Wuhan General Group Inc (WUHN)

[pmunch]

Insight … History of Magic Mushrooms

Hundreds of clinical trials have demonstrated the extraordinary potential of psychedelic compounds to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance-use disorders, and other psychological ailments. Today, ketamine is legal and widely available in clinics across the country. MDMA is projected to become FDA-approved for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder as early as 2021. Psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression follows closely behind, with trials currently in Phase 2 of 3. Parallel decriminalization efforts have led to the legalization of psilocybin in Denver, Oakland, and Santa Cruz, with a ballot on the ticket in Oregon this November to legalize psilocybin for statewide use.

To investors, psychedelics are increasingly looking like a good bet. Last month, the psychedelic renaissance reached a new milestone when Compass Pathways, a London-based psilocybin research and therapy company, became the first psychedelic company to go public—receiving a post-IPO run-up valuation of $1.1 billion. Compass (which received seed investment from Peter Thiel’s Thiel Capital) was granted Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA for COMP360, a new method for the large-scale production of synthetic psilocybin. The company is currently conducting an FDA Phase 2b clinical trial of psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression, with results expected in 2021.

A handful of new biotech companies have joined the race to develop psychedelic therapies and to patent synthetic variations of plant-based psychedelic compounds including psilocybin (the main compound from magic mushrooms), mescaline (found in the peyote and San Pedro cactus), and ibogaine (a psychoactive rainforest shrub native to West Africa). Other research companies are conducting trials on treatment applications for non-plant-derived psychedelics like MDMA and LSD. New York-based psychedelic biotech firm Mind Medicine broke into the market with a Phase 1 MDMA-LSD clinical trial and a Phase 2 study of LSD for the treatment of anxiety disorders. (The company applied to uplist to the Nasdaq in September.) And big pharma players like Johnson & Johson and AbbVie have wasted no time getting in on the game, developing their own ketamine derivatives.

In a mental healthcare industry that’s made little progress in novel treatments over the past 50 years—and whose current treatments are generally agreed to be woefully inadequate—the market potential of psychedelic medicine is clear. The psychedelic drug market is projected to grow at more than 16% annually and reach $6.85 billion by 2027, with a potential $100 billion market opportunity.

But this phenomenal growth hasn’t come without its growing pains. A rising movement within the psychedelic community is voicing concern that the emerging industry is poised to repeat colonial patterns that have appropriated Indigenous knowledge and led to the destruction of the habitats and communities from which these sacred plant medicines originate—while also making these new treatments inaccessible to many of the underserved populations who need them most.

https://neo.life/2020/10/inside-the-movement-to-decolonize-psychedelic-pharma/