Committee advances bill to allow FDA‑approved psilocybin treatment to follow federal rescheduling

The Senate Health Committee on March 7 voted to report Senate Bill 906 to the full Senate with a recommendation that it do pass. Counsel told the committee the bill would make it lawful to prescribe, distribute and market a crystalline polymorph of psilocybin if the Food and Drug Administration approves the drug and the Drug Enforcement Administration reschedules it at the federal level.

The bill’s intent, counsel said, is to avoid state-level delay after federal approval. Counsel also told members there is no fiscal note and that the state Board of Pharmacy would be the impacted agency; the bill would take effect in 90 days if enacted.

Dr. Steve Levine, chief patient officer for Compass Pathways, testified in favor of the measure. “This is a treatment that we've been studying in very large, well designed trials,” Levine said, adding Compass has “enrolled over 1,000 patients across phase 2 and phase 3 studies.” He told senators the trials have shown rapid benefits for some people with treatment‑resistant depression and signals of durable effect out to six months. Levine described the bill as narrowly tied to an FDA‑approved, rescheduled pharmaceutical product so that, in his words, “there's no delay for West Virginians to be able to receive this treatment prescribed by licensed physicians, delivered in supervised health care settings.”

Senators asked whether the language operates as a preemptive or 'trigger' provision; counsel and a senator agreed it was intended to automatically follow federal action. After brief questions from committee members, the vice chair moved and the committee adopted a motion to report the bill to the full Senate with its recommendation that it do pass.

Next steps: SB906 will be referred under its double committee reference to the Committee on Finance before moving to the full Senate.