The cofounders of Toronto-based Field Trip Health. From left to right: Mujeeb Jafferi, Hannan Fleiman, Ryan Yermus, Joseph del Moral, and Ronan Levy.
Welcome to the era of psychedelic stocks. Toronto-based Field Trip Health became the third psychedelic therapy and drug development company to hit the public markets on Tuesday.
Field Trip went public through a direct listing on the Canadian Securities Exchange after it completed a reverse takeover of oil and gas company Newton Energy Corporation.
Ronan Levy, a cofounder and the executive chairman of Field Trip, says psychedelic drugs, which are currently illegal under federal law but show promise in clinical mental health studies, will become the next blockbuster pharmaceutical products.
As you look at psychedelics, these molecules stand poised to fundamentally revolutionize how we consider mental, emotional and behavioral health, says Levy.
Before going public, Field Trip closed a $12 million private placement deal, which brought the total amount it has raised since founding to $20 million. On Tuesday, the stock opened at 3.50 Canadian Dollars and closed at 2.70 Canadian Dollars. After the first day of trading, Field Trips market cap was $102 million.
MindMed, a psychedelic drug development company based in New York, was the first company of its kind to test the public markets in March on Canadas NEO Exchange and the Peter Thiel-backed Compass Pathways, which is pursuing FDA approval for its synthetic version of psilocybin, went public on the Nasdaq in September. Compass Pathways has a market cap of $1.37 billion, while MindMed is approaching $200 million.
Field Trip, which is not profitable and incurred a net loss of $2 million, has a three-pronged approach to the psychedelics markettreatment clinics, drug development, and drug manufacturing.
The company currently operates three ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinics in Toronto, Los Angeles, and New York. Field Trip plans to scale up to 75 clinics in the next few years, says Levy.
Tripping In Style: Patients receive intramuscular ketamine injections at Field Trip Health's high-end clinics in Los Angeles and New York. Patients are given ketamine lozenges in Toronto.
Patients receiveketamine, a dissociative psychedelic approved by the FDA as a fast-acting anesthetic, at Field Trips clinics off-label to treat anxiety and depression. Ketamine is the only legal psychedelic drug at this moment. The FDA approved Johnson & Johnsonsketamine-derived nasal spray Spravato for suicidal ideation and treatment-resistant depression last year, but Field Trip sells intramuscular ketamine injections in the U.S., which produces a more intense psychedelic experience. (A program of six ketamine injections and 11 therapy sessions costs nearly $5,000. In Canada, the therapy involves ketamine lozenges.)
Field Trips big plan is bring its own hallucinogenic compound to market. Its developing its own novel psychedelic molecule, FT-104, and plans to pursue FDA approval. Field Trip is being tight-lipped about which mental disorder FT-104 will target, but the compound does engage the serotonin 5HT2A receptor in the brain, which is believed to be responsible for psychedelic experiences.
Levy says FT-104 is similar to the chemical structures of known psychedelic substances like psilocybin. Field Trip filed a provisional patent and the company hopes to launch clinical trials by the end of 2021.
The third strategy Field Trip is pursuing is psilocybin cultivation. It partnered with the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, where psilocybin is legal, to build a magic mushroom research and cultivation facility.
For the time being, Field Trips clinics only offer ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Eventually, as certain compounds gain FDA approval or become legal through state initiatives, Levy says the companys clinics will expand to other psychedelic therapies. (In Oregon, psilocybin could be legalized for therapeutic use through a ballot measure in November.)
Youll see a robust suite of psychedelic molecules available to people, whether its MDMA, psilocybin, DMT, peyote, or synthetic molecules like FT-104, all of these will be incorporated into our system, says Levy. Through our clinical hubs, well be agnostic as to which molecules we use as long as they lead to the best outcomes for patients.
Field Trip was founded by Levy, Joseph del Moral, Hannan Fleiman, Ryan Yermus and Mujeeb Jafferi in April 2019. All of the cofounders except for Jafferi worked together previously in Canadas cannabis industry, where they cofounded medical marijuana companies Canadian Cannabis Clinics and CanvasRx, the later of which was acquired by Aurora Cannabis for $37 million in 2016.
Dieter Weinand, former head of Bayers pharmaceutical division, has joined Field Trip as a member of the board. Over a 30-year career, Weinand worked at Sanofi, Otzuka and Pfizer. Weinand helped bring to market drugs like Liptor and Abilify, which is used to treat schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. Weinand says hes been convinced by the studies coming out of academic institutions including Johns Hopkins and Imperial College London that psychedelic drugs have significant potential in treating mental health disorders.
