Just days after UK-based psychedelic developer Compass Pathways went public, New York-based MindMed has applied for a Nasdaq up-listing. The company, valued at $190 million, is already listed on Canada’s NEO exchange.
MindMed is currently trialing two psychedelic drugs including LSD and a derivative of ibogaine for treatment of anxiety disorders and opioid addiction.
Ibogaine is a highly hallucinogenic West African root used ceremoniously for centuries. But it’s also shown great potential in addiction treatment, often from a single use. MindMed’s founding asset is 18-MC, a non-hallucinogenic derivative of ibogaine used in treating opioid addiction.
MindMed is also exploring the benefits of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture hallucinogen of choice, LSD, for its potential in supporting mental health. MindMed currently holds a ten-year exclusive contract on eight clinical trials, one of which is a phase-two trial for LSD in anxiety treatment.
“Besides psychedelic medicines, there are very few transformative and new approaches to mental health,” JR Rahn, co-founder and co-CEO of MindMed, told Forbes. “Institutional and Wall Street investors are recognizing that there needs to be novel approaches to these vast problems and if they are psychedelic medicines, so be it.”
Compass’ IPO indicates that may indeed be the case, particularly for Treatment Resistant Depression. Its work with psilocybin builds on data showing that the benefits of a single psychedelic psilocybin experience may improve mental health in patients for months. Stock prices soared 71 percent on its first day of trading. By Thursday, it had climbed 134 percent over its opening price of $17 per share.
“The world has changed and these substances are being shined upon by a substantially-different light,” says Rahn. “If the pill wasn’t called LSD or psilocybin and someone told you it had a pretty good chance of helping people with depression, addiction, or anxiety, do you care what the pill is called? Does it even matter?”
