Sandoz was the Swiss drug company, based in Basel, that employed Albert Hofmann. His team reported psilocybin from Psilocybe mexicana in March 1958 (Hofmann et al., 1958). A 2019 review notes that Sandoz supplied LSD to researchers under the name Delysid and psilocybin as Indocybin (Nutt, 2019).
The company protected the work. US patent 3,183,172, assigned to Sandoz AG, claims an industrial process for obtaining psilocybin and psilocin from natural or cultured fungal material; the record lists a priority date of 21 February 1958 and a grant on 11 May 1965 (US patent 3,183,172). Sandoz began sending psilocybin to the Sainte-Anne hospital in Paris from July 1958 (History of psychedelic administration in France, 2023).
Accounts differ on when supply ended. A 2025 study, citing Hofmann’s memoir, says Sandoz stopped producing LSD and psilocybin in 1965 because of a lack of financial incentive and government pressure (Barber et al., 2025), while a 2022 paper describes Sandoz distributing Indocybin through the 1960s and 1970s (Sherwood et al., 2022).
Sources
- US patent 3,183,172 (Sandoz AG)
- Nutt, 2019, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience
- Barber, Gardner and Carter, 2025
- Sherwood et al., 2022
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