Atlanta just became the latest city to consider decriminalizing psychedelics. On September 12, just one week after San Francisco officially decriminalized psychedelics, a meeting was held by the City Council's Public Safety and Legal Administration Committee to discuss a resolution that sought to replicate San Francisco's policies. The new bill would see police deprioritize enforcing law on people carrying psychedelic mushrooms and is part of a national effort to normalize the use of magic mushrooms and other plants as therapies for mental illness
FN Media Group Presents Microsmallcap.com Market Commentary
NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlanta just became the latest city to consider decriminalizing psychedelics. On September 12, just one week after San Francisco officially decriminalized psychedelics, a meeting was held by the City Council's Public Safety and Legal Administration Committee to discuss a resolution that sought to replicate San Francisco's policies. The new bill would see police deprioritize enforcing law on people carrying psychedelic mushrooms and is part of a national effort to normalize the use of magic mushrooms and other plants as therapies for mental illness. Although the committee did not yet resolve to move the action forward, its members unanimously agreed to hold the measure for further study and continue discussing it in the next session. The decriminalization of psychedelics is good news for companies developing psychedelic-based treatments to combat mental illness, such as Numinus Wellness (TSX:NUMI) (OTCQX:NUMIF), Atai Life Sciences N.V. (NASDAQ:ATAI), Compass Pathways (NASDAQ:CMPS), Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc (NASDAQ:MNMD) (NEO:MMED), and Cybin Inc. (NYSE:CYBN).
Numinus Wellness Inc. (TSX:NUMI) (OTCQX:NUMIF) is a mental health care company advancing innovative mental health care and safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies. The company offers a wide range of mental health care services, including counseling, therapy, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), ketamine-assisted therapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy (through Health Canada's Special Access Program).
On September 22, Numinus announced the opening of a new Montreal clinic that will replace an existing downtown clinic. The new site, which is located in the Plateau neighbourhood, will have expanded capacity to offer ketamine treatments, including different administrations of ketamine such as Spravato, intramuscular, lozenge and nasal spray, and a wider assortment of ketamine-assisted therapy options with options in treatment length and session type.
Numinus currently offers a six-week ketamine-assisted therapy program for the treatment of addiction, depression, trauma and anxiety. New services will include the option to receive ketamine as a standalone treatment, which will allow clients to complement prior ketamine-assisted therapy or use it as an emergency antidepressant or with therapy from an external health provider.
A few days earlier, the company announced that its Toronto clinic, the Neurology Centre of Toronto (NCT) is now offering ketamine-assisted therapy for patients with neurologic conditions, including brain injury, epilepsy, concussion, and functional neurological disorders.
NCT offers a comprehensive range of services that include primary neurologic care and supportive therapies by a team of over 20 specialists. The added service will be led by a psychologist and follow the company's existing protocol for ketamine-assisted therapy, which are already in use at its other locations in Canada and the United States.
NCT is also expanding its capabilities to support applications from Health Canada's Special Access Program (SAP) for other psychedelic-assisted therapies. The SAP is a federal program that allows patients with serious or life-threatening conditions to apply for access to investigational medical treatments not yet available to the public, including therapies using psychedelics like MDMA and psilocybin. A successful SAP application was recently completed by a Montreal-based Numinus physician to provide psilocybin-assisted therapy for depression.
Numinus Wellness also recently provided an update on the Novamind acquisition integration, announcing that its newly acquired US clinics performed well in fiscal Q4, with a significant customer appointment increase in recent months. More than 6,200 client appointments were held in Canada and the US in August, marking a 25% increase over July. In August, the company's eight US wellness clinics - six in Utah and two in Arizona - completed more than 4,900 customer appointments, a 22% increase over July.
Numinus is now working on expanding its ketamine-assisted therapy product throughout Canada. Ketamine therapy sessions at Numinus' US facilities increased 35% from July to 1,520 visits in August. TMS service demand is also growing. The company conducted 725 TMS engagements in August, a 23% increase over the previous month.
Numinus Wellness operates 13 clinics across Canada and the US, with comprehensive services ranging from mental health therapy to neurologic care. The company also supports clients in accessing psychedelic-assisted therapy through Health Canada's federal Special Access Program (SAP). In addition, Numinus provides clinical trial management services, and operates a complementary Health Canada licensed research lab that studies a wide range of psychedelic substances.
