the community for suitably screened patients.

Emyria is thrilled to collaborate with The Pax Centre, a leading psychiatric clinical service, to develop this care program. Our team looks forward to developing clinical protocols with their experts that may help patients with PTSD while generating Real World Data that can support ongoing program improvement as well as Emyria’s novel drug development program.”

The company also believes a comprehensive clinical package has the potential to be licenced to other specialist groups within to take part in the network to help support nearly 500,000 Australian patients with treatment-resistant PTSD.

With the collaboration between Emyria and PAX now finalised, Emyria announces it is continuing to advance its drug discovery program in Australia and the US in order to identify novel, MDMA-like compounds with therapeutic potential.

Emyria is an ASX-listed clinical drug development and care delivery company focused on accelerating drug development and improving patient outcomes in neuroscience and mental health.