This preliminary data provides an early look at how deuterated psychedelics perform in the clinic compared to their non-deuterated counterparts. Besides offering a potentially clearer route to obtaining patent protection (and indeed, Cybin recently announced patent grants covering its deuterated psilocybin program), the process of deuteration can also change the pharmacokinetics of the compound.
In the case of CYB003, Cybin hoped that deuterating psilocybin might lead to a more clinically useful—and convenient—compound: i.e., faster onset of the psychedelic effects, shorter overall duration of effects, and a favourable safety profile.
Cybin’s peek under the curtain suggests that psychedelic effects were observed within around fifteen minutes of dosing, with the average duration of “peak effects lasting 2 hours”, according to Drysdale.
The company statement doesn’t give an idea of how long the total duration of effects was, but Drysdale told us that, anecdotally, it was around 4.5 hours. Though, he added, this varied from patient to patient.
And, as mentioned, the company did not report any treatment-related serious adverse events, though there’s no reason to believe that this safety profile is related to the deuteration of psilocybin.