{"id":51213,"date":"2021-05-14T12:44:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T17:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/?p=51213"},"modified":"2021-05-14T16:34:32","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T21:34:32","slug":"world-boxing-council-wesana-health-partnering-to-examine-psychedelics-as-potential-treatment-for-traumatic-brain-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/world-boxing-council-wesana-health-partnering-to-examine-psychedelics-as-potential-treatment-for-traumatic-brain-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"World Boxing Council, Wesana Health Partnering To Examine Psychedelics As Potential Treatment For Traumatic Brain Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Boxing Council, Wesana Health Partnering To Examine Psychedelics As Potential Treatment For Traumatic Brain Injury<\/strong><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Tim Casey<\/a> \/ Forbes<\/a><\/p>\n

Since retiring from the National Hockey League in 2015 at age 30, Daniel Carcillo has dedicated his life to helping athletes and other people like himself who have suffered from traumatic brain injury. Carcillo was diagnosed with seven concussions in his nine professional seasons and struggled at times with slurred speech, headaches, anxiety, depression, insomnia and other side effects of repeated hits to the head. Two years ago, he implemented a lifestyle change that included an improved diet, more sleep and the use of a psychedelic drug called psilocybin, which he says has made him feel better than ever.<\/p>\n

Now, through Wesana Health, a company he\u00a0co-founded<\/a>\u00a0last year, Carcillo is looking to help anyone who has been in his shoes. Wesana Health, which is testing the use of a psychedelic to treat anxiety and depression in people with traumatic brain injury, went public on Monday through the listing of its shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange. And today, the company is announcing a partnership with the World Boxing Council that it hopes will provide a better understanding of traumatic brain injury, a condition that has no U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved treatments, diagnostics or measurements.<\/p>\n

The WBC will share with Wesana access to data the organization has collected on traumatic brain injuries in boxers dating to the late 1970s and how such injuries lead to physical and neurological changes in fighters. Wesana plans on analyzing that data as well as data from current boxers to gain more knowledge of traumatic brain injuries. Eventually, the company hopes to enroll boxers in clinical trials involving Sana0013, a psychedelic and formulation of psilocybin it is developing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAthletes who enter the ring are at risk of developing traumatic brain injury, and the WBC is committed to study all avenues to help ensure the long-term mental and physical health of our athletes,\u201d Mauricio Sulaiman, WBC\u2019s president, said in a news release. \u201cWe have been involved in research studies of the impact of TBI with partners since the 1970s and Wesana\u2019s approach holds strong potential for curing this debilitating condition and improving brain and mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chad Bronstein, Wesana\u2019s co-founder and executive chairman, noted that former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson helped Wesana form the partnership with the WBC, one of boxing\u2019s major governing bodies. Tyson, an investor in Wesana and company advisor, has suffered from traumatic brain injury as have numerous other boxers as well as mixed martial arts competitors and football and hockey players. Wesana is also aiming to help other high-risk groups for traumatic brain injuries such as the elderly, military veterans and women who have been victims of domestic violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we\u2019re doing is focused on helping people have a pathway to help themselves,\u201d said Bronstein, who has also founded Fyllo, a software company focused on the cannabis industry. \u201cThat\u2019s why the WBC was so intrigued in partnering with us because of the mission they\u2019ve been on since 1978 on finding healing protocols for TBI.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think we\u2019ll see more leagues, large professional leagues, join into this movement because they need to help their athletes when they\u2019re done really optimize their life. It shows an innovative approach the WBC is willing to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wesana, which launched last April, is still in the early stages of testing Sana0013, but it has assembled an experienced medical and clinical trials team. Mark Wingertzahn, PhD, Wesana\u2019s chief science officer, has held senior clinical development roles at leading pharmaceuticals companies, including GlaxoSmithKline\u00a0GSK<\/a>\u00a0+0.9%<\/a>\u00a0and Pfizer\u00a0PFE<\/a>\u00a0+1.4%<\/a>. Meanwhile, Stephan Bart, MD, Wesana\u2019s chief medical officer, has served as a principal investigator for more than 400 clinical trials during his career.<\/p>\n

Wesana plans on submitting an investigational new drug application with the FDA during the first quarter of next year. It hopes to enroll healthy individuals in a phase 1 trial during the third quarter of 2022. It is also looking to get the drug approved through Health Canada, Canada\u2019s health regulatory body, and create a way to diagnose traumatic body injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel very confident and excited that we are going to help define the TBI space in the way of novel diagnostics and treatment regimens,\u201d Carcillo said. \u201cI feel pretty blessed for what\u2019s on the horizon and what\u2019s possible with the team we\u2019ve created with people like Chad and our medical staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/timcasey\/2021\/05\/13\/world-boxing-council-wesana-health-partnering-to-examine-psychedelics-as-potential-treatment-for-traumatic-brain-injury\/?sh=1aceb21039d9<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World Boxing Council, Wesana Health Partnering To Examine Psychedelics As Potential Treatment For Traumatic Brain Injury   By Tim Casey \/ Forbes Since retiring from the [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":51221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-news","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}