After decades of promising research, fading stigma, and rising need, psychedelic drugs may soon be available to treat pervasive health conditions such as PTSD, depression, and addiction.
Over the past few years, a robust business community that includes startups, investors, and even public companies sprung up in an effort to bring drugs like MDMA and psilocybin to patients in need. The market for psychedelic medicine, valued at about $2 billion in 2019, is expected to more than triple to nearly $7 billion by 2027, according to a 2020 analysis from Data Bridge Market Research.
Because of the regulatory and administrative requirements to test, develop, and eventually administer psychedelic medicine, companies have sprung up at every stage of the pipeline. Whether today’s psychedelics startups are tomorrow’s IPO contenders will depend in part what each company is set up to do, and the point at which its founders and private investors expect an exit event.