For more information about Numinus Wellness (TSX:NUMI) (OTCQX:NUMIF), click here.Healthcare Companies Continue Studies on Psychedelics
In July, mental health care company Compass Pathways (NASDAQ:CMPS) announced the start of a phase II clinical trial that will examine the effectiveness of COMP360 psilocybin given along with psychological support in persons with anorexia nervosa. In the phase II clinical experiment at four top research centres in the UK and US, 60 individuals with anorexia nervosa will be given either 25 mg or 1 mg of the investigational COMP360 psilocybin while receiving psychological care. Research and development (R&D) costs were $15.9 million for the second quarter, up from $11.4 million in the prior year. Including non-cash share-based compensation expense of $3.2 million, the net loss for the quarter was $21.0 million, or $0.50 loss per share, as opposed to $17.5 million, or $0.44 loss per share (including non-cash share-based compensation expense of $1.9 million).
Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc (NASDAQ:MNMD) (NEO:MMED) has recently published a manuscript in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Biological Psychiatry titled "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-Assisted Therapy In Patients With Anxiety With And Without A Life-Threatening Illness: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase II Study." The study builds on previously published, favourable results that will be presented orally at the PSYCH Symposium in London on May 11, 2022. On September 14, MindMed declared that it had received a letter from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC informing it that it was once again in compliance with the minimum bid price listing criteria of $1.00 per share under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2)Nasdaq.
On August 30, Cybin Inc. (NYSE:CYBN) announced that the first two study participants in its Phase 1/2a evaluation of CYB003 for treating major depressive disorder (MDD) had received their doses. The purpose of CYB003 is to alleviate the drawbacks and restrictions of oral psilocybin. Preclinical results showed that CYB003 had a quicker onset of action, a shorter duration of impact, and reduced fluctuation in plasma levels. These preclinical results showed that CYB003 might lessen the time and resource demands on patients, providers, and payers and potentially increase the treatment's scalability and accessibility.
Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ:ATAI) declared that it has signed a term loan agreement with Hercules Capital, Inc. for a maximum amount of $175 million. According to the conditions of the loan facility, $15 million was taken at closing. After that, another $20 million was made available for Atai to draw upon by March 15, 2023, and another $25 million was made available for Atai to draw upon by December 15, 2023. Subject to a few conditions being met, the remaining $115 million becomes accessible through March 31, 2025, in tranches. Research and development costs were $17.9 million and $33.4 million for the second quarter, compared to $16.0 million and $21.6 million for the comparable prior year periods. Atai reported a net loss attributable to shareholders of $36.6 million, which included non-cash share-based compensation expense of $9.5 million. This is down from the comparable prior year period's net loss of $48.5 million, which included non-cash share-based compensation expense of $37.5 million.
The Numinus approach, which includes psychedelic production, research, and clinic care, is at the forefront of a shift toward healing rather than symptom management for depression, anxiety, trauma, pain, and substance use. Numinus is a pioneer in incorporating psychedelic-assisted therapies into mainstream therapeutic practice, laying the groundwork for a better society.
Disclaimer: Microsmallcap.com (MSC) is the source of the Article and content set forth above. References to any issuer other than the profiled issuer are intended solely to identify industry participants and do not constitute an endorsement of any issuer and do not constitute a comparison to the profiled issuer. FN Media Group (FNM) is a third-party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated with MSC or any company mentioned herein. The commentary, views and opinions expressed in this release by MSC are solely those of MSC and are not shared by and do not reflect in any manner the views or opinions of FNM. Readers of this Article and content agree that they cannot and will not seek to hold liable MSC and FNM for any investment decisions by their readers or subscribers. MSC and FNM and their respective affiliated companies are a news dissemination and financial marketing solutions provider and are NOT registered broker-dealers/analysts/investment advisers, hold no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security.
The Article and content related to the profiled company represent the personal and subjective views of the Author (MSC), and are subject to change at any time without notice. The information provided in the Article and the content has been obtained from sources which the Author believes to be reliable. However, the Author (MSC) has not independently verified or otherwise investigated all such information. None of the Author, MSC, FNM, or any of their respective affiliates, guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any such information. This Article and content are not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action; readers are strongly urged to speak with their own investment advisor and review all of the profiled issuer's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission before making any investment decisions and should understand the risks associated with an investment in the profiled issuer's securities, including, but not limited to, the complete loss of your investment. FNM was not compensated by any public company mentioned herein to disseminate this press release but was compensated twenty five hundred dollars by MSC, a non-affiliated third party to distribute this release on behalf of Numinus Wellness
FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.
This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and MSC and FNM undertake no obligation to update such statements.