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Seelos Therapeutics Announces its Inclusion in the First Psychedelic Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)
Source: PR Newswire (US)
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SEEL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of therapies for central nervous system disorders and rare diseases, announced today that it has been selected as one of 17 companies included in the world's first psychedelic Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) which begins trading today on Canada's NEO exchange under the symbol PSYK.
(PRNewsfoto/Seelos Therapeutics, Inc.)
Seelos' inclusion is based on its lead program SLS-002 (intranasal racemic ketamine), which recently began dosing patients in a registrational Proof of Concept study for Acute Suicidal Ideation and Behavior in patients with Major Depressive Disorder.
The ETF, managed by Canadian financial services company Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc., seeks to replicate, to the extent possible and net of expenses, the performance of a market index that is designed to provide exposure to the performance of a basket of North American publicly-listed life sciences companies having significant business activities in, or significant exposure to, the psychedelics industry. Currently, the ETF seeks to replicate the performance of the North American Psychedelics Index, net of expenses.
About Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc.
Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. is an innovative financial services company and offers one of the largest suites of exchange traded funds in Canada. The Horizons ETFs product family includes a broadly diversified range of solutions for investors of all experience levels to meet their investment objectives in a variety of market conditions. Horizons ETFs has over $17 billion of assets under management and 93 ETFs listed on major Canadian stock exchanges.
About SLS-002
SLS-002 is intranasal racemic ketamine with two investigational new drug applications for the treatment of Acute Suicidal Ideation and Behavior in Major Depressive Disorder and in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. SLS-002 was originally derived from a Javelin Pharmaceuticals, Inc./Hospira, Inc. program with 16 clinical studies involving approximately 500 subjects. SLS-002 addresses an unmet need for a therapy to treat suicidality in the U.S. Traditionally, anti-depressants have been used in this setting but many of the existing treatments are known to contribute to an increased risk of suicidal thoughts in some circumstances, and if they are effective, it often takes weeks for the full therapeutic effect to be manifested. The clinical development program for SLS-002 included two parallel healthy volunteer studies (Phase I), followed by registration studies after meeting with the FDA. Based on information gathered from the databases of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, there were more than 1,000,000 visits to emergency rooms for suicide attempts in 2019 in the U.S. alone. Experimental studies suggest ketamine has the potential to be a rapid, effective treatment for refractory depression and suicidality.
