Sam Altman, an executive behind ChatGPT, is pushing for a revolution in mental healthcare and addiction treatment with psychedelic drugs. Altman is the CEO of OpenAI and chairman of a start-up called Journey Colab that aims to make psychedelic drugs such as MDMA and psilocybin available to people who suffer from mental health and drug-use disorders. Journey Colab has partnered with a luxury rehab clinic, All Points North, to conduct late-stage trials for these drugs and design a model for administering them to patients.
According to Jeeshan Chowdhury, Journey’s CEO, such drugs are powerful tools that can be compared to performing complex surgeries. He believes that rehab centers are the safest place for psychedelic interventions. Chowdhury aims to partner with firms conducting clinical trials on MDMA and psilocybin to run them at a rehab center near Vail, Colorado.
Promising studies have validated the potential of psychedelic drugs in treating mental health disorders and drug addiction. Classic psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin, mescaline, and LSD, have been shown to retune brain activity by activating receptors for serotonin, a chemical that plays a role in regulating mood, and leaving the brain more open to different perspectives. However, these drugs were abused recreationally and fell out of favor by 1970 when the Controlled Substances Act criminalized them.
Recent data has shown that companies developing psychedelic drugs or related services have raised more than $560 million in venture capital since 2019. The FDA has approved Spravato, a nasal spray derived from ketamine, for treating depression. Other drugs such as MDMA and psilocybin have obtained “breakthrough” status from the FDA, a designation that expedites drug development for drugs that show “substantial improvement” over available therapies.
Recent legislative changes are also giving rise to new businesses that aim to capitalize on the potential of psychedelic drugs. Oregon legalized psilocybin in 2020, and Colorado passed a ballot measure allowing the use of psilocybin in licensed facilities starting in 2024. Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) proposed legislation last month that would remove regulatory barriers for certain psychedelics used in research.
Large players such as Compass Pathways PLC and small start-ups such as Small Pharma are modifying naturally existing psilocybin and DMT respectively to make them patentable drugs and take them through clinical trials. In an unusual turn, a nonprofit called the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has raised more than $130 million since its founding in 1986 and has taken MDMA through late-stage clinical trials for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.
Sam Altman, Journey Colab’s chairman, first came to studies of MDMA to treat PTSD when he was the president of start-up accelerator Y Combinator. He believes that there is unrealized potential in psychedelics and thinks that Journey can figure out a business model that works. He is entrusting the details of this to Chowdhury, who envisions Journey becoming a specialty service, providing psychedelic care to patients at rehab clinics. By partnering with firms conducting clinical trials, Journey aims to make psychedelic drugs available to patients in a safe and effective manner.
