Lucy Scientific Discovery Inc. (Nasdaq: LSDI), which focuses on psychotropic drugs and had its initial public offering last week, rang the closing bell at the Nasdaq stock exchange today in New York.
The company is focused on becoming the premier research, development, and manufacturing organization for the emerging psychedelics-based medicines industry, it said in a statement.
“This milestone marks a significant step in the company’s growth and plans for expansion,” said CEO Chris McElvany. “We look forward to the opportunities ahead of us to continue working on improving mental health and finding sustainable solutions for treatment.”
Mind-bending psychedelics including MDMA (aka “ecstasy”), “magic mushrooms” and LSD are being studied as potential treatments for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. Dozens of companies and academic laboratories are also making changes to the structure of those drugs, or designing similar compounds, to take advantage of their therapeutic properties without the high.
Psychedelic drugs including psilocybin and LSD could help patients grow new neural connections in the brain, some studies in animals and people suggest. The trip, together with therapy, likely help people shift their mind-set and process past experiences, changing their outlook and patterns of thinking.
The company’s Board is led by Executive Chairman Richard Nanula, a former Executive Vice President and CFO at the Walt Disney Co., as well as executive roles as the COO of Starwood Hotels, EVP of Finance and Strategy at Amgen.
Separately, Lucy Scientific filed an amendment to its current Dealer’s License with Health Canada to add cocaine and heroin.
The company said the expansion represents an effort to supply harm reduction programs globally. It criticized the “failed war on drugs” and said the company seeks to “reduce lethal and or negative consequences associated with adulterated drug supply, particularly considering that fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of deaths among 18 to 45-year-olds in the United States.”
The company already has licenses from Health Canada to make psilocybin, MDMA, LSD and mescaline. (Full Story)