Biomind Labs Inc. announced the receipt of a Controlled Substances License and the commencement of an eight-month project to produce and evaluate novel rapidly-dissolving and sustained-release hydrogel-forming microneedle arrays designed for the transdermal delivery of Biomind's key psychedelic compounds: N, N-dimethyltryptamine (“DMT”), 5-methoxyN,N-dimethyltryptamine (“5-MeO-DMT”) and mescaline. The use of polymeric microneedle array patches (“MAPs”) is an attractive way of delivering drugs through the skin. Upon MAP application, microneedles painlessly penetrate the outer layer of the skin, creating temporary microchannels in this highly effective barrier to diffusion, through which enhanced transdermal drug delivery can be achieved.

Given the presence of a dense network of blood vessels in the deeper layers of the skin, drugs can be absorbed into the plasmatic circulation and distributed to the entire body, producing a systemic effect. Additional advantages of this technology, such as the avoidance of first-pass metabolism and drug delivery in a rate-controlled or long-acting manner, can serve to reduce the incidence of side-effects and dosing frequency, which in turn may lead to increased treatment adherence.