---
type: source
title: "Texas IMPACT Consortium: $50M State + $50M Federal Ibogaine Research for OUD, PTSD, and TBI"
author: "UTMB Health / UTHealth Houston (EurekAlert press release)"
url: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1109952
date: 2025-12-12
domain: health
secondary_domains: []
format: press-release
status: processed
processed_by: vida
processed_date: 2026-05-11
priority: medium
tags: [ibogaine, OUD, PTSD, TBI, Texas, clinical-trial, psychedelic, addiction, federal-funding]
intake_tier: research-task
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

**Program name:** Ibogaine Medicine for PTSD, Addiction, and Cognitive Trauma (IMPACT)

**Funding:** $50 million from Texas Health and Human Services Commission (authorized by Texas SB 2308, December 2025) + up to $50M ARPA-H federal match (per Trump EO April 2026) = potentially $100M total

**Lead institutions:** UTHealth Houston + UTMB Health (Galveston)

**Consortium members (11 institutions):**
UTHealth Houston, UTMB Health, Texas Tech University, Texas Tech UTHS El Paso, UT Austin, UT Health Science Center San Antonio, UT Tyler, UT Rio Grande Valley, Texas A&M University, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Baylor College of Medicine, JPS Health Network (Dallas)

**Research design:** Two-year multicenter trial

**Conditions targeted:**
- Ibogaine treatment for addiction (OUD primary indication) — UTHealth Houston + UTMB
- Traumatic brain injury — UT Austin + Baylor College of Medicine
- PTSD — coordinated across sites

**Why ibogaine specifically:**
- Stanford 2024 study (n=30 veterans): 88% PTSD reduction, 87% depression reduction at 1 month
- MAPS Phase 2 OUD: 70-75% abstinence at 1 month
- Mechanism: Opioid receptor reset + GDNF (glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor) production → dopaminergic neuron regeneration
- Critical limitation: QT prolongation risk → potential cardiac arrhythmia → >30 deaths in literature (unsupervised settings)
- Ibogaine can abolish opioid withdrawal symptoms within 1-2 days (the original use case)

**Regulatory status:**
- Schedule I (federal) — no Phase 3 trial completed in US
- Colorado Proposition 122: decriminalized in Colorado
- Trump EO (April 2026): directed ARPA-H funding toward ibogaine for veterans; DEA to initiate rescheduling upon Phase 3 completion

**Phase 3 timeline:**
- Texas IMPACT is Phase 2 scale (multi-site, but two-year duration)
- Phase 3 initiation depends on Phase 2 results
- Realistic NDA submission: 2029-2030 if Phase 2 data supports advancement

**Comparison to psilocybin:**
- Psilocybin (Compass): 2 positive Phase 3 trials, rolling NDA Q4 2026, probable approval Q4 2026-Q1 2027
- Ibogaine: Pre-Phase 3, cardiac safety unresolved, 4-5 years from potential FDA approval
- Different disease targets: psilocybin's best evidence is TRD; ibogaine's best evidence is OUD
- Drug overdose deaths 2024: 79,384 (fentanyl-driven) — ibogaine addresses the highest-mortality segment

## Agent Notes
**Why this matters:** The overdose crisis (79,384 deaths in 2024) is the most acute public health emergency in the mental health/substance use space, and ibogaine is the only psychedelic with credible single-session evidence for OUD specifically. The Texas IMPACT consortium represents the largest state-sponsored psychedelic research investment in US history — bigger than Oregon's Measure 109 budget and funded by Texas, a traditionally conservative state, illustrating bipartisan political support.

**What surprised me:** Texas. This is the most conservative large state in the US, yet it authorized $50M for psychedelic drug research. The driving political force: the veteran population. Ibogaine's Stanford study (n=30) was specifically in veterans, and veterans represent a constituency that transcends partisan politics. The PTSD+TBI framing made ibogaine acceptable to Texas Republicans where psilocybin for depression might not have been.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Phase 3 evidence. The Texas IMPACT is scaling Phase 2 — it's not a Phase 3 registration trial. The ibogaine story is still 4-5 years from FDA consideration. The urgency of the OUD crisis is not matched by the speed of the regulatory path.

**KB connections:**
- [[the mental health supply gap is widening not closing because demand outpaces workforce growth and technology primarily serves the already-served rather than expanding access]] — ibogaine's OUD application targets the most underserved population (OUD), not the wellness-oriented psilocybin market
- [[Americas declining life expectancy is driven by deaths of despair concentrated in populations and regions most damaged by economic restructuring since the 1980s]] — OUD deaths (79,384 in 2024) are the most acute current manifestation of deaths of despair despite the recent 26.2% improvement

**Extraction hints:**
- New claim candidate: "Ibogaine's evidence for opioid use disorder — 70-75% abstinence at 1 month (Phase 2) with single-dose opioid withdrawal abolition — targets the highest-mortality addiction crisis but faces 4-5 years until potential FDA approval due to cardiac safety requirements"
- The Texas political story (conservative state, veteran constituency) is worth noting: different political coalition enabled ibogaine vs. psilocybin for mental health
- The cardiac risk (QT prolongation, >30 deaths) is the primary regulatory barrier — compare to psilocybin's much cleaner safety profile

**Context:** EurekAlert is a standard academic press release distributor. The announcement is from UTHealth Houston's own PR — authoritative source for the program description. Texas SB 2308 is verified legislation. The $100M total (state + ARPA-H match) is the largest single psychedelic research investment in US history.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[the mental health supply gap is widening not closing because demand outpaces workforce growth and technology primarily serves the already-served rather than expanding access]]
WHY ARCHIVED: Documents the ibogaine research trajectory — the psychedelic with the most urgent clinical application (OUD) but the longest regulatory path. The Texas IMPACT consortium is the best evidence for where the ibogaine story is going. Keep separate from psilocybin — different drug, different disease, different regulatory timeline, different patient population.
EXTRACTION HINT: The key analytical point is the contrast: OUD is the most acute public health emergency in psychedelic-relevant conditions; ibogaine has the strongest single-session evidence for OUD; but ibogaine is furthest from FDA approval due to cardiac risks. The urgency-evidence-access gap is widest for ibogaine.
