Universal Ibogaine Inc. (TSXV: IBO) (OTCQB: IBOGF) is expanding its leadership team, adding a new director of clinical trials to provide guidance and support its application to Health Canada for running clinical trials.
On Wednesday, the medical ibogaine company announced it is hiring Julie Dumouchel to lead the design, planning and execution of clinical trials for ibogaine as a treatment for opioid-use disorders.
The firm owns the licensing rights for an ibogaine treatment protocol developed by Alberto Sola, who co-founded a substance-use treatment centre in Cancun, Mexico. Since 2007, the centre has administered over 3,700 treatments with ibogaine.
Ibogaine is a strong psychedelic extracted from the bark of the tabernanthe iboga shrub. It’s shown to be effective in treating substance-use issues, and led to a wave of clinics opening across Canada a few years back.
Photo via UI
Dumouchel was formerly the director of clinical operations at Canopy Health Innovation, owned by Canopy Growth Corporation (TSX: WEED) (Nasdaq: CGC), where she assembled a clinical operations team to advance key trials using medical cannabis.
She’s had roles in clinical research organizations such as Santé Cannabis, where she led a team responsible for clinical trials for psychedelics and pot.
Read more: What happened to Canada’s ibogaine clinics?
Read more: Becoming light through the darkness: My first ibogaine trip
Dumouchel has also worked with biotechnology companies like MethylGene (TSX: MYG) and large pharmaceutical companies.
“We welcome Julie to our team, and look forward to her guidance as we continue to work with our [clinical research organization] research partners to finalize our clinical trial application for Health Canada,” Universal Ibogaine CEO Nick Karos said. “This announcement demonstrates we are making progress towards our [clinical trial authorization] and confident in our path forward.”
The company is also developing a treatment protocol for substance-use disorders using ibogaine at its Kelburn Recovery Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
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