When you look at people who have major depression or schizophrenia, each time they have an episode there are structural and chemical changes in the brain that become permanent, says Weinand. That has to be reversed somehow and we have nothing right now that changes that. There seems to be clinical evidence that psychedelics can intervene in that progression and potentially reverse these structural changes over time.
Nearly 30% of people with major depression dont respond to current medications, says Weinand. A drug that could help this patient population could be quite significant, he says.
The psychedelic renaissance underway is creating an industry worth around $100 billion, according to a report written by Canaccord Genuity Corp. analyst Tania Gonsalves. From depression to post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction tochronic pain, about one billion people are afflicted by disorders that studies have found could be treated by psychedelic-assisted therapy.
The legal cannabis market, which is expected to hit $19 billion in annual sales this year, has nothing on the hallucinogenic drugs, says Levy.
Psychedelics as an industry is much larger and more significant than cannabis, he says. The way to frame the psychedelic industry is what chunk of the $240 billion U.S. mental health market are psychedelics going to take? I think itll be most of it.
Link:
Field Trip Health, Another Psychedelic Therapy Company, Goes Public - Forbes
- 8 Mystical Herbs and Legal Psychedelics For Lucid Dreaming - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Psychedelics: LSD, Mushrooms, Salvia | Facts | Drug Policy ... - December 10th, 2016 [December 10th, 2016]
- FS Book Company - Marijuana Books - December 12th, 2016 [December 12th, 2016]
- Psychedelic - PsychonautWiki - December 27th, 2016 [December 27th, 2016]
- From Alzheimer's To Psychedelics, 2016 Was A Good Year For ... - January 3rd, 2017 [January 3rd, 2017]
- LSD - Psychedelic Effects - The Good Drugs Guide - January 5th, 2017 [January 5th, 2017]
- THC - Psychedelics - January 29th, 2017 [January 29th, 2017]
- Psychedelics | Pharmacological Reviews - January 30th, 2017 [January 30th, 2017]
- Dorian Yates reveals all on steroids, body dysmorphia, psychedelics, cannabis and yoga - Express.co.uk - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Psychedelic drug therapy including magic mushrooms, LSD and ... - CBS News - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Psychedelics Being Tested For Use In Treating Various Conditions - CBS Local - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- The psychedelic renaissance - Boulder Weekly - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Buy psychedelics online : Chinglabs.com - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Psychedelic drugs like magic mushrooms and LSD have key ... - Yahoo Finance - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Psychedelics a Viable Therapeutic Option for Depression - Psychiatry Advisor - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- Is Silicon Valley Onto Something With Its LSD Microdosing? - Newsweek - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- News Releases - Noozhawk - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- A Revolution in the Science of Psychedelics is Happening in Boulder - 303 Magazine - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- When Reality Is More Intense Than Psychedelics: Strand Of Oaks ... - NPR - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- Psychedelics Help Reduce Opioid Addiction, According to New Study - AlterNet - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Psychedelics May Help Reduce Opioid Addiction, According To ... - Huffington Post - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Psychedelics Help Reduce Opioid Addiction, According to New Study - eNews Park Forest - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Psychedelics Could Play A Role In Tackling The Opioid Epidemic - Huffington Post - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Meet The People's Champion of Psychedelic Drugs - Narratively - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- How psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD actually change the way ... - Yahoo Finance - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- First U. student group on studying psychedelics holds open house - The Daily Princetonian - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- How psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD actually change the way people see the world - Businessinsider India - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Psychedelics Help Reduce Opioid Addiction, According to New ... - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- WATCH: A Public Policy Expert Explains How to Safely Deregulate LSD and Other Psychedelics - AlterNet - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Quotes About Psychedelics (48 quotes) - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Inside the Psychedelic Underground - RollingStone.com - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- What Psychedelics Really Do to Your Brain - Rolling Stone - RollingStone.com - March 10th, 2017 [March 10th, 2017]
