The quest by psychedelic drugs for full legitimacy in the pharmaceutical world has seen marked progress as well as (fewer) setbacks of late, and developers are hopeful that an important corner has been turned.

Timothy Leary is dead, but he could be on the outside looking in with a smile on his face as U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest executive order (EO) fuels a surge in investment in companies researching and developing psychedelic drugs to treat mental health issues. The EO, Accelerating medical treatments for serious mental illness, is intended to address the increasing burden of suicide and serious mental illness, which impacts more than 14 million Americans.

Genes that are switched on or off in the human brain differ between men and women. Moreover, these differences are not uniform. They vary across cortical regions and cell types. Scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) used single-cell sequencing and unveiled distinct gene expression patterns regulated by hormones and sex chromosomes. This detailed map of the brain’s molecular biology shows how women and men switch on and off more than 3,000 brain genes differently and expands the catalogue of X chromosome genes that escape inactivation.

The ongoing controversy over the effectiveness of anti-amyloid drugs is about to get more heated, after a review of clinical trials showed statistically significant results do not read across to clinical benefit for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Abbvie Inc. is buying exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize two Nav1.8 inhibitors for pain – HSK-55718 and HSK-51155 – from Haisco Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. for $30 million up front and up to $715 million in milestone payments, plus royalties.

Realta Life Sciences Inc. raised an additional $40 million in the final tranche of its series A investment, bringing the total the company has raised to more than $150 million through mission-driven investors and a family-office model.

Newco Sononeu Inc. has launched to translate more than a decade of basic research in controlling cells with ultrasound into novel, non-invasive therapies for conditions including peripheral and diabetic neuropathy.

Hopes in postpartum depression (PPD) with an oral version of brexanolone – a synthetic formulation of the endogenous neurosteroid allopregnanolone, approved by the U.S. FDA in 2019 when given intravenously for PPD – were dashed, at least near term, when Lipocine Inc. reported that the candidate failed in a phase III placebo-controlled trial.

Just over a month after emerging from stealth and disclosing a $150 million series A, Korsana Biosciences Inc. is making the leap to the public market via a merger with Cyclerion Therapeutics Inc.  The agreement, which is backed by a $370 million private placement from Korsana’s investors, solidly positions the newly merged company as it heads toward the clinic with KRSA-028, a next-generation shuttled antibody targeting amyloid beta for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, and builds out a pipeline of neurodegenerative disease candidates.

Eli Lilly and Co. plans to buy Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc for $6.3 billion in up-front cash and another potential $1.5 billion through contingent value rights, gaining access to a pipeline of orexin receptor 2 agonists for sleep disorders. The Indianapolis-based pharma is re-entering a field that has multibillion-dollar potential and one that could emulate the success seen with its obesity program. Centessa, of Boston and London, has a lead candidate, cleminorexton (formerly ORX-750), with positive phase IIa data in narcolepsy types 1 and 2 and idiopathic hypersomnia.