Johnson & Johnson Co-Leads a $100M Bet on a Psychedelic-Inspired Depression Drug Without the Trip
Delix Therapeutics raised an oversubscribed $100 million Series C on Nov. 9, co-led by Johnson & Johnson's venture arm (JJDC) and SV Health Investors' Dementia Discovery Fund. The money funds zalsupindole, a pill designed to trigger the same brain rewiring as psychedelics (neuroplasticity) without hallucinations, so patients could take it at home instead of in a supervised all-day session. Delix plans to start a placebo-controlled Phase 2b trial in major depression in the first half of 2027, with at-home dosing the FDA has already cleared.
The evidence so far is early. In a small Phase 1b study of 18 adults with recurrent depression, scores reportedly fell by about half within a week, and the effect held through day 36. There was no placebo group, so those numbers can't yet separate the drug from expectation. The bigger question is the one the whole field is watching: whether a psychedelic works as well without the psychedelic experience. Delix also has early-stage, no-trip drugs based on ibogaine, 5-MeO-DMT and LSD.
Delix grew out of the UC Davis lab of chemist David E. Olson, who coined the term "psychoplastogen." J&J already sells Spravato, the esketamine nasal spray for depression. For how these "analog" drugs work and how the law treats them, see our encyclopedia entry. Reported by BioSpace's Tristan Manalac.