The value of the psychedelic market is expected to approximately triple over the next few years. While not a large market in absolute terms, that growth potential will create many winning stocks.
Psychedelics continue to be developed primarily for their therapeutic uses. They have deep efficacy for pain disorders and are especially useful in treating depression and other mental health disorders.
As a group, psychedelics include drugs such as LSD that have traditionally been associated with hallucinations and other side effects that have given them a dangerous perception. However, their potential efficacy in treating resistant depression, panic disorders and opiate addiction makes them commercially valuable.
Recreational users have long supported the idea that psychedelics are much maligned and have real utility in treating mental health disorders. The pharmaceutical industry is beginning to get on board with that notion, opening new treatment pathways and opportunities overall. In the process, opportunities to invest in psychedelic stocks are emerging for those willing to get in early.
Mind Medicine (MNMD)
Mind Medicine’s (NASDAQ:MNMD) lead candidate is MM120, an optimized form of LSD used to treat generalized anxiety disorder. The potential utility of LSD and other psychedelics, such as MDMA, in the treatment of stress-related disorders is one of the reasons the stock is receiving so much attention.
However, the world of psychedelics and psychedelics stocks is still very much Wild West territory. A lot of the opportunity hinges upon regulatory approval. Recent non-binding judgments by the FDA related to the use of MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder are causing some concern. While Mind Medicine utilizes LSD and not MDMA, the news still sent Mind Medicine’s shares lower.
The FDA continues to recognize the therapeutic potential of MDM, LSD and other psychedelics. Mind Medicine is still expected to initiate a Phase 3 clinical trial for MM120 in the second half of this year. Meanwhile, the company is concurrently planning to initiate other studies of MDMA derivatives for the treatment of autism.
GH Research (GHRS)
GH Research (NASDAQ:GHRS) stock represents a company engaged in the development of various therapies to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders. The company is especially focused on the development of DMT for use in treating patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD).
The particular variant of DMT that GH research is studying can be found naturally in several species of plants as well as certain toad species.
Anyway, GH research stock has done extraordinarily well in 2024, more than doubling year-to-date. That success has brought share prices to $12 at the time of writing. Plenty of potential remains, with a consensus target price above $36.
The company’s phase 2b trial for a mebufotenin (5-MeO-DMT) inhalant has been very successful and is expected to end in the second half of this year.
That same drug is being tested in a phase 2a trial for the treatment of postpartum depression. The company has a cash runway into 2026. That funding, combined with those recent ongoing successes, makes GH Research one of the top psychedelic stocks to watch.
Atai Life Sciences (ATAI)
Atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ:ATAI) is another stock that was hit hard by the recent FDA decision on MDMA for PTSD. Shares fell more than 10% in the wake of the news and have continued downward since.
That FDA decision fell on June 4. The company continues to collect data on short-term psychedelic therapies for treatment-resistant depression. Atai Life Sciences also recently announced further ongoing studies of psilocybin for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD).
That trial utilizes psilocin, the active metabolite of psilocybin in order to affect a shorter treatment duration of two hours. The company has patented psilocin for that purpose under the name ELE-101.
It’s important to remember that the recent FDA decision related to MDMA and not psilocybin. Furthermore, it was specifically for the use of MDMA in the treatment of PTSD. Psilocybin and its metabolites are unaffected by the decision and are being studied for other purposes outside of PTSD by Atai Life Sciences.
On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
On the date of publication, the responsible editor did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.