LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, ketamine, DMT… that’s a suspect product line for a legitimate business, and psychedelics Opening I know. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that the industry is wary of stereotypes around hallucinogens.
“What the industry really needs is the most boring person in the room to present the topic,” says Clara Burtenshaw, co-founder of Neo Kuma EnterprisesEurope’s largest venture capital fund for psychedelic healthcare.
It would be harsh to call Burtenshaw the most boring person in the room, but she’s not the cliché travel lover. More refined entrepreneur than kaleidoscopic hippie, Burtenshaw was a corporate lawyer before moving into psychedelic health care.
It was a rare career move with a family root: watching loved ones struggle with their mental health. Burtenshaw thought that psychedelics might provide a better remedy.
In late 2019, he co-founded Neo Kuma (Greek for “New Wave”) to invest in the treatments. Her timing proved prophetic. Within weeks, the world was plunged into a mental health epidemic.
In the first year of the COVID-19 outbreak, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25%, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Mental health services, already understaffed and underfunded, were pushed beyond their limits.
Inevitably, an increase drug demand Following. But that was simply accelerating the prevailing trend. In Europe, the use of antidepressants has more than doubled in the last 20 years.
The drug may save lives, but the benefits are not evenly distributed. Over a third of patients are resistant to treatment mood improvements. Others may suffer from side effectsdependence or withdrawal symptoms.
“This is about developing the blockbuster drugs of tomorrow.
As acceptance of antidepressants skyrocketed, some researchers began to claim that they were hardly better than placebos. TO recent study found that 10 of the most frequently prescribed drugs made a significant difference in only 15% of the patients who took them.
Psychedelic treatments offer an alternative. While conventional antidepressants are taken regularly for long periods of time, they only A trip along with therapy can have lifelong benefits.
This transformative potential offers great business opportunities. The global mental health market was already valued to 380,000 million dollars (356,000 million euros) in 2020. By 2030, it is expected to reach 538,000 million dollars (503,000 million euros).
The part that Burtenshaw’s target will come from development of psychedelic drugs, a subsector that Europe leads.
The continent is home to some of the key players in space, from Atai Life Sciencesa German startup testing an MDMA derivative for PTSD, to the UK Beckley psychiatrist, recently won FDA approval to test a compound found in toads as a treatment for alcoholism. Riches, Burtenshaw hopes, will come after patenting intellectual property.
“This is how you see the return on investment,” she says. “This is about developing the blockbuster drugs of tomorrow.”
The blockbuster drugs of tomorrow will not be ready overnight. The process of developing, testing, licensing, and distributing new drugs is long, but the payoff could be enormous.
Analysts Predict The Psychedelic Health Industry Will Pay Off 6.9 billion dollars (6.4 billion euros) by 2027. But before the industry can reap those benefits, it must first convince skeptics.
Once regulators approve a drug, it goes from being an illicit substance to a recognized substance. medicine. But the route to psychedelics is long and dangerous. To win their support, the industry needs to win clinical arguments.
“Psychedelics attract evangelists who talk about all the wonderful things about treatment and perhaps overlook the risks,” Burtenshaw says. “But we need to take a data-driven, evidence-based approach to looking at these treatments.”
And that evidence base is growing. A growing body of research has shown that psychoactive substances can drive therapeutic advances for various mental health problems.
In one stallionand With Neo’s support, the veterans received controlled doses of MDMA. More than two-thirds (68%) experienced a complete remission of PTSD. The other 32% felt significant relief.
“That was completely unheard of in psychiatry, we don’t see results like that,” says Burtenshaw. “And many of these patients are veterans who really had entrenched PTSD and had gone through a series of unsuccessful treatments in the past.”
Promising results have also emerged in compass pathsa startup that was listed on Nasdaq in September 2020. Based in the United Kingdom, the company has developed a synthetic form of psilocybin, a psychoactive component of magic mushrooms, for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), that is diagnosed after conventional medicine proves ineffective.
A study published last year found that the substance can significantly alleviate severe depression. After taking a single 25mg dose along with psychological support, around 39% of the participants were in remission at week three. In particular, the greatest impact occurred one day after receiving the treatment. Standard antidepressants, by contrast, take several weeks to reach maximum effect.
Both treatments are now facing regulatory review, which would open them up on the market. Burtenshaw believes they can push psychedelic healthcare more broadly into the mainstream.
“What we’ve seen with psychedelics is this potential for people to really understand the root cause of their trauma, face it head-on, work with a therapist to come to terms with it, and then move on with their lives.,” she says.
like Burtenshaw, Clerkenwell Health CEO Tom McDonald is not the archetypal lover of hallucinogens. McDonald spent 10 years working in management consulting with big pharma before joining Clerkenwell, a British startup running clinical trials for psychedelic treatments.
The career changethey definitely wowed friends and family,” says McDonald.
“There is still a lot of stigma, but everyone in the space is trying to normalize it. And the data speaks, as do the emotional stories.”
Such stories are powerful tools for changing perceptions, but the most effective narratives are localized ones.
In the US, for example, stories of military veterans using psychedelics to overcome trauma have won over skeptics. Meanwhile, in the UK, the impacts on terminally ill patients have gained more public sympathy. That sympathy could bring benefits closer to home.
Currently, most European citizens would have to travel abroad to access psychedelic therapies, but there are signs that the regional gap is narrowing.
In the UK, for example, politicians from across the political spectrum are rallying support for treatment. Last month, the conservative politician Crispin Blunt warned that the regulation of psychedelics in the country “lags behind Australia, Canada and the United States”.
Blunt said the substances “will help address the miserable dependency of many” on antidepressants. The veteran MP wants psilocybin to be upgraded from a Schedule 1 to a lower-risk Schedule 2 drug, which would allow researchers to further explore its potential as a medicine.
“Science highlights its immense potential.
His petition echoes recent petitions in the EU. Just last week, a faction of legislators from all parties thrown out a new group to promote access to affordable and safe novel therapeutic applications of psychedelics on the block.
“Millions of Europeans need better treatments,” said Czech MEP Mikuláš Peksa. “We need to make sure that new psychedelic treatments are considered, as the science behind them highlights their immense potential.”
That immense potential does not only attract politicians. Relaxing the rules would also create various openings for the technology, and startups are poised to capitalize.
Europe’s psychedelic startups have already explored wide digital applications. Goes from April 19thAI and Beckley Psytech’s AI drug discovery platform biomarkers for the follow-up of patients Homecoming app for therapists and wave paths personalized music for treatment.
One of its most notable features is adaptability, which could extend its applications from psychedelics to the broader health and wellness markets.
With such a breadth of opportunity, the industry has reason for optimism. But startups will have to play the long game and attract patient capital.
“I think the market landscape will look very different five years from now than it does now,” says Burtenshaw. “What we hope to see is this combination of destigmatization along with the implementation of these treatments.”
The route to the market, however, seems long and treacherous. Regulatory barriers, a dangerous financial landscape, and slow paths to profit have dampened the enthusiasm around psychedelics somewhat. But in the crucial fight for hearts and minds, the prospects of victory increase.