I recently listened to a compelling interview with Kevin O’Leary from ABC’s Shark Tank where he laid out his bullish case for investing in psychedelic medicine stocks… And I was quite intrigued.
O’Leary drew parallels between the early days of the medical marijuana industry to psychedelic medicines today.
Just like the CBD component of cannabis is thought to have medical benefits, the psilocybin component of psychedelics could do the same.
Now that Colorado, Oregon, and Washington DC have decriminalized certain psychedelics like magic mushrooms and LSD, legal medical trials are commencing with FDA approval and publicly traded companies stand to benefit if successful.
By far and away, the most interesting stocks in the space is Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc. (NASDAQ: MNMD).
O’Leary is a major shareholder after taking part in the company’s most recent $6.2 funding round.
When asked why he took a stake in the company, he said, “This could save lives, cure depression, help alcoholism, get people off opioids – why wouldn’t I want to be invested?”
Other research I’ve read indicates psychedelics could also help people suffering from Alzheimer’s, anxiety, depression, anorexia, schizophrenia, opioid addiction, and more…
MindMed also only intends to pursue the medical psychedelic space. It has no intention of becoming a company that sells recreational drugs.
O’Leary went on to say that MindMed has more trials going on around the world than any other company in the space. So that’s what he thinks gives the company the best chances of success versus its competitors.
It currently has multiple trials in Phase I and Phase II studies – no psychedelic company has one in Phase III yet.
That tells me two things:
1) We’re still so early that the room for growth is absolutely massive considering the size of the opioid industry in the U.S. is $500 billion alone.
And 2) There’s still tremendous risk us early investors would have to take in order to help fund these early studies.
But with that risk comes the possibility for insanely high returns.
Regardless, whatever you do, make sure you conduct more research before investing.
The more I read though, the more fascinated I'm becoming with MindMed the entire psychedelic space.
