Psychedelic drug nonprofit to get its own facility in Fitchburg

Aug. 4—A nonprofit started by the head of Promega Corp. to study psychedelic drugs for depression and other mental health conditions is getting its own headquarters in Fitchburg amid an expanding national profile for psychoactive medicine.

The Usona Institute, formed by Promega CEO Bill Linton in 2014, is expected to move into a 93,000-square-foot facility on 17 acres adjacent to Promega'sFitchburg campus in 2024.

"The practices and the therapy that we're embodying here have really gone back for thousands of years," Linton said Tuesday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the $60 million project.

Linton said even single doses of psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin, the hallucinogenic ingredient in "magic mushrooms," have been shown to provide long-term benefits for some mental health patients. "Through this experience, there's a connection or reconnection with ourselves that may last for weeks and months, sometimes a lifetime," he said.

Usona, now housed in other Promega buildings, has more than 25 employees and satellite offices in California and Germany.

Construction of a separate facility for Usona comes as it conducts a phase 2 study of psilocybin to treat depression at UW-Madison and six other sites, including Johns Hopkins University and Yale University. An early phase, first-in-human study of a second, novel compound is planned for 2022.

Usona, which is supporting other research to use psilocybin for anxiety, addiction, anorexia and cluster headaches, hopes to seek federal approval for treatment of depression by 2025, Tura Patterson, Usona's senior director of strategic partnerships, said last year.

Scientists in recent years have studied psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, ketamine and other psychedelic drugs for a variety of mental health disorders. Most psychedelics are Schedule 1, meaning they are banned, though ketamine, known as "special K," is approved as an anesthetic and used clinically for depression, including at UW Health.

The Food and Drug Administration has given "breakthrough therapy" designation to psilocybin for depression and MDMA for PTSD, indicating support for potential approval if studies pan out.

"There has been a resurgence, I think, of the interest in psychedelic drugs, which for a while were sort of considered not an area that researchers legitimately ought to go after," Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said during a U.S. Senate budget hearing in May. "I think as we've learned more about how the brain works we've begun to realize that these are potential tools for research purposes and might be clinically beneficial."

Former Republican Texas Gov. and Energy Secretary Rick Perry attended Tuesday's groundbreaking, noting in an earlier panel discussion at Promega his support for a law passed in Texas last month directing the state to study the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and other psychedelics to treat veterans with PTSD.

Perry said he's met many veterans who have been helped by such drugs.

"Ten years ago, if you'd made a bet that Rick Perry's name and 'psychedelics' would be used in the same sentence, you could have won a lot of money," he said. But, "I saw it enough times to become a massive believer."

UW-Madison's School of Pharmacy is starting the country's first pharmacy master's program in the field this fall, according to Cody Wenthur, an assistant professor of pharmacy and director of the program.

The master's program will cover the science, history, ethics and legal environment surrounding psychoactive treatments, including psychedelics and cannabinoids, for which the market expected to grow nearly 20% a year, with a value of $100 billion by 2030, Wenthur said.

Promega, which has about 1,730 employees, including about 1,090 at its Fitchburg headquarters, makes some 4,000 life sciences and diagnostic products.

Linton's creation of Usona was part of a lawsuit by Promega shareholders settled last year.

Nathan F. Brand, Nathan S. Brand and Ted Kellner in 2016 sued Promega and Linton, who started Promega in 1978, saying Linton sought to transfer his controlling interest in Promega to Usona.

Promega appeared to be on a path to going public, but the plan was scrapped and Linton said in 2014 he planned to "celebrate its 100-year anniversary as a private company," they said. Linton accused the shareholders of trying to take over the company.

In the settlement, Promega, together with Eppendorf AG, a life sciences instrument manufacturer based in Hamburg, Germany, acquired the ownership interest of the plaintiffs.

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