Seelos Therapeutics ( SEEL ) shares are trading higher Tuesday after the company signed a material transfer agreement with the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity (USAMMDA) to supply intranasal racemic ketamine (SLS-002) for the Department of Defense’s Military and Veterans Adaptative Platform Clinical Trial for PTSD.

The Details: The study, funded by the Department of Defense’s Health agency and led by the USMMDA’s Warfighter Readiness, Performance, and Brain Health Project Management Office, will evaluate the effectiveness, safety and tolerability of SLS-002 for current military members and veterans with PTSD.

The trial will start with a 30-day screening period then move to a 12-week treatment period and end with a 4-week safety follow up period. Changes in PTSD symptoms will be measured by the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale-5-Revised along with other methods.

“Approximately 13 million people in the U.S. live with PTSD and there have been no new drugs approved in the last two decades for people suffering the effects of PTSD,” said Raj Mehra, CEO of Seelos.

“I believe that the inclusion of SLS-002 in this study is due to the robust amount of anecdotal evidence that ketamine has the potential to be an effective therapeutic for the symptoms of PTSD and other related conditions. Our data to date with SLS-002 suggest that its intranasal formulation could provide a rapid onset of benefit while mitigating the side effects seen through the other routes of administration of ketamine. We are proud to be included in this study and look forward to commencing the dosing of SLS-002.”

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SEEL Price Action: At the time of writing, Seelos Therapeutics ( SEEL ) stock is trading 72.3% higher at 32 cents per data from Benzinga Pro.

Image: Image: Emilian Danaila from Pixabay