The medical community is opening up to the idea of exploring the medical benefits of psychedelics and research in this area has already commenced. So far the findings have been promising, providing an idea of a future where psychedelics-based medicines exist.

The idea of medicines derived from psychedelics sounds promising but you probably should not hold your breath because it might take a while to get there. Yes, the industry is at its infancy stage and it has started to attract investors. However, there is a lot of regulatory and bureaucratic red tape to cut through and it might take longer than expected.

Regulatory procedures

So far regulators in the UK have approved research to be conducted by UK company Small Pharma to understand the benefits and effects of psychedelics. Such actions have been seen as a first frontier towards potentially changing the status from illegal to legal, although it would need a lot of regulation and monitoring for safe use. Research efforts take time and scientists are yet to fully understand the effects of psychedelics on the brain, as well as any potential risks that they pose to humans.

Psychedelics research will have to go through a similar regulatory process as mainstream drugs before medicines are made out of them. The process could take a number of years to go through all the regulatory hoops before attaining regulatory approval.

Huge capital investment

Aside from intensive research, the process of developing a new drug also requires a lot of capital infusion to fund the research. According to historical data, just 14 percent of pipeline drugs attain regulatory approval after clinical trial so it is not exactly a sure bet. This low success rate is often due to the high failure rates and the expensive nature of drug development.

MagicMed is one of the companies currently exploring the development of psychedelics-based medicines. The company’s strategy includes studying past approaches, addressing challenges and avoiding many of the troublesome approaches that lead to drug development failure. The company is also focused on developing low-risk models and revenue diversification models for investors. MagicMed is confident that taking the right approach and learning from past mistakes of other companies may help expedite the development process so it can bring the medicines to market as fast as possible.

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