The investment hype for the psychedelics market might be temporarily stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic, but psychedelics stocks are already performing well.
Experts and analysts alike are expecting the medicinal psychedelics market to
land in a big way. For investors not tuned in to the development of the market, it feels like every time you check in, more studies verify their efficacy in fighting mental health issues, more jurisdictions look to legalize their use, and more viable business models are developed.
Naturally, when the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world and brought the markets crashing, investor focus was shifted to plays that could combat or aid in the fight against COVID-19. That’s why it might be surprising to see that companies invested directly in psychedelics have been keeping up with and outperforming the market.
The story isn’t the same across the board, however, because each company has reacted to the market in a different way. Indirect plays, including
Yield Growth Corp. (
CSE:BOSS,
Forum) and
Revive Therapeutics Ltd. (
CSE:RVV,
Forum), have performed well by shifting focus to temporarily aid in the fight against COVID-19. Yield Growth has been able to aid in keeping people safe from the coronavirus, as it was able to receive Health Canada and FDA approval for
selling its Urban Juve hand sanitizer gel as an antiseptic, while Revive Therapeutics is looking to join the fight directly, having already received FDA approval for Phase III trials
evaluating the use of Bucillamine for treatment of COVID-19 patients.
But that doesn’t mean companies are sitting still on psychedelics. Just last week, Revive Therapeutics outlined its
psilocybin-based pharmaceutical program for investigating oral dosage forms, and Yield Growth solidified its psychedelics branding by
renaming its psychedelics-developing subsidiary to
NeonMind Biosciences Inc.
They’re aided by the fact that pure-play psychedelics companies are alive and well. Both
Champignon Brands Inc. (
CSE:SHRM,
Forum) and
Mind Medicine Inc. (
NEO:MMED,
Forum) only recently entered public markets at the beginning of March, and despite coming online at one of the most inopportune times, they’ve performed above and beyond expectations. Champignon has climbed from $0.22 to well above $0.80, and Bruce Linton’s MindMed is up from $0.405 to hovering above $0.60.
Driving their rise are solid developments in bringing psychedelics into the fold. Champignon
expanded its preclinical pipeline with the acquisition of
Tassili Life Sciences Corp., which included four provisional patents and an ongoing dosage study with the University of Miami, and
established itself in Canada with the acquisition of leading Canadian ketamine clinic operator
AltMed Capital Corp. and a dispensing deal with a major pharmacy chain. MindMed, meanwhile, advanced human safety studies for proprietary ibogaine-based molecule 18-MC as a treatment of opiod use disorders with enrollment and the
initiation of dosing, and acquired exclusive license to eight completed and ongoing clinical trials of LSD through a partnership with partners with University Hospital Basel.
Each move is positive by itself, but for the psychedelics market as a whole, they signal the increasingly rising tide propelling the market’s growth. The fact that the market is reacting positively to developments even though psychedelics are still in the early stages of general use and adoption, not to mention the ongoing coronavirus pandemic detracting from many other market plays, bodes well for where psychedelics stocks are headed.
New to investing in Healthcare? Check out Stockhouse tips on How to Invest in Healthcare Stocks and some of our Top Healthcare Stocks.
For more of the latest info on Cannabis, check out the Healthcare Trending News hub on Stockhouse.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Yield Growth Corp. and Champignon Brands Inc. are clients of Stockhouse Publishing