Daily Archives: August 6, 2021

There’s a religious revival going on in China — under the constant watch of the Communist Party – The Conversation US

Posted: August 6, 2021 at 10:29 pm

The Chinese Communist Party is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1921. For most of those decades, the party sought to restrict or obliterate traditional religious practices, which it considered part of Chinas feudal past.

But since the late 1970s, the party has slowly permitted a multifaceted and far-reaching revival of religion in China to take place. More recently, current Chinese president and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has endorsed continued party tolerance for religion as filling a moral void that has developed amid Chinas fast-paced economic growth.

This support does come with caveats and restrictions, however, including the demand that religious leaders support the Communist Party.

As a scholar of Chinese religions, these considerable changes are of special interest to me.

Atheism remains the official party ideology, with members banned from professing religious faith. The partys aggressive efforts to obliterate all religious beliefs and practices reached a high point during the tumultuous decade of the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976. All temples and churches were shut down or destroyed. Any form of religious activity was prohibited, even as there was forceful promotion of the cult of Mao (Zedong), which assumed the role of an officially sanctioned religion.

As part of major reforms and a loosening of social controls, initiated in the late 1970s, the party has slowly accepted a range of behaviors and traditions that fulfill religious needs or provide spiritual outlets. Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Islam and Protestantism the five officially recognized religions have staged comebacks, albeit with varying success.

There are increasing numbers of local temples, associations, pilgrimages and festivals, and growing numbers of Buddhist, Christian and Taoist clergy. Many religious sites are open for private worship and communal service and frequented by people from all walks of life.

Local governments are often keen to restore and promote religious establishments, largely to stimulate tourism and local economic development.

Consequently, a major metropolis such as Shanghai has become home to religious establishments large and small, official and underground. They range from local shrines to Buddhist and Taoist temples, churches and mosques. There are also new entrants to the religious scene, exemplified by the yoga centers that have sprung up in many Chinese cities.

It seems that people have welcomed these policy shifts. A 2020 study by the Pew Research Center found that 48.2% of Chinas population had some form of religious affiliation.

The exact data is debatable, and it is difficult to conduct reliable research in China. But these results suggest that many Chinese participate in various activities that can be labeled religious.

Traditionally, most Chinese people dont subscribe to a single faith or construct a narrow religious identity. They engage with varied beliefs and practices, a pattern of religious piety dating back centuries to ancient imperial China.

That encompasses aspects of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, as well as many practices termed popular religion. These range from visiting temples, attending pilgrimages and festivals, praying and offering incense, ancestor worship, and veneration of various celestial divinities. There are also the popular practices of geomancy or feng shui, an ancient art of harmonizing humans with their surroundings, and divination or fortunetelling.

These rich traditions often have regional variations, such as the veneration of Mazu, a sea goddess, which is especially prevalent in southeast China and Taiwan. Originally a patron goddess of seafarers, Mazu is widely worshiped by people from all walks of life and promoted as an important symbol of local culture.

The Communist Party has also stopped criticizing the teachings of Confucius, the famous philosopher and educator of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. For much of the 20th century, Confucian teachings were rejected as discredited relics of an imperial past. But that changed over recent decades, as the party sought to reposition itself as the guardian of Chinese traditions.

This contributed to a significant revival of Confucianism.

Confucianisms time-honored ethical framework offers guideposts to navigating the often-harsh realities of life in a highly competitive society. But the party has also found it useful to harness aspects of Confucianism that resonate with its core interests, such as obedience to authority and respect for the leader.

Accordingly, the government has supported reestablishment of Confucian temples and institutes. It has also sponsored conferences on Confucianism and even organized lectures on Confucian teachings for party officials.

Adopting attitudes and methods with long-established precedents in the dynastic history of imperial China, the communist government positions itself as the ultimate arbiter of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, or proper and improper religious practices. Religious leaders must support the party and follow its directives.

Authorities keep firm administrative control over all forms of religious expressions and organizations, by whatever means they deem prudent or necessary. As we know from the reports of Western scholars and journalists, that control ranges from subtle forms of domination and co-option of religious groups to outright bans or repressions.

In 2015, the government removed 1,200 crosses from church buildings across Zhejiang province. In 2016, a Zhejiang court sentenced a Protestant pastor to 14 years in prison for resisting a government order to take down his churchs cross. In 2018, the government demolished the Golden Lampstand