In May, a long-awaited randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase 3 clinical trial testing MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of PTSD was published in Nature Medicine. The trial was conducted by MAPS Public Benefit Corporation, a for-profit subsidiary launched by the registered non-profit in 2014, with the goal of conducting the necessary research to make MDMA a legally available medicine. "We are a for-profit, but we're wholly owned. We only have one shareholder, and it's a non-profit," says CEO Amy Emerson. While a non-profit is tax exempt and operates for charity, the PBC, like a traditional corporation, pays taxes, operates for profit, and has shareholders and stocks. The results of the Phase 3 clinical trial conducted by MAPS PBC revealed that after receiving a combination of talk therapy and MDMA, 67 percent of participants who received the drug no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, compared to 32 percent of participants who received the placebo. The trial was recently acknowledged as a "big win for the field" in Science Magazine's annual Breakthrough of the Year awards. "In our three-session model, there's no follow-up medication needed," [MAPS CMO Dr. Corine de Boer] says. After pooling the data of six Phase 2 trials together, de Boer's team found that 57 percent of participants no longer met the criteria for PTSD. At a one-year follow-up during which no MDMA was administered, that number increased to 67 percent.