Investors in psychedelic stocks are starting to get excited again. After a tough grind through most of 2021, several companies have
made major breakouts in recent weeks.
Who will be
next to take off? One strong candidate is
Mind Cure Health (CAN:MCUR / US:MCURF).
MINDCURE is cash rich. With a tiny market cap of only CAD$29.5 million, the company reported
a cash (and equivalents) position of CAD$15.6 million when it announced its
Q1 fiscal 2022 results on October 27th.
MINDCURE is active in both psychedelic drug development and nootropics production/distribution. But what will catch the eye of most investors is its
iSTRYM digital therapeutics platform.
iSTRYM is a proprietary mental health platform that has now been
officially launched and is already being deployed in mental health clinics in both North America and the UK. iSTRYM is turning heads.
Microdose, a leader in educating investors on the psychedelics industry and a major platform for both public and private companies, has nominated MINDCURE as “B2B Tech Company of the Year”, in
the 1st Annual Microdose Awards.
Psychedelic Stock Watch recently caught up with
MINDCURE’s CEO Kelsey Ramsden, herself
an award winner. We asked Canada’s “#1 female entrepreneur” (
twice) to get investors up to speed on Mind Cure Health.
1) For investors who are still new to the Company, please introduce Mind Cure Health. KR: MINDCURE is a biotechnology company that has two primary divisions, one is advancing a digital therapeutics platform tool for patients, therapists and drug and protocol developers in the psychedelic and non-psychedelic industry. The secondary division is drug research where we develop and study both first and second generation psychedelic molecules.
2) With the whole industry once again looking like it could be on the verge of a breakout, MINDCURE just released a very timely corporate update for investors. What was your primary motive for putting out the release? KR: We have been very active over the past year, and I thought it was prudent to provide a holistic understanding of all of things we have accomplished in context. Embedded within the news release was also the first time we have formally shared advancement on two novel programs, MC-106 and MC-108. Investors can look to our catalysts summary to see when further information on both programs will be shared. Because we have exceeded our own expectations and delivered on every promise to date, I wanted to showcase what our team has done and provide confidence to the market that we deliver
on our promises.
3) Please provide us with additional details? KR: Our drug development advancements have shown that we are paying attention to both the ability to be a drug supplier and developer which means both near and long term revenue opportunities. The expansion of our drug development pipeline showcases our strategy to continue to expand the drug pipeline generating value in alignment with traditional biopharmaceutical pipeline development. On the digital therapeutics side the additional detail I can provide is that during our MVP we are iterating quickly and understanding the market even more deeply, finding greater opportunities then we had originally predicted. I am excited for the full commercial deployment in Q1/Q2 of 2022.
4) Many investors are focused on psychedelic drug development, or the clinics themselves. Why are digital therapeutics platforms (in general) becoming an integral component of the mental health treatment model? KR: Great question. When we launched with a digital therapeutics platform as part of our business model a year ago we received some feedback that we should just focus on drug development but I stood my ground. Now we see some of the industry titans like Atai and MindMed forging into the digital therapeutics arena with great interest. I believe they are an integral component of the treatment model because there is a tremendous market opportunity to be the unifying force for all therapy, not just psychedelic therapy. Payers and drug developers will rely on this data to provide coverage and to continue to modify for personalized care both of which will be essential to the ultimate success of the industry. I saw that opportunity from the start and believe that in fact it far surpasses the opportunity in psychedelics because of the ease of scalability of digital platforms globally.
5) So digital therapeutics are big, and iSTRYM is being positioned as a major player in a rapidly emerging opportunity. Psychedelic Stock Watch recently looked at the rapid expansion of psychedelics-based mental health treatment clinics. What are MINDCURE’s near-term goals in building iSTRYM’s footprint? KR: We are currently in clinics during
our beta of the MVP across nine states and three provinces.
By the end of Q2 it is our goal to have 75 clinics on the platform then we soon turn our eyes to Europe where
our plan is to jointly expand through Europe, the US and Canada to reach 150 clinics by the end of 2022. Based on inbound interest we are also assessing the opportunity to expand outside of psychedelic clinics alone and into general psychotherapy to support therapists with our drug agnostic model.
We are
actively pursuing partnerships and collaborations across the industry and I believe that the teams we have assembled on each project have shown their ability to maintain their focus and execute without exception, which is essential to being a great partner in growth.
6) iSTRYM is obviously a major focus for MINDCURE, but the Company is very busy elsewhere as well. Please discuss MCUR’s progress in the manufacturing and distribution of its proprietary synthetic ibogaine. KR: We have successfully produced a fully chemically synthesized ibogaine with patents applied for against our synthesis with patents applied for to support our synthesis pathways. We are in rapid scale up mode for the GLP product which will be available in Q2/Q3 for us to sell to other parties interested in research as well as to expand our own research program utilizing the synthetic itself. Immediately after delivery of the GLP and based on positive interest from researchers we will begin to scale up the GMP drug product. The GMP product would be suitable for human trials.
7) MINDCURE is also moving forward on drug development with respect to ibogaine. What are the Company’s plans here? KR: We have not disclosed our primary indication, but investors can look to catalysts in Q1 that will provide further insight into our preliminary research with Ibogaine.
8) Also new on the drug development front is MINDCURE’s recently announced initiative, The Desire Project: to develop an MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of female sexual hypoactive desire disorder. For investors, what sort of treatment market is on the table here? KR: 14% of premenopausal women in the US experience HSDD, that is 9.5 million women with HSDD who don’t have treatment options that address the root cause as opposed to the symptoms of a lack of sexual desire. The compound annual growth rate forecasted for this indication is greater than 23% per year between now and 2026. So, the size of market is significant and rapidly growing with no good alternatives or substitutes. We believe that we can help and early conversations with payors and physicians in practice tell us that the appetite for this treatment is significant. We are the first and only people working to address lack of sexual desire for women with psychedelics and we believe that our patent will protect us from any threat and that our team is the best that could be put together globally on the subject.
9) Please update investors on MINDCURE’s R&D timetable for The Desire Project. KR: We will schedule our Pre-IND meeting for Q1 2022 with expectation to head into phase 2 studies by Q3 2022.
10) What do you see as the best reason for an investor to buy stock in Mind Cure Health today? KR: I see four reasons:
1. We have the highest market cap ratio in psychedelics meaning we are likely the greatest value position in the industry.
2. We have a drug development pipeline that is unique and expanding
3. We have a digital therapeutics platform that captures value at each segment of the distribution chain for care which Is being rapidly adopted.
4. I believe that the teams we have assembled on each project have shown their ability to maintain their and execute without exception.
If you believe in investing in value, teams, and results MINDCURE should be something you should consider.
11) Where do you see MINDCURE roughly 24 months from today, at the end of 2023?
KR: At the end of 2023 we should have early data in from our Desire Project as well as at least one Ibogaine program, our drug development pipeline will have expanded both by indication and by molecule. Our digital therapeutics tool will be operating in at least five jurisdictions, and we will be the market partner of the most well respected psychedelic companies who are developing protocols and drugs utilizing iSTRYM to roll them out into practice. Mindcure will continue to be a trendsetter initiating innovative programs on both the technology and drug development side just as we have out of the gate with our digital therapeutics, synthetic Ibogaine and sexual desire programs.
We are actively pursuing partnerships and collaborations across the industry, and I believe that the teams we have assembled on each project have shown their ability to maintain their focus and execute without exception, which is essential to being a great partner in growth.
https://www.mindcure.com/
https://www.mindcure.com/latest-deck DISCLOSURE: Mind Cure Health is a client of Psychedelic Stock Watch.