Our next company is Numinus Wellness Inc. (TSX:NUMI).
Numinus is using the power of psychedelic medicine to make great strides in addressing serious mental health issues. It recently announced its fiscal year 2024 results, which showed strong growth in its business segments and significant progress in reducing operational expenses and cash burn.
The Market Herald Canada spoke with the founder and CEO of Numinus Wellness, Payton Nyquvest.
TMH: Congratulations on the results. What do you attribute to your success?
Nyquvest: It’s been the last number of years since founding the company for us really understanding the landscape of mental health more broadly, and I think there’s a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about psychedelic therapy.
I think it’s important for us to remember it’s all within the context of mental healthcare and the company is really, really focused on building a sustainable platform that is able to service clients today.
In the last year, we’ve offered almost a hundred thousand appointments for clients based and rooted in traditional mental healthcare, along with offering some of these new modalities as they become available. Some examples include ketamine-assisted therapy and, hopefully in the new year, MDMA-assisted therapy and others as they get FDA approved.
TMH:This growth is creating a high demand for therapists, isn’t it?
Nyquvest: It’s a great question. Practitioners and therapists are really going to be the biggest bottleneck to being able to scale access to psychedelic therapies. The first hurdle obviously is getting them FDA approved but because all of these modalities and drugs are being used within the context of a therapeutic container, you have to have trained practitioners that are actually able to administer and offer those therapies.
So that is really where we see the biggest challenge within this section of the industry. Over the past few years, Numinus has prioritized developing a training program that offers certification for practitioners wanting to offer a number of these different modalities in a way that ensures scalability and accessibility.
Even just talking about MDMA assisted therapy that’s anticipated to be approved by this time next year. MAPS, who are doing those clinical trials, anticipates the needs for tens of thousands of therapists to be trained. So, there’s a significant amount of effort needed over the next little bit to train those practitioners, and Numinus is really excited to be at the forefront of that.
TMH: You are mainly working with ketamine now, correct? With MDMA on the horizon and the potential for other psychedelic medicines, how are you preparing for the implementation of these new treatments?
Nyquvest: Going back to what I mentioned before, while there is a lot of enthusiasm about these treatments, it’s important to note that these are modalities that need to integrate within the existing offerings of mental health care. So, what we’ve looked at is the best way to think about these modalities is sort of like an intervention.
Take a knee surgery as an example. If you wanted to ensure the greatest amount of success in a knee surgery, you do a lot of pre-habilitation, then you would go in for the intervention. From there, there’d be a significant amount of rehabilitation after that intervention to ensure success.
The same applies for psychedelic-assisted therapy. You have to create a service infrastructure that is rooted in traditional mental health care and therapy to support clients on either end of those modalities. Fortunately, because of the work we’ve done in clinical trials and being clinical trial sites for a number of different psychedelic clinical trials, we’ve been able to run these different protocols within our existing infrastructure.
So, we’ve been able to inform, ideate and innovate that service-offering based off what the research has been showing us.
TMH: A recent concern investors have had is your cash position and the company’s financial strength. Can you comment on that?
Nyquvest: Yeah, so fortunately the company has a strong balance sheet and over the last number of quarters, we’ve really, really focused on reducing the burn rate as much as possible.
Thankfully, our last financials, released approximately a week ago, demonstrated that the burn rate is continuing to reduce, margins are improving and revenue is continuing to grow. So, we’re seeing both numbers track in the right direction. And obviously in challenging market environments it’s something we’ve been very cautious and cognizant of over the last number of years.
TMH: In terms of investment value, where do you see your company going over the next year or so?
Nyquvest: I think 2024 is a very, very exciting time for the space. You’ve seen a significant amount of consolidation in the space already.
Looking at the new year, the anticipation of MDMA-assisted therapy being approved and for Numinus more directly, we’ve demonstrated strong financial performance over the last number of years in an infrastructure that doesn’t rely on any one of these compounds being approved – but still benefits from their approval.
For 2024, we’re going to see MDMA potentially get approved and be the first psychedelic drug that has undergone three, full-phase clinical trials for a mental health indication. From there, MDMA was launched into market inclusive of rescheduling. I think it’s been a moment that people who have been watching the space have been anticipating for a very long time and we’re really excited to be at the forefront of that.
You can find Numinus Wellness on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol TSX:NUMI or head to its website numinus.com for more information.
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