Why Drug Companies Are Rushing to Market Ketamine Medicines

How would you like your ketamine? In tablet form, or a thin film that melts in your mouth? Delivered as a nasal spray, or combined with a cancer drug to extend the antidepressant effects?

In a gold rush accelerated by the Trump administration’s unlikely zeal for experimental psychedelic treatments, over a dozen companies are developing products based on ketamine, the generic anesthetic that in recent years has become a popular treatment for mental health conditions. (And, unfortunately, a ubiquitous recreational drug.)

The companies are chasing the riches enjoyed by Johnson & Johnson, which is expected to earn $2.3 billion this year from its blockbuster drug Spravato, a ketamine-like nasal spray used to treat depression and suicidal ideation.

For now, Spravato is the only psychedelic treatment on the market approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Because ketamine lost its patent protection decades ago, many of the companies are engaged in what’s known as drug repurposing, the potentially lucrative approach to finding new uses for old medicines.

Repurposing dramatically cuts the time and expense associated with discovering an entirely new therapeutic compound and establishing whether it’s safe and effective. The protections granted by the F.D.A. essentially give an applicant years of exclusivity on their repurposed compound.