“The New Frontiers of Psychedelic Medicine” is one of the most highly anticipated panels in the history of the MIT Club of Northern California's annual Future of Healthcare and Medicine conference. To be held on January 27th, 2021, the panel includes representatives from groundbreaking startups such as Compass Pathways, Eleusis Ltd, Journey CoLab, MAPS, and Tactogen Inc.
In the midst of the world’s largest mental health crisis, startups are turning to psychedelic drugs to create new solutions to epidemic-level problems. Just a few years ago, this might have seemed risky, but new scientific findings and urgent unmet market demands have drawn investor money into the emerging sector.
Within the last few months alone, events have highlighted the sector's promise. Compass Pathways (CMPS), which is developing psilocybin for depression, held their IPO in September, creating $2.0 billion of market capitalization and vindicating early investors such as Christian Angermeyer and Peter Thiel. In December, the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, founded by industry pioneer Rick Doblin, released Phase III clinical trial data showing high efficacy for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, increasing expectation that the treatment will receive FDA approval in 2022.
Younger companies are also attracting attention. In October 2020, former YCombinator CEO and AirBnB investor and current CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman invested $3.0M into Journey CoLabs, a startup developing synthetic mescaline to help treat alcoholism. Eleusis Ltd, fresh from publishing an analysis of the chemical structures that optimize the previously unexpected anti-inflammatory effects of some psychedelics, announced their December acquisition of Kalypso Wellness Centers. After filing over ten provisional patent applications, Tactogen Inc initiated preclinical work with researchers at NIH on serotonin release and reuptake and at Western Michigan on drug discrimination. The “New Frontiers of Psychedelic Medicine” panel will discuss neuropsychiatric medicine innovation before a virtual global audience that includes the most influential biopharma and Sand Hill investors.
The panel is comprised of Jennifer Pisansky (COO, Journey Colab), Ekaterina Malievskaia (CIO & Co-founder, Compass Pathways), Rick Doblin (ED, MAPS), Nieloufar Family (Director of Research, Eleusis) and data science leader and neuroscientist Matthew Baggott (CEO, Tactogen Inc). Simone Celia Klein, M.D. is moderating the panel.
Register here to join us on January 27th from 5:30pm - 6:30pm PST to learn about this shift in the future of neuropsychiatric medicine.