Psychedelic Business Spotlight: June 4, 2021

This week in psychedelic business news: Mindset Pharma announces its first lead psychedelic candidate, manufacturing begins on a synthetic ibogaine, and the Western Hemisphere gets its first “smart shop.”

Mindset Pharma Inc. has selected its first lead clinical candidate from its novel, patent-pending psychedelic compounds to move into current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) compliant manufacturing and investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies. MSP-1014, a differentiated psilocybin-based compound, was selected after demonstrating superior preclinical characteristics in head-to-head comparison with psilocybin and its active metabolite, psilocin.

“MSP-1014 has the potential to be a safer, more efficacious analog to psilocybin, with reduced potential side effects. Given its chemical profile, we anticipate that MSP-1014 will have the potential to treat mood disorders, including major depressive disorder, substance misuse disorders and end-of-life angst associated with terminal illnesses, including cancer,” said James Lanthier, CEO of Mindset. 

Mind Cure Health Inc. has completed the first stage of manufacturing pharmaceutical grade ibogaine for clinical research. The company will now begin the launch of stage two of the manufacturing process. During this stage, Mind Cure will be running financial models while assessing the quality of the synthetic ibogaine when produced at scale in order to determine the timing of and economic viability for commercial-scale manufacturing. 

The company is creating the psychedelic in hopes of providing it for researchers to use in clinical trials and, eventually, to clinicians providing psychedelic therapy. 

“Ibogaine offers incredible therapeutic potential to treat addiction and shows promise in addressing other brain injuries, and we are very excited about the potential to manufacture and provide a high-quality synthetic product for promising research avenues, without impacting the natural supply of this amazing psychedelic that needs to be protected,” said Kelsey Ramsden, President and CEO of Mind Cure. 

Silo Wellness Inc., has signed a letter of intent with Canadian-based mushroom company Mushe Inc., to establish the first legal functional and psychedelic mushroom retail outlet in the Western Hemisphere. The “smart shop” will be based in Jamaica, where Silo Wellness currently cultivates psilocybin mushrooms, conducts psychedelic wellness retreats, and is testing a proof-of-concept patent-pending nasal spray. 

The smart shop retail space will sell functional and psychoactive mushroom products including tinctures, capsules, topicals, and edibles, as well as boutique literature and accessories. “As a company, we are very bullish about the high-potential functional mushroom category and the psychedelics sector as a whole. We continue to invest in and expand our operations in Jamaica, the only country where the cultivation, extraction and sale of psilocybin mushrooms is permissible,” said Douglas K. Gordon, Chief Executive Officer of Silo Wellness.

ME Resource Corp. has submitted an initial listing statement supporting its application for listing on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE). Previously, the company announced a reverse takeover transaction with psychedelic drug developer Albert Labs. The Listing Statement submission will initiate a consulting phase by the CSE with ME Resource Corp in preparation for the subsequent listing of common shares in the capital of Albert Labs. 

“The much-anticipated submission of the listing statement represents a significant milestone for Albert Labs. We're excited to move towards our goal of becoming a public company to attract growth capital and enable Albert Labs to continue towards its goal of being a worldwide leader and provide accelerated access to psychedelics medicines and therapy,” said Chand Jagpal, Albert Labs’ chief operations officer.

Common shares of Toronto-based Field Trip Health Ltd., will begin trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) on June 7, 2021, under the ticker symbol “FTRP” and its warrants will trade under the symbol “FTRP.WT.” Meanwhile, the company’s common shares and warrants will be delisted from the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE). 

Last fall, Field Trip became the third psychedelic research and development company to go public on the CSE. The company operates several ketamine-enhanced psychotherapy clinics in the U.S. and Canada, is creating its own psychedelic compounds, and is cultivating plant-based psychedelics at a facility in Jamacia. 

“We are working to build Field Trip into nothing less than a world class leader in the mental and behavioral health sectors through our pioneering work with psychedelics and psychedelic therapies,” said Field Trip’s executive chairman Roan Levy.