Pipeline Updates at the 2026 ASCP Annual Meeting: Luvesilocin & Vasopressin 1A, 1B

CONFERENCE REPORTER

At the 2026 American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology Annual Meeting in Miami, FL, the 2-hour “Pharmaceutical Pipeline Session” attracted a large crowd of attendees. John J. Miller, MD, the Editor in Chief of Psychiatric Times, sat in and brought back highlights of the potential treatments that interested him most. In the 2 hours, investigators presented 12 drugs, with each presenter speaking for 10 minutes to introduce the drug.

In this video, Miller highlights 4 of these drugs in the pipeline.

• Luvesilocin, formerly known as RE104, is a fast-acting prodrug of 4-OH-DiPT, developed by Reunion Neuroscience. It is a novel, short-acting psychedelic designed to treat mood and anxiety disorders while causing a much shorter psychoactive experience (~3-4 hours) than classic psychedelics like psilocybin. It has a rapid and durable effect following a single dose. This drug is currently under investigation for the treatment of postpartum depression. The FDA granted luvesilocin Breakthrough Therapy designation based on the phase 2 RECONNECT trial in February 2026.¹

“It is yet another one of the large array of medications that are looking at the psilocybin-like drugs,” commented Miller.

• Vasopressin 1A and vasopressin 1B are 2 drugs targeting vasopressin receptors and are intended for the treatment of social anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder. The neurohypophysial hormone arginine vasopressin is essential for a wide range of physiological functions, such as water reabsorption, cardiovascular homeostasis, hormone secretion, and social behavior. Recently, there has been an increasing understanding of the physiological roles of V1A and V1B receptors.²

“This cluster is a whole new area, and one that you want to keep your eyes on,” said Miller.

• Lastly, Miller notes ongoing research on ketamine for nonmovement symptoms in Parkinson disease, which shows promising results. One commonality between migraine headaches, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, Parkinson disease, and L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias is hypersynchrony of electric activity in the brain, including the basal ganglia, for which the use of low-dose sub-anesthetic ketamine might be helpful.³

“They have shown some pretty good data with durability, so stay tuned in and to be determined how that goes.

Each drug's mechanism of action, current clinical data, and future planning were briefly reviewed.

Dr Miller is Medical Director, Brain Health, Exeter, New Hampshire; Editor in Chief, Psychiatric Times; Volunteer Consulting Psychiatrist, Seacoast Mental Health Center, Exeter; Consulting Psychiatrist, Insight Meditation Society, Barre, Massachusetts.

References

1. U.S. FDA grants Reunion Neuroscience’s luvesilocin (RE104) breakthrough therapy designation status. News release. February 23, 2026. Accessed May 27, 2026. https://reunionneuro.com/2026/02/23/u-s-fda-grants-reunion-neurosciences-luvesilocin-re104-breakthrough-therapy-designation-status/

2. Koshimizu T, Nakamura K, Egashira N, et al. Vasopressin V1a and V1b receptors: from molecules to physiological systems. Physiol Rev. 2012;92(4):1813-1864.

3. Bartlett MJ, Joseph RM, LePoidevin LM, et al. Long-term effect of sub-anesthetic ketamine in reducing L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias in a preclinical model. Neurosci Lett. 2015;612:121-125.