Psychedelic Firm Reunion Neuroscience Sues Mindset Pharma for Patent Infringement and Breach of Contract

LOS ANGELES– Clinical research firm Reunion Neuroscience Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Mindset Pharma Inc. in federal court, alleging that the latter copied its psychedelic formula and presented it as its own invention while applying for a patent. Reunion is seeking to have its Chief Scientific Officer, Nathan Bryson, added as an inventor of the RE104 compound patent, and for co-ownership of the patent, unfair conduct in the patent application process, and breach of contract. Mindset named two of its employees as co-inventors of RE-104, even though Bryson was the sole inventor, according to court documents. The company denies the allegations and plans to defend itself in court.

Reunion’s RE104 was developed to treat postpartum depression and other mental health conditions and was granted a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) in April 2022, giving the company the exclusive right to make and sell the composition until 2041. However, Reunion alleges that Mindset copied RE104 after seeing it in the patent approval and presented it as its own invention to the PTO a few months later. Reunion accuses Mindset of misrepresentation and fraudulently omitting Bryson’s involvement.

After a meeting between the two companies, the CEOs shook hands on an agreement, but the case accuses Mindset of later walking back on the deal. Reunion said it is suing Mindset to protect its intellectual property and hold it liable for purposely hurting the company. The company wants the inventorship of the Mindset patent to be corrected, co-ownership of Mindset’s patent and the inventions claimed within it, and a separate declaration that Mindset engaged in conduct that makes the patent legally unenforceable.

In January, Reunion completed an interim analysis of its phase 1 clinical trial of RE104. The trial involved 32 healthy volunteers who were given ascending doses of RE104, with two of eight subjects receiving a placebo in each cohort. The drug was found to be safe and well tolerated with no severe adverse events, and showed robust and pervasive pharmacodynamic effects with a shorter duration of psychedelic experience compared to psilocybin. The company identified a dose level at which most participants achieved a “complete mystical experience,” which has been shown to correlate with psychedelic treatment responses in clinical trials of patients with depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder. Reunion has moved to submit the data to the FDA as part of a pre-Investigational New Drug meeting in preparation for phase 2 trial development.