Psychedelics, stigma and VC

Psychedelic drugs to treat mental health disorders has been around for decades but in 2020, this area received the focus of investors with added relevance as the current pandemic develops into a global mental health crisis.

According to Nature, in the last decade the number of clinical trials testing psychedelics to treat mental health conditions has increased from 3 in 2010 to 17 trials in 2020. The potential of these psychedelic drugs can treat depression, PTSD, severe anxiety, substance abuse, anorexia nervosa and other disorders under close guidance of a psychiatrist or psychotherapist.

In May, it was published the results of the first Phase 3 clinical trial conducted with MDMA: “MDMA significantly attenuated PTSD symptomology”. Since 2019, esketamine has been a hot area as Johnson & Johnson’s Spravato (branded name for esketamine) became the first FDA-approved psychedelic treatment for major depressive disorders with suicidal ideation or behaviour. In the same year, the FDA granted psilocybin “breakthrough” therapy designation to treat patients with major depressive disorders.

Global VC funding in psychedelic drugs has gone from €3 million in 2016 to €399 million 2021 year to date, a 130x increase. The largest rounds, so far, has been for the German ATAI Life Sciences ($157 million Series D and $125M Series C), followed by COMPASS Pathways $80M Series B. We have identified and analysed 30 Biotech startups developing psychedelics drugs.

Read our full blog on Psychedelic drugs.

In other news

💰 Sofinnova Partners raised Europe’s largest early-stage healthcare fund with €472M.

💊 UK Drug Regulator Is First to Approve Merck’s Covid-19 Pill- Bloomberg.

📱 Web or phone medical appointments ‘disastrous’ for some patients according to a review, with 93 per cent of clinicians saying that the quality of diagnoses was worse as a result.

⌚ AbbVie, Janssen, Novartis and UCB are partnering with the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) to develop ‘digital endpoint’ for atopic dermatitis- Pharmaphorum.

🏽 Needle-Free Vaccine Patches are just a matter of time now. Researchers have doubled down on efforts to create patches that deliver life-saving drugs painlessly to the skin. 

💉 A vaccine is urgently needed for infection killing 150k babies annually, WHO warns. A report by the UN health agency and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that the Group B Streptococcus infection (GBS) causes almost 100k newborn deaths and close to 50k stillbirths each year. 

🧬 Covid success of mRNA vaccines opens way to a new generation of drugs- Financial Times.

💼 We're hiring! If you are interested in delivering industry-leading research (or working in product, sales or marketing), check out our jobs page.

Latest healthtech and biotech deals

The largest from last week:

🇺🇸 Hinge Health, a digital therapeutics (DTx) startup focused on providing care for back and joint pain, raised $400M in Series E and $200M stake through a secondary investment, and it’s now valued at $6.2B. Explore other DTX tackling musculoskeletal health. 

🇺🇸 Cardurion Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on novel therapeutics to treat cardiovascular diseases, raised $300M. 

🇺🇸 Stride Health, a benefits platform designed specifically for independent workers, raised $47M to build on its platform, grow membership, and expand partnerships and distribution channels. 

Other notable deals from around the globe:

🇨🇭 Aktiia, developer of continuous blood pressure monitoring wearable system, raised $17.5M in Series A. The blood pressure monitor has European CE Mark as a Class IIa medical device. Check out other remote monitoring and wearables. 

🇫🇷 Tilak Healthcare aims to build a series of fun medical games to change the way ophthalmological conditions are monitored, raised €7M.

🇸🇪 Mendi.io, developer of a brain health device to boost mental well-being, performance and health, raised $4.7M. Explore other medical devices tackling mental health.

Read up on all the latest health deals in Dealroom.co

Tip of the week

As of today, global B2C telemedicine platforms are worth €99B. 42% corresponds to the cohort of platforms launched in the period of 2010-2014 and 22% represents the cohort of 2015-2021.

Job opportunities

Zava Med is hiring for 22 positions, including Product Manager, Marketing Manager, Lead Content Manager and more.

DocPlanner is hiring across 255 positions in Warsaw, Mexico, Rome and Barcelona.

Alan is hiring for 41 positions in Paris, Gent, Madrid and more.  

Discover 149k jobs openings at healthtech and biotech startups. (login for full results)

Dive in

🎟️ With Emerge Global Health Innovation conference coming up in March, grab your tickets now, and dive into our joint report on Health & Biotech in the meantime

🎓 Healthtech & Biotech university spinouts

🗺️ Healthtech investment heatmap

🦄 New Healthtech and Biotech unicorns announced in 2021 alone.

Knowledge partners

Laura Rodriguez

Healthtech Specialist
Dealroom.co

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