Key Summary
- Trump signed an executive order to speed up reviews of psychedelic therapies.
- The UK has some of the leading global psychedelics research.
- The share value of Compass Pathways surged by 43 per cent.
The US president, Donald Trump, signed an executive order directing regulators to speed up reviews of psychedelic therapies and to increase federal research funding.
The order has ramifications for the UK as it has some of the leading global psychedelics research.
Psychedelics such as psilocybin “magic” mushrooms, LSD and MDMA, also known as ecstasy, will potentially be used for treatments of psychiatric conditions.
The market leader, Compass Pathways is UK-based, and its shares worth $1.3 billion made a surge of 43 per cent. Cantor Fitzgerald has forecasted a $50 billion market.
Kabir Nath, chief executive of Compass, said in a media interview that the order had removed a political “overhang” on the nascent market and reflected “the broader zeitgeist of the American people”.
Compass has partnered with King’s College London to run trials and, ahead of regulatory approval, has lined up a UK contract manufacturer for export to the US.
Recent deals have also shown renewed interest from big pharma. Last August AbbVie agreed to buy an experimental depression drug programme from partner Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals for up to $1.2 billion.
Johnson & Johnson’s ketamine-derived Spravato blockbuster severe depression drug generated $1.7 billion revenue last year.
Compass recently reported positive data from late stage studies of its lead asset, a synthetic formulation of psilocybin, the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms”, for treatment‑resistant depression as an alternative to daily antidepressants.
Sojan Joseph, the Labour MP and chairman of the all-party parliamentary Group on mental health, said that Britain needed “to go further and faster in reaching parity of esteem between mental and physical health”.
“During my 22 years working in NHS mental health services, I witnessed people taking their own lives while waiting for treatment, so I know from first-hand experience that we must get waiting times down, and to do this, we will have to reconsider our approach to treating mental illness.”
However, he also said that he doesn’t believe there is enough proof that the use of psychedelics should be a part of this.
"The discussion around the use of drugs has been exploited for political gain by populists, and in my opinion, there has not been enough research into the long-term side-effects. We know psychedelics, when used illicitly, can have devastating effects on people with mental health issues, such as psychosis,” he added.
