Psychedelic Alpha

The leading independent, data-driven voice in psychedelics.

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

Pα+ is the insider’s guide to the business, policy and science of psychedelics.

Independent data-driven reporting, analysis and commentary on the psychedelics space: from business and drug development through to policy reform and culture.

https://t.co/hjI1UNqNjx

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

“If humans have recognised their value in ceremonial and spiritual contexts for millennia, it suggests these substances do something profoundly meaningful. Religion and ceremony have always been central to civilisation, so the enduring presence of psychedelics in those settings tells us something important.”

Nora Volkow shared her views on psychedelics via a presentation at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in San Francisco.

Read the full interview and transcript, and access Volkow's slides, at our website: https://t.co/zYIYYFF1PD

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

A Dispatch from APA’s Annual Meeting: Psychedelics Return at an Awkward Moment for American Psychiatry

Last month, our Editor, Josh Hardman, attended the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) five-day annual meeting in San Francisco. There, he took the temperature of a field that is struggling to make sense of its standing in American society, and that is now confronted with a class of potential therapeutics—psychedelics—that it can’t quite place.

Over the course of the meeting, Hardman spoke with psychiatrists of all stripes, from interventional specialists working at the field’s cutting edge through to the rank-and-file and outright skeptics of modalities like TMS, ketamine, and psychedelics. 

In our latest, we share our key takeaways: a temperature check on psychiatrists’ views on the class, the questions most on their minds when it comes to psychedelics, and a closer look at the meeting’s psychedelics-focused programming.

Read now: https://t.co/0S6wVgSMil

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

“...once the drug leaves the bloodstream and the brain, therapeutic benefits persist after a single administration. That’s extraordinary. In psychiatry, few interventions produce immediate and lasting effects.”

Nora Volkow shared her views on psychedelics via a presentation at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in San Francisco.

Read the full interview and transcript, and access Volkow's slides, at our website: https://t.co/zYIYYFF1PD

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

Explore Our Updated Psychedelics Job Board & Talent Network

Whether you’re looking to break into the psychedelics field, take the next step in your career, or connect with talent, Psychedelic Alpha’s Job Board & Talent Network is built to help you navigate the opportunities shaping the sector.

The board features roles across psychedelic biotech, research, policy, care delivery, clinics, legal and regulatory, marketing, finance, and more.

Explore the board here: https://t.co/oWPVU9bvI2

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

“We found that participants who were the most pessimistic and hopeless at baseline tended to preserve that negativity on the post-dosing day and remained as non-responders.” - Scott T. Aaronson

Read the full conversation on our website: https://t.co/cWDWbzzear

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

Field Notes #1: Psychiatrists, Regulators, Ibogaine, and the Race for Psilocybin Approval

In our first Field Note, Psychedelic Alpha Founder & Editor Josh Hardman discusses the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, ibogaine drug development post-EO, FDA-related developments, and the race to approval for two psilocybin drug developers: Compass Pathways and Usona Institute.

Listen on our website: https://t.co/iP8ZayA2d1

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

“Of course, expectations and placebo effects can be powerful, and we must question them. Yet if a placebo produced a 90% increase in life satisfaction, I’d want to know what makes that placebo so impactful!”

Nora Volkow shared her views on psychedelics via a presentation at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in San Francisco.

Read the full interview and transcript, and access Volkow's slides, at our website: https://t.co/zYIYYFF1PD

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

Momentum Amidst Tumult: The FDA Reshuffle, Approval Timelines, and the Compass-Usona Race

Last week, I (the Editor, Josh Hardman) returned from a trip to the U.S. West Coast, visiting San Francisco for the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting and Palo Alto, where I caught up with researchers, investors, and others close to the psychedelics field.

While I was there, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) generated several headlines, including the resignation of Commissioner Marty Makary and the ouster of Tracy Beth Høeg, the acting director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research; both darlings of the MAHA movement, at least initially. Ex-Usona Institute Chief Medical Officer Mike Davis has since filled the latter’s shoes.

Here, I share what the FDA reshuffle might mean for psychedelics, as well as recent comments from the agency’s Division of Psychiatry director Tiffany Farchione, a closer look at potential approval timelines, and a deep dive into the race to market for two psilocybin developers, Compass Pathways and Usona, which now appears too close to call.

Read more on our website: https://t.co/rtJPX8eZny

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

New: Pa+ Field Notes

Timely, candid voice notes from our Founder & Editor, Josh Hardman, covering recent developments in psychedelic drug development, policy, and access in under fifteen minutes.

Listen on our website: https://t.co/tqCzAu9EoS

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

VA Touts “New” MDMA Trial, First Announced in December 2024

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it has launched a “new” clinical trial to evaluate MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and alcohol use disorder (AUD). “The new trial comes after President Trump’s recent executive order”, VA said in a press release.

