By far the best drugs, law, policy blog out there at the moment (much better than me!)
What is especially encouraging and i can say this after 30 years of working in legal publishing and bookselling is that the most encouraging thing is that it’s two lawyers ( now only one as of this week) that are writing a blog and posts that don’t hold back on opinion, wit, intelligence & activism.
FINALLY !
I can’t tell you how refreshing this is as i usually have to wallow in tepid mundanity when ploughing through lawyers blogs on a whole range of topics.
That said, a shout out also to Rod Kight who is no slacker when it comes to putting forward an argument, his recent Hemp pieces have been nailing it
Matt Zorn writes, in this his latest post, on the cancer seeping through the world of psychedelics, that of applying IP to any half baked idea .
Take a moment to remember the likes of Shuglin who ensured that all his research was available to all.
Matt writes
From the patent on using LSD to treat food allergies to Compass’s attempt to patent psilocybin use and “soft furniture,” last week’s publication of the patent application entitled “Treatment of Anxiety and Depression” or the “NYU Application” officially marks a new race to the psychedelic patent bottom.
Introduction
The NYU Application is assigned to Reset Pharma, “a well-capitalized highly experienced biotech team to develop and commercialize innovative and highly effective therapies for demoralization, anxiety and depression in patients with life-threatening cancer and other illnesses.” Here is Claim 1 of the NYU Application:

Boiled down, the claim covers a method for “alleviating” depression or anxiety in a cancer patient for more than a year by giving them one—and only one—dose of psilocybin. That’s it. The NYU Application has a “priority date” of November 2020, i.e., the earliest date the application can claim precedence over other prior art.
Despite its breadth, the claim is poorly worded for at least two reasons.
- It isn’t clear to me what “alleviating” depression means. That term might be indefinite and therefore invalid if it does not inform a person of skill in the art about the scope of the invention with reasonable certainty.
- As written, the claim is easy to operate around. Because the claim covers administering a single dose and “no further dose” for at least one year, administer two doses and you are in the clear. The doses could be administered days apart. Maybe even the next day. And maybe, the second dose could be non-psychoactive.
But set those issues aside. Did NYU and Reset Pharma really submit an application to patent giving dying cancer patients one dose of psilocybin to treat anxiety … in November 2020? Yes. Yes, they did.
Read the rest of Matt’s post here it is absolutely essential reading not only does he outline the issues he presents solutions.
https://ondrugs.substack.com/p/hot-psilocybin-patent-garbage?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
It’s also worth noting that the Chinese are (excuse my French) patenting the fuck out of psychedelics at the moment too.
I presume they think with their WTO membership and aggressive attack dog IP infrastructure now in place thay can have a large piece of the global pie. Sorry but the idea of Beijing having any modicum of psychedelic control of the planet is too terrifying to contemplate. I know I always refer to Huxley.. but yet again I refer to Huxley.