Following the legalization of recreational cannabis, MIRA Pharmaceuticals moves to go public

Baltimore’s own MIRA Pharmaceuticals, still riding high on the nearly $7 million seed it raised in 2022, is ready to dance with the bulls and the bears of the world’s second-largest stock exchange.

The 2023 RealLIST Startup, an early pre-clinical-stage pharmaceutical company with a mission to develop and commercialize a new molecular synthetic THC analog, recently registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public on the Nasdaq. The company’s focus lies in investigating the potential treatment of anxiety and cognitive decline typically associated with early-stage dementia, particularly in adult patients who also experience chronic pain.

MIRA’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drug candidate, MIRA1a, aims to treat neuropsychiatric, inflammatory, and neurologic diseases and disorders. With the funds raised from the IPO, MIRA aims to conduct the essential clinical studies required to seek the FDA’s recognition for their drug. According to the company’s SEC filing, MIRA1a’s pre-clinical studies indicate that it may have less potency at CB1, leading to potentially fewer intoxicating effects compared to THC. MIRA1a could thus potentially unmask positive therapeutic effects not typically seen with THC.

According to the Baltimore Business Journal, that filing also noted that MIRA raised $3.2 million in 2022. The company is relatively small, boasting just one full-time employee and five part-time employees as of July 2023. It’s worth noting that the FDA has approved a total of four cannabis-based pharmaceuticals, including one cannabis-derived product and three synthetic cannabis products.