- Hallucinogens Help, According to a Mom's Memoir and Son's Documentary - Bedford + Bowery - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Meditation and the psychedelic drug ayahuasca seem to change the brain in surprisingly similar ways - Businessinsider India - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Tripping out: the highs and lows of psychedelic therapy - Marie Claire UK - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Stop Policing Psychedelic Science - Motherboard - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- America's Trippiest Chemist: Making Psychedelics 'Was Fun' - Motherboard - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- The Three Types of Hallucinogens: Psychedelics ... - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Cary Grant was one of the first to benefit from LSD therapy - Quartz - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- What it's like to take psychedelics in small doses at breakfast - New Scientist - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- 'Changing Our Minds' explores psychedelic drugs and spiritual healing - Religion News Service - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Q&A With Psychedelic Stand-Up and LaughFest Headliner Shane Mauss - Flagpole Magazine - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Q&A: LaughFest comedian talks science and psychedelics - Red and Black - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- 'Changing Our Minds' explores psychedelic drugs and spiritual healing - The Daily Tribune - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Shane Mauss brings Good Trip Comedy Tour to town - Chattanooga Times Free Press - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- 'Changing Our Minds' explores psychedelic drugs and spiritual healing - The Oakland Press - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- Director Ana Lily Amirpour on Cannibalism, Psychedelics, and 'Horrifying' Racism Allegations - Jezebel - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Majority of Americans ready to embrace psychedelic therapy - YouGov US - June 24th, 2017 [June 24th, 2017]
- The Refugee Funding America's Psychedelic Renaissance - VICE - June 24th, 2017 [June 24th, 2017]
- Open Your Mind This Weekend at Europe's Largest Psychedelic Conference - VolteFace Magazine (blog) - June 27th, 2017 [June 27th, 2017]
- Psychedelics and Virtual Reality Make a Trendy but Illegal Therapy - Inverse - June 27th, 2017 [June 27th, 2017]
- The war on drugs is back. Will psychedelic drug research survive? - The Verge - June 29th, 2017 [June 29th, 2017]
- Tune in, Turn on, Stay in School - Study Breaks - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- Cannabist Show: He's psychedelic comedian Shane Mauss - The Cannabist - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- The brain on DMT: mapping the psychedelic drug's effects - Wired.co.uk - July 3rd, 2017 [July 3rd, 2017]
- Psychedelics Could Help Asia's Mental Health Care, But Stigma Remains Roadblock - TheFix.com - July 3rd, 2017 [July 3rd, 2017]
- Is LSD the new coffee? - FactorDaily - July 4th, 2017 [July 4th, 2017]
- My grandfather was a death row doctor. He tested psychedelic drugs on Texas inmates. - Texas Tribune - July 5th, 2017 [July 5th, 2017]
- About Us | Trusted News Source for Psychedelic Research ... - July 6th, 2017 [July 6th, 2017]
- Do Psychedelic Drugs Cause the 'Prophetic Effect'? - Breaking Israel News - July 11th, 2017 [July 11th, 2017]
- Are psychedelics the new medical marijuana? - WTSP 10 News - July 14th, 2017 [July 14th, 2017]
- Psychiatrists Say Cannabis Medicine Has Psychedelic Properties - The Marijuana Times - July 15th, 2017 [July 15th, 2017]
- Can Psychedelics Be Therapy? Allow Research to Find Out - New York Times - July 17th, 2017 [July 17th, 2017]
- Countdown To (Legalized) Ecstasy! Rick Doblin, MAPS, & the Psychedelic Renaissance [Podcast] - Reason (blog) - July 20th, 2017 [July 20th, 2017]
- Should We Reclassify Marijuana as a Hallucinogen? - Big Think - July 20th, 2017 [July 20th, 2017]
- Do You Take Drugs at Festivals? This Initiative is Working on Keeping You Safe - PoliticalCritique.org - July 20th, 2017 [July 20th, 2017]
- Psychedelic drugs could tackle depression in a way that antidepressants can't - INSIDER - July 22nd, 2017 [July 22nd, 2017]
- Psychedelic Shine takes a trip to the skies in Boulder - Boulder Daily Camera - July 22nd, 2017 [July 22nd, 2017]
- Reasons to Consider Trying Psychedelics - FoxWeekly - July 27th, 2017 [July 27th, 2017]
- Psychedelics and Normality - HuffPost - July 27th, 2017 [July 27th, 2017]
- New book about psychedelics and weird human experiences - Boing Boing - July 27th, 2017 [July 27th, 2017]
- Scientists Want You to Give Them Money to Study ... - July 29th, 2017 [July 29th, 2017]
- What Has Awe Done for Me Lately? - HuffPost - August 1st, 2017 [August 1st, 2017]
- For children, it's beyond psychedelics - The Hans India - The Hans India - August 1st, 2017 [August 1st, 2017]
- Expanding consciousness - 48 Hills - August 2nd, 2017 [August 2nd, 2017]
- THE FUTURE OF PSYCHEDELICS: Are LSD and Mushrooms The New Prozac? - Dope Magazine - August 5th, 2017 [August 5th, 2017]
- Psychedelic drugs saved my life. So why aren't they prescribed? - Wired.co.uk - August 9th, 2017 [August 9th, 2017]
- LSD as therapy: How scientists are reclaiming psychedelics ... - August 9th, 2017 [August 9th, 2017]
- The foundation of Western philosophy is probably rooted in psychedelics - Quartz - August 12th, 2017 [August 12th, 2017]
- Crazy Enough to be Correct - HuffPost - August 15th, 2017 [August 15th, 2017]