The golden road to pharmaceutical riches can quickly become a rocky wilderness trail. Chemical compounds that hit a target in the lab often fall short in human studies.
But biotech startups, academic scientists and investors say that research into psychedelic drugs starts with a major advantage: These substances are already known to work.
The goal is simply to improve upon them — so they’re safer, more effective and faster-acting. Someday, perhaps, psychedelic-like drugs could treat mental illness for a fraction of what it costs to do therapy with conventional tools.
Three drugs — MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine — are the furthest along in clinical development for mental health disorders, according to Dr. Boris Heifets of the Stanford University School of Medicine.