Mindstate Design Labs is developing drugs that aim to deliver psychedelic benefits without a trip, drawing funding from Y Combinator and the founders of OpenAI, Neuralink, Instacart (NASDAQ:CART), Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), and Twitch, according to Wired.
The company built Osmanthus, an AI platform that links biochemical profiles of psychoactive compounds to more than 70,000 human trip reports from sources that include clinical datasets, forums, social media, Reddit (NYSE:RDDT), and the dark web, Wired reported.
Mindstate describes Osmanthus as an AI neuroengineering system that maps emotion, perception, and cognition to guide drug design. "We created the least psychedelic psychedelic that's psychoactive. It is quite psychoactive, but there are no hallucinations," Mindstate Design Labs CEO Dillan DiNardo told Wired.
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47 People Took The Drug, Zero Had Bad Trips or Hallucinations
Mindstate's first candidate, MSD-001, is a proprietary oral formulation of 5-MeO-MiPT, known as moxy, that advanced through a Phase I trial with 47 healthy participants at the Centre for Human Drug Research in the Netherlands, Wired reported.
The study found the drug safe and well-tolerated across five dose levels, while producing psychoactive effects such as heightened emotion, associative thinking, and brighter colors without hallucinations or self-disintegration.
Researchers measured effects with validated psychedelic scales, observed eye movement and stability, and captured brain imaging before, during, and after dosing, Wired reported. Using those images, the team identified brain-wave patterns associated with classic psychedelics like psilocybin, prompting DiNardo to say, "The drug is getting into the brain and doing what we intend it to do."
Onset occurred at roughly 30 minutes with peak intensity around 90 to 120 minutes, and the company reported no serious adverse events.
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Why Experts Call Mindstate’s MSD-001 ‘Psychedelic Tofu’
Mindstate's thesis holds that therapeutic benefit may come from neuroplasticity driven by serotonin 2A receptor activity rather than the trip, which could expand access to patients excluded from hallucinatory sessions, Wired reported.
The company selected 5-MeO-MiPT to reduce off-target interactions, creating a "psychedelic tofu" base to combine with other agents to aim at states like lower anxiety, increased insight, and enhanced aesthetic perception.
Alan Davis, who directs the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research at Ohio State University, told Wired that a mild experience without hallucinations could be safe and therapeutic when supported psychologically.
MSD-001 should not be considered a psychedelic as mood-altering drugs can lack psychedelic depth, Rachel Yehuda, who leads the Parsons Research Center for Psychedelic Healing at Mount Sinai Health System, said.
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Company Eyes Spravato-Style Approval Path
Regulators remain cautious, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked for another late-stage study after an advisory committee raised questions about MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, Wired reported.
Mindstate envisions a pathway similar to Spravato, ketamine for depression administered under supervision in clinics, where drugs could be evaluated without mandated talk therapy. Success in larger trials would test whether AI-guided design can deliver precise, non-hallucinatory states that meaningfully improve mood and function, according to Wired.
Mindstate outlines a pipeline that includes MSD-001 combinations and additional programs designed to induce precise states such as empathy and awe, reflecting clinical-stage ambitions. The company lists a multidisciplinary team spanning medicinal chemistry, regulatory affairs, and clinical operations in South San Francisco, according to its website.
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