New Zealand authorizes two psychiatrists to prescribe MDMA for PTSD through an individual doctor pathway, without approving MDMA as a medicine

New Zealand has authorized psychiatrists Dr. Gary Wynn and Dr. Tom Paterson to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade MDMA for patients with severe PTSD, making it the second country after Australia to permit this legally without approving MDMA as a medicine. The pathway authorizes individual doctors rather than a drug or product nationally, requiring detailed treatment protocols, independent ethics approval, clinical expertise, supervised dosing, adult-only treatment, and no take-home doses. Access is intended for a limited number of patients who have exhausted established options. The model differs from the US route, where Resilient Pharmaceuticals' MDMA-assisted therapy application was rejected by the FDA in 2024 over insufficient safety and efficacy evidence. A reported resubmission remains unconfirmed, and New Zealand's approach does not resolve the underlying evidentiary questions. Instead, it separates patient access from national drug approval through a narrow, individually scrutinized system.