Biotech Firm Targets Big Pharma With Drug-Tweak Patent Strategy

A neuroscientist-led startup is borrowing a page from Big Pharma’s playbook, taking advantage of drug-approval shortcuts while securing advancements in psychiatric treatments—including in the growing psychedelics industry—before larger companies get there.

Terran Biosciences Inc., a self-described “biotech platform company,” develops therapeutics and technologies for patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Terran’s goal is to patent secondary drug advances before the original drugmaker, upending the “patent thicket” strategy major pharmaceutical companies use to block competing medication. The approach is aimed at speeding the availability of improved treatment options for patients with chronic neurological and psychiatric ailments, but critics warn of the ...