BetterLife Pharma Inc. announced that one of its scientific collaborators, Dr. Argel Aguilar-Valles from Carleton University's Department of Neuroscience (Ottawa, Canada), will present on the anti-depressant activity of 2-bromo-LSD (“BETR-001”), the Company's lead compound, at the upcoming ACNP Conference being held December 4 to 7 at Phoenix, Arizona, USA. BETR-001 is a non-hallucinogenic Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (“LSD”) derivative molecule. Dr. Aguilar-Valles will present preclinical data supporting the acute and long-term anti-depressant activity of BETR-001 monotherapy in animal models.

Furthermore, the data shows that BETR-001 promotes structural neuroplasticity in brain neurons and this effect is partly mediated by the activation of 5-HT2A receptor. Dr. Ahmad Doroudian, CEO of BetterLife commented, “BETR-001 is a uniquely positioned LSD derivative with the potential to be as effective as LSD in various neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders without the burden of being hallucinogenic. Because of its non-hallucinogenic nature, BETR-001 will not have all the LSD requirements of administration in specialized clinics under special treatment protocols, the LSD controlled substance regulatory issues which impact manufacturing, distribution and patient access, and the overall associated high treatment costs for all these parameters.

Additionally, BETR-001 is protected by BetterLife's composition, method-of-use, synthesis and formulation patents (issued and provisional).