While the agency may be keen to couch the announcement as new and responsive to the psychedelics-focused executive order, it was first announced nearly 18 months ago, in December 2024, when VA said it would fund the trial. Then, it hailed it as “the first VA-funded study for psychedelic-assisted therapy since the 1960s.”

What’s more, the trial, dubbed ‘MAP VETS’, was first registered on https://t.co/fWZiFE6Dqg last August, though it only began recruiting this month, according to that record. It aims to enrol 80 participants.

VA’s press release also states that the agency is involved in 19 psychedelics clinical trials, which it says are backed by over $23M in external funding. 

Advocates have complained that the agency has been slow to fund and launch trials. Speaking to Psychedelic Alpha, some expressed frustration around yesterday’s press release, arguing that the trial is not new and the 18 month lag between the initial funding announcement and recruitment commencing is evidence of its sluggish nature.

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

Today, we're launching Field Notes: timely, candid voice notes from our Founder and Editor, Josh Hardman, that provide our Pα+ readers with a pulse on recent developments in psychedelic drug development, policy, and access in under fifteen minutes.

In our first Field Note, Josh discusses:

• The American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco
• The ibogaine world, post-executive order
• FDA-related developments, including leadership changes and the race to approval for two psilocybin drug developers, Compass Pathways and Usona Institute
• A broader read on sentiment in the U.S.

Listen now: https://t.co/iP8ZayA2d1

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

Gabon Adopts Decree to Regulate Access and Use of Iboga and Derivatives Thereof

Last week, Gabonese lawmakers adopted a decree to regulate access to and use of iboga, including its derivatives, and associated traditional knowledge.

Yann Guignon, who founded Blessings of the Forest, which was influential in the passage of the decree, described it as 'a historic step' for the Central African country. The organisation, which says it is dedicated to preserving the country's cultural and spiritual heritage, added that this latest development is the culmination of years of work.

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

Australia’s Drug Regulator Loosens MDMA and Psilocybin Access Regulations

Australia’s drug regulator has eased access rules for MDMA and psilocybin therapy, aiming to reduce red tape and expand treatment options for patients with PTSD and treatment-resistant depression.

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

“What we’re seeing today is actual evidence from well-conducted clinical trials that [psychedelics] have a strong therapeutic potential—that they have a potential to do things that our traditional medications haven’t been able to accomplish.” - Tiffany Farchione, FDA Division of Psychiatry Director

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

We spoke to Peter Hendricks about a recent publication that details his group's study of psilocybin for cocaine use disorder.

Read the full conversation: https://t.co/EkxQbbtiqY

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

“So it really behoves us all to recognise that psychedelics, though ancient, represent a completely new and transformative class of medication in psychiatry. They give us the opportunity to revisit what we’ve long known about the importance of psychotherapy, but in a way that can be accelerated and deepened.”

Nora Volkow shared her views on psychedelics via a presentation at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in San Francisco.

Read the full interview and transcript, and access Volkow's slides, at our website: https://t.co/zYIYYFF1PD

[Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Center @JHPsychedelics]

Check out this thoughtful interview with Dr. Bit Yaden and @Josh__Hardman at @Psyched_Alpha, discussing a collaborative educational project between Johns Hopkins, NYU, Penn, and Yale. The project focuses on training resident psychiatrists on the most important aspects of prescribing psychedelic medicines, including safety, equity and inclusion, and understanding the unique profiles and clinical uses of various psychedelic substances. https://t.co/EZ3LoO5Gv8

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

"Psychiatry has so many tools, and psychedelics are going to be one of them. We should legitimise that, make space for it, talk about it. But we also do patients a disservice if we act like this is the only thing that could ever help them. Psychiatry has much more to offer than just psychedelic medicine." - Bit Yaden

Read the full conversation on our website: https://t.co/OKR2ybFtfj

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

Compass Pathways' Chief Medical Officer Guy Goodwin spoke at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting earlier this week in San Francisco.

There, he shared that the company's synthetic psilocybin candidate, COMP360, could be on the market for treatment-resistant depression as soon as late 2026 or early 2027.

"We're at a very exciting stage for a company", Goodwin said, "but I think more importantly, a very important turning point for the whole field; we're going to have psychedelics to use, and it's going to be very exciting for you as practitioners."

[Psychedelic Alpha @Psyched_Alpha]

NIDA Director Nora Volkow describes psychedelics as “a game changer” for psychotherapeutic drug development.

The comments were made at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco on Sunday.

Read the full presentation transcript, including the Q&A session, as well as an interview with our Editor on our website: https://t.co/zYIYYFF1PD