MindMed CEO: ‘We see a massive opportunity’ in the psychedelic medicine industry

MindMed CEO Rob Barrow sits down with Yahoo Finance Live to talk about rising interests in the psychedelic medicine industry, therapeutic uses for addressing and treating anxiety, and removing mental health stigmas.

Video Transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live, everyone. Now what comes to mind when you think of the word psychedelics? Well, investors are taking a very keen interest in this space and to break down why Dave and I are joined by Rob Barrow, the CEO of MindMed Thank you for joining us. So, first of all, talk about the types of investors that are putting money into this space and why.

ROB BARROW: We've seen an enormous influx of investment from all angles from all sides of the investment community, including some of the top biotech investors for various companies in our space, along with many retail investors who are excited about the potential. We see a massive opportunity, both in terms of the addressable market and, most importantly, in the ability to actually help patients with these novel therapies.

- You know, when Rachelle asked that question what comes to mind when you think of psychedelics, for me, the TV show "Nine Perfect Strangers" comes to mind. I don't know if you've seen it, but that was with Nicole Kidman on Hulu largely about microdosing. That really, for millions of Americans, was the first time they heard of psychedelics, learned anything about them. Did that contribute to misunderstanding or did it really help in the environment and help you raise capital?

ROB BARROW: I'm not particularly familiar with that program, but what I can say is that there has been an enormous resurgence in research on psychedelics but also an interest. And this happening against a backdrop of growing mental health issues in the US and throughout the world. We look at the effects of climate change, of war, refugee crises. All of these have contributed to massive need to a growth over the last two years, in particular with the pandemic, that has left us with a never been a larger mental health crisis in this country and we really have a unique opportunity to treat it with these novel therapies.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And I want to try and dispel some of these myths. Obviously, some of us don't really have a grasp on exactly what psychedelics do and how they can help. Give us some clarity on what it is and what it isn't when it comes to medical use, especially.

ROB BARROW: Well, what you said is critically important, that it is a medical use. And these therapies are delivered in a medical setting. They are supervised by trained health care providers. And ultimately what happens when patients are given a psychedelic molecule is that there is an element of neuroplasticity, there's ego dissolution. We like to think of it as enabling patients to have a fresh perspective and, ultimately, work out some of the challenges they've been having and translating over into significant clinical benefit in reducing anxiety and depression and many other conditions like addiction.

- How big is the market? How are states like Oregon-- I think Oregon the only one who's legalized at this point all small amounts of illicit drugs.

ROB BARROW: The market is really enormous and we focus on the market opportunity. It's all about the patients we can ultimately help. When we look at the cost to the health care system of some of the diseases we are focused on such as anxiety, addiction, and even autism, these are hundreds of billions of dollars of cost to the health care system. And when we expand out and look at conditions like pain, where we have a program launching later this year, even the addressable market for therapeutics in these spaces can total upwards of $100 billion.

So the need is enormous, the market opportunity is enormous that we've seen. Really, this recent resurgence and the opportunity in front of us is such that we can bring huge healing to patients and through that deliver enormous value to our shareholders as well.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And I want to ask you about the progress that you've made with the FDA over the generalized anxiety disorder, otherwise known as GAD, which affects 6.8 million US adults, yet less than half of people are receiving treatment. I want to know about why you think that is and what you think your company can do to really make a dent in that.

ROB BARROW: Absolutely. We've seen over the last dozen, or couple of decades, I should say, really a transition away from focus on anxiety. Historically psychiatry as a field was largely focused on treating anxiety disorders, and that transition in the 1990s, in particular to depression, anxiety goes significantly undertreated and that has left many of the patients without adequate therapies.

We have some therapies that work acutely but aren't safe to be administered chronically and some that take quite a while like the SSRIs to work. What we see with psychedelics is a class of drugs that have acute strong effects in terms of reducing anxiety and depression with many months or, even in some cases, years of clinical benefit.

- Really surprising to hear that women are twice as likely as men to be impacted by General Anxiety Disorder. While you're trying to raise capital, how much of the effort is just educating the American people against a lot of the stigmas that already exist?

ROB BARROW: Well, one of our key focuses as we approach investors and message about the opportunity here is that it is really to deliver on the therapeutic potential psychedelics in a health care setting. That is what we are about. We are building a CNS powerhouse, a drug company that is going to take these novel therapies and novel approaches and bring them to patients. So our entire focus is treating those patients in need. And because of that enormous opportunity, we've seen an enormous reception from various communities, both health care providers and investors, and an excitement about bringing these new therapies forward.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: We do appreciate the work you're doing. Rob Barrow, the MindMed CEO, thank you for your time this afternoon.