Dr. Bronner's Donates $5 Million To MAPS So MDMA Can Become FDA Approved PTSD Medicine

Dr. Bronner’s will donate $1 million per year over the next five years to the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). The gift comes after MAPS was granted permission by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin Phase 3 drug trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for people with treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The family owned top selling natural soap company has made this generous announcement on the eve of the Psychedelic Science 2017 conference being held in Oakland, California (April 19-24). MAPS has a $25 million drug development budget to make MDMA an FDA-approved medicine.

“There’s tremendous suffering and pain the responsible integration of MDMA for treatment will alleviate and heal,” says David Bronner, Cosmic Engagement Officer (CEO) of Dr. Bronner’s. “To help inspire our allies to close the funding gap, my family has pledged $1 million a year for five years,$5 million total, by far our largest gift to an NGO partner to date. In part, we were inspired by the incredible example of Ashawna Hailey, former MAPS Board member, who gave MAPS $5 million when she died in 2011.”

MAPS concluded an international series of Phase 2 pilot studies into MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. These studies laid the groundwork for two larger multi-site Phase 3 trials which are required to show the FDA that MDMA is a safe and effective alternative to psychotherapy for patients with PTSD.

Dr. Bronner’s gift will be reserved for Phase 3 studies, bringing MAPS significantly closer to raising the estimated $25 million needed to develop MDMA into an FDA-approved prescription treatment.

“MAPS intends to use the income generated from selling MDMA once it’s an FDA-approved medicine to train therapists and set up treatment clinics around the world,” explains Rick Doblin, Ph.D., founder and Executive Director of MAPS. “Investment into making MDMA a legal medicine will turn MAPS into a self-sustaining organism, exponentially increasing our ability to heal suffering in the world.”

MAPS was founded in 1986 and is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research and educational organization. It develops medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana. As part of Dr. Bronner’s mission to put into practice social and ecological principles of its core beliefs, he donates profits to social and environmental causes.

In unity, Doblin and Bronner agree:

“Our larger goal is to see psychedelic medicine responsibly integrated into American and global culture, readily available to those who need it most, while helping the rest of us open our hearts and minds towards each other and to the miraculous living world we live within.”