• Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is advocating for an Arizona bill that would fund clinical trials on ibogaine, a psychedelic currently listed as a Schedule 1 drug.
• Sinema recently joined Hogan Lovells, a law firm that represented a biotech company that had been studying ibogaine for opioid addiction treatment.
• Sinema maintains her advocacy for the Arizona bill predates her employment at Hogan Lovells and is unrelated to biotech company MindMed’s past work.

Kyrsten Sinema’s new employer once represented a project that sought to develop a clinical therapy she is now promoting at the Arizona Legislature.

Sinema described her advocacy for legislation that would allow an Arizona facility to conduct clinical trials on a plant-derived psychedelic as a personal “passion project” that she is working on for free.

There is “no connection,” she said, between her Arizona efforts and her new employer.

Sinema told The Arizona Republic that her advocacy at the Arizona Legislature started “long before” she hired on with the international law firm Hogan Lovells. The firm announced she was joining its global regulatory and intellectual property group on March 31.

On April 3, public radio station KJZZ reported the firm’s representation of MindMed, a biotech company that was running a clinical trial in Australia to test the efficacy of a west African plant called ibogaine to treat opioid disorders.

In a statement, Sinema said MindMed is no longer pursuing ibogaine-related research and there is no connection to her efforts at the Legislature.

“My work on this project took place before any discussions occurred regarding joining Hogan Lovells,” Sinema said in a statement released by the firm. “The bill is not related to MindMed or its pipeline. MindMed is not exploring the use of ibogaine.”

The Republic reached out to MindMed for comment on whether it is continuing work on ibogaine, and if it is tracking the Arizona legislation. It did not receive an immediate response.

“I am doing this advocacy as a private citizen,” Sinema told The Republic.

House Bill 2871 passed the House of Representatives on a bipartisan 36-22 vote March 3. It won unanimous approval from the Senate Appropriations Committee and is currently held up as lawmakers work on a state budget.

The bill calls for a $5 million investment from the state, to be matched by $5 million in private funds that Sinema said she is working on raising.

The combined $10 million, if approved, would be directed to the state Department of Health Services to solicit bids for a facility to conduct clinical trials on ibogaine. The tests would be aimed at gauging the efficacy of ibogaine to treat PTSD, traumatic brain injury and Parkinson’s disease.

The goal, Sinema has said, is to get the test results before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in hopes of winning FDA approval for the drug. Currently, ibogaine is a Schedule 1 drug, which means it is illegal because the federal government does not consider it to have any medical use.

MindMed completed its stage one studies of ibogaine in 2021, KJZZ reported, but then set the project aside pending new partners or funding.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on social media @maryjpitzl.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.