We’d like to introduce a new weekly get-to-know-you-style blog series, Psychedelic Spotlight, highlighting prominent and groundbreaking companies in the psychedelics industry This week’s Psychedelic Spotlight is MagicMed Industries. MagicMed is developing a library of psychedelic derivative molecules for licensing to pharmaceutical and consumer goods companies.
What’s your company vision?
MagicMed’s vision is to support and enable the commercialization of psychedelic-derived pharmaceuticals for brain and mental health.
Why was your company started?
Mental illness is a ubiquitous human experience and an insufficiently addressed medical need. MagicMed was formed in order to contribute to and advance the promise that psychedelic molecules have shown in treating mental health conditions.
What’s been the biggest challenge so far?
To have the greatest impact on mental health and significantly expand the optionality of how psychedelics may be utilized in treatment, big pharma requires existing psychedelics to be improved upon. Structural changes need to be applied to the molecules so that when administered to patients the drugs have fewer side effects, better efficacy, and out of clinic applicability. The psychedelic class of molecules has been around for a long time and experimented on, and with, significantly already. As a result, there is not a lot of opportunity remaining to design new molecular structures if you’re employing only standard chemistry techniques.
MagicMed has responded to this challenge by bringing to bear cutting edge technologies that synthesize previously inaccessible, and novel, derivative structures with improved characteristics. Contained within the Psybrary
, these novel molecules are designed, screened for, and intended to be partnered with development partners and big pharma.
What excites you most?
What excites MagicMed about psychedelics is that they offer an approach to treatment that is entirely new. Most available psychiatric treatments have been on the market for a long time; for example, tricyclics and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) were discovered in the 1950s, and SSRIs such as Prozac were launched in the 1980s. Not much has happened since these major launches, limiting treatment options for these debilitating, difficult-to-treat disorders. Ironically, the scientific community has known about the potential of psychedelics as mental health treatments for a long time, but only now do we have the “green light” to explore them as serious pharmaceuticals.
What is your biggest lesson learned when raising capital?
When competing for investor mindshare in a crowded field, it is important that your company message is clearly conveyed in terms of how it is you are solving a major problem and why it is that your work can’t be easily replicated by others.
Did you notice any type of investor differences while raising money?
Some investors are excited about the prospects for near term revenues, others are intrigued by a de-risked business strategy, while still others are most motivated by the big pharma upside.
Describe your business model in 10 words or less
Multiple drug candidates, indications and partnerships result in early revenues, many shots on goal, and big pharma upside
What tips would you give founders entering fundraising?
Founders need to be able to clearly articulate the value that their companies bring to the sector and the resulting potential market capture.
MagicMed’s partners will be able to search, select, and test from the psychedelic molecular derivatives in the Psybrary and use them to develop pharmaceuticals for the indication that they are targeting. The MagicMed team will continue to work with its partners to further refine and improve the selected derivative molecules to arrive at the desired final product. These partnerships will give clients a product development edge and provide molecules that are fully patent protected.
We’d like to thank MagicMed Industries for being a part of the Psychedelic Spotlight series. Stay tuned for weekly profiles on leaders in the psychedelic industry, and check out the Psychedelic Directory to learn more about MagicMed Industries.
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