MADISON, WI USA (March 10, 2025) Porta Sophia filed a third-party preissuance submission with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today for U.S. Pat. App. Ser. No. 18/550,086 entitled “COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR TREATING ADDICTIONS COMPRISING 5-MEO-DMT”, which is currently assigned to Alvarius Pharmaceuticals Ltd. & University College Dublin. The submission consisted of five prior art documents that are material to the patentability of 20 claims of the application.
Porta Sophia, a non-profit psychedelic prior art library, leverages the experience of legal and interdisciplinary academic scholars to promote an ethical psychedelic patenting landscape that preserves the integrity of the public domain. The organization curates and makes relevant historical documentation readily available for anyone wanting to explore the scope of psychedelic technologies, including patent examiners.
Patent application: 5-MeO-DMT for treating substance use disorders and modulating biomarkers
The ’086 application was filed on September 11, 2023. It describes the use of 5-MeO-DMT to treat substance use disorders, reducing relapse, withdrawal, and self-administration of stimulants (e.g., cocaine, nicotine) and sedatives (e.g., opioids, alcohol). It also claims gene expression modulation of biomarkers like FosB and BDNF, specifies dosing (1–50 mg/kg), and includes antidote reversal agents (e.g., ketanserin, rapamycin). Additional claims cover reducing anxiety and depression from substance exposure and a kit combining 5-MeO-DMT with an antidote agent.
Prior art in the third-party preissuance submission included peer reviewed journal articles, international and U.S. patent documents. This prior art anticipates claims in the ’086 application. The full third-party submission documentation is available here.
Third-party submissions of prior art
United States patent law allows third parties to submit prior art and concise descriptions of their relevance to the USPTO. Documents submitted may be considered in the examination of that patent application. In addition, these submissions have a broad impact because applicants have a duty to disclose the prior art submitted against a single patent application for other relevant patent applications filed by the applicant.
Porta Sophia tracks and analyzes psychedelic patent applications globally. If an application improperly claims innovation of something known in the public domain and meets the standards of Porta Sophia's third party intervention evaluation criteria, the team assembles evidence against these invalid claims and contests them directly to the relevant patent office through third-party interventions.
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Porta Sophia, meaning doorway to wisdom, is a non-profit psychedelic prior art library created to support good patents in the field of psychedelics. Based in Madison, Wisconsin USA, Porta Sophia identifies scientific, historical and cultural prior art in common and uncommon spaces and brings it together in one simple search tool for innovators and patent reviewers. The organization's mission is to protect the public domain, stimulate innovation, and support good patents to assure psychedelic therapies can one day be available at scale to the people who need them.
Porta Sophia works to support equity in the psychedelic field. The organization facilitates community engagement through encouraging submissions of prior art from the public and organizing an interdisciplinary Archival Researcher Network (ARN) to ensure quality psychedelic prior art is readily available to patent applicants, examiners, and those interested in psychedelic research.
To learn more about Porta Sophia's patent and prior art workflow or get involved, visit www.portasophia.org.