Psych!

Surprised to see this photo from the week our baby was born, but delighted to see the news that MAPS will be able to fully fund the clinical trials for PTSD. Bottom line: with just three therapist-guided MDMA sessions, they are seeing a 67% cure rate for patients who were resistant to all other treatments for an average of 18 years prior. And this was measured a full year after the treatment ended (so, powerful lasting effects, with no ongoing medication needed).

Excerpts from the WSJ today:

“A group of Silicon Valley and Wall Street executives has raised $30 million to speed the development of a closely watched psychedelic-drug therapy to treat trauma patients.

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a nonprofit advocating for psychedelic research since the 1980s, is conducting its last phase of clinical trials to research the efficacy of using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.

PTSD afflicts about eight million adults a year, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Armed with the new funding, MAPS is aiming to finish the trials and seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration to commercialize the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as soon as 2022.

So far, MAPS’s efforts have received positive signals. In 2017, the FDA designated MDMA as a breakthrough therapy for PTSD, meaning it would expedite review of the drug. MAPS said a recent interim analysis of its Phase 3 clinical trials, conducted by an independent data-monitoring committee, showed a very high likelihood the therapy will be effective for treating PTSD.

Silicon Valley and Wall Street business leaders said their donations came from a personal connection to mental-health conditions.

Among them is billionaire Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy and golf-equipment manufacturer PXG, and a Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran, who said he has continued to battle PTSD.

“Psychedelic research has been thought of as ‘fringe’ for a long time. But there’s nothing ‘fringe’ about PTSD,” he said in a statement. “There are millions of people with PTSD in the U.S. alone, and that includes veterans like me, first responders like those on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic, and survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse. All of them deserve better, significantly more effective treatment options than we give them today.”

Also among the largest high-profile funders to the trials are hedge-fund billionaire Steven Cohen and his wife Alexandra, president of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, who donated $5 million; Silicon Valley investor Joby Pritzker, member of the wealthy Pritzker family that founded Hyatt Hotels, who donated $3 million; and venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson and his wife Genevieve, co-founder of tech startup Fetcher, who donated $2.6 million.

In an interview, Mrs. Jurvetson said she has family members who have struggled with addiction and depression, adding: “If we look at a lot of mental-health disorders, like PTSD, depression, addiction, anxiety, OCD, and eating disorders, many share ruminating thoughts and unhealthy, mental looping patterns. I think psychedelics can help disrupt those thought patterns and provide flashes of insight for a healthier state of mind.”

Ms. Jurvetson said the need for effective mental-health treatments will only increase in light of national tensions over Covid-19 and racism.

Behind the success of the latest funding round—which took place during the thick of Covid-19’s economic devastation—were two prominent Silicon Valley insiders: Tim Ferriss, the widely known podcaster and investor, and Joe Green, a serial tech and social entrepreneur.

Mr. Green said he marveled at the number of researchers at a 2017 psychedelic science conference and how underfunded it all was, calling the area a “buried treasure.”

His Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative, aimed at putting investor-level due diligence around psychedelic funding opportunities, helped MAPS raise the $30 million for this round. The organization did so in part by creating a community of philanthropists, with about 40 members so far, Mr. Green said.

In June, Mr. Ferriss publicized the campaign to raise more money for the clinical trials on his podcast. More than 2,500 funders helped put together the $30 million round.

Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of MAPS, said the money will help the nonprofit complete the last leg of the Phase 3 clinical trials and help commercialize the drug-assisted therapy. MAPS says it has trained hundreds of therapists in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.

The nonprofit plans to sell the drug-assisted therapy through a separate public-benefit corporation that will use proceeds from sales to invest in other psychedelic drug research and MAPS’s operations and expansion, Dr. Doblin said.

ELITE DONORS

High-profile executives among the 2,500 people donating to psychedelic-research trials to treat trauma patients with MDMA:

• $5 million: Steven Cohen, hedge fund billionaire who founded SAC Capital Advisors and is now CEO of Point72, and his wife Alexandra, president of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation

• $3 million: Joby Pritzker, cofounder of Tao Capital Management and member of the wealthy Pritzker family that founded Hyatt hotels

• $2.6 million: Steve Jurvetson, venture capitalist, founder of Future Ventures and board member at Tesla and SpaceX, and his wife Genevieve, cofounder of tech startup Fetcher

• $2 million: Bob Parsons, billionaire founder of GoDaddy and golf-equipment manufacturer PXG, and his wife Renee, president of PXG Apparel

• $1 million: Alan Fournier, founder of Pennant Investors, contributed through The Fournier Family Foundation Inc.; John Griffin, founder of Blue Ridge Capital; Antonio Gracias, CEO of Valor Equity Partners and board member at Tesla Motors, SpaceX, Harmony Biosciences and Bird Rides; George Sarlo, founder of Walden Venture Capital; Tim Ferriss, podcaster, entrepreneur, author and angel investor; James Bailey, founder and managing partner of Bail Capital; Peter Rahal, cofounder of protein-bar maker RxBar (sold to Kellogg Co. for $600 million) and now chief investment officer at Litani Ventures, an investment company focused on consumer business; Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes; John Gilmore, internet pioneer and cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation”