Patented, nontoxic form of MDMA

[red22]

"This week, “empathogen” company Arcadia Medicine announced that AM-1002, its patented formulation of MDMA, has received Investigational New Drug status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration."

"Arcadia’s AM-1002 is a non-racemic MDMA; according to its patent application for the drug, it contains a mix of nine parts R-MDMA to one part S-MDMA."

"The company calls its drug a “non-neurotoxic form of MDMA with an improved therapeutic profile,” and plans to start a clinical trial investigating its use in treating generalized anxiety disorder."

Patented formulation of MDMA receives federal “Investigational New Drug” status; Intravenous ketamine outperforms esketamine. Jane C. Hu. 2025-10-10. themicrodose.substack.com

 

[notsmokeymcpot42088]

Very interesting -- what do you think of the study concept?

@4DQSAR ? Other chemistry inclined folk

 

[pupnik]

I'd put that in my nose spray!

 

[4DQSAR]

Very interesting -- what do you think of the study concept?

@4DQSAR ? Other chemistry inclined folk

A guy working for a company who was patenting specific ratios asked me a few questions.

Happily, I was able to point out that just as the MDMA enantiomers have different properties, so do the enantiomers of 7,α-DMT (7 methyl AMT). One is a psychedelic, the other an entactogen.

 

[FuckinAcidMan]

I'll try it.

Uh. For Science.

Unless there's a risk it like fries my brain and gives me Parkinson's.

Then I'm good, never mind.

 

[notsmokeymcpot42088]

A guy working for a company who was patenting specific ratios asked me a few questions.

Happily, I was able to point out that just as the MDMA enantiomers have different properties, so do the enantiomers of 7,α-DMT (7 methyl AMT). One is a psychedelic, the other an entactogen.

Soo you think they are onto something here with the racemic formula or w/e? Feels like you'd want to go heavy on the entactogen and a little lighter on the psychedelic but both probably important components?

I just wish they could do away with the speedy /MA part of it!


Lol me too man - FOR SCIENCE (as long as it is legal to possess for now haha)

 

[4DQSAR]

Soo you think they are onto something here with the racemic formula or w/e? Feels like you'd want to go heavy on the entactogen and a little lighter on the psychedelic but both probably important components?

I just wish they could do away with the speedy /MA part of it!

Well, we made it and recognized that we could in theory at least have produced a range of products. But I've always been fundamentally opposed to using a brand-name (e.g. Benzo Fury) rather than making it clear to end users what they have.

But yes, you could essentially go from something more or less identical to MDMA through MDA and into things more psychedelic.

Why didn't we take it to market? At the time the routes to the substituted indole made it too costly... We also produced both para and meta methyl aminorex. The former is almost purely seratogenic, the latter more dopamagenic. In that case a 2:1 ratio could not, in a double-blind study, be identified as not being MDMA.

 

[cosmosmariner]

This article came to mind:

Separating the agony from ecstasy: R(-)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine has prosocial and therapeutic-like effects without signs of neurotoxicity in mice - PubMed

S,R(+/-)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (SR-MDMA) is an amphetamine derivative with prosocial and putative therapeutic effects. Ongoing clinical trials are investigating it as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other conditions. However, its potential for adverse...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[4DQSAR]

I couldn't comment other than to say that it seems likely that 6-APB is likely safer than MDMA if only because metabolism cannot result in phenolic compounds suggested to be major contributers to neurotoxicity.

But I think the truth is that if pure, if used at an appropriate dose at appropriate intervals, MDMA isn't a major health hazard.

Obviously we couldn't possibly perform those very long-term cohort studies on 7,α-DMT or those ring methylated aminorex derivatives to compare.

There is no such thing as a totally safe drug but we have decades of data on MDMA use so it's the only one we have (albeit unstructured) data going back over four decades.

Many thanks for the link. I appreciate you taking the time to find it.

 

[Skorpio]

Is this known to not form alpha-methyl dopamine? Does it not simultaneously release serotonin and dopamine? I believe those two factors to be the primary drivers of MDMA (and broadly empathogen, for the 5HT and DA simultaneous release) toxicity.

 

[TuRBO_RaINBOW]

Call me clinical, but this sounds like a way to patten MDMA and be able to sell it under a brand name when MDMA therapy becomes mainstream.

 

[4DQSAR]

Is this known to not form alpha-methyl dopamine? Does it not simultaneously release serotonin and dopamine? I believe those two factors to be the primary drivers of MDMA (and broadly empathogen, for the 5HT and DA simultaneous release) toxicity.

That's where having a labile moiety on the aromatic helps. It not only increases activity (by an order of magnitude) but also provides a different metabolic pathway. I certainly wouldn't be comfortable with any homologue that wasn't a nice substrate.

But yes, we did look into the toxicity of AMT as a starting point.

Elsewhere I have shown how AMT derivaives overlay 3 carbon PEAs. That 7 methyl overlays the para position of the P. The N in the indole acting as a bioisostere of a meta methoxy. PiHKAL noted 3-methoxy-4-methyl amphetamine being sold as MDMA in Italy of all places.

Of course, while I had to frame questions carefully, I did have the advantage of being able to ask Dan. I don't know much about Jacob Szmuszkovicz whose name is on the 1970s Upjohn patents on related compounds. I did ask and it seemed that he and Dan did not get on. Dan never said anything negative about Jacob, he just asked if we could change the subject...

I've just noted several patents from 2020 onwards that would all cover the compound I specified. To be clear, these are the new style of patent that attempt to cover hundreds if not thousands of compounds by virtue of having a list of just two or three routes that produce at least SOME of the compound being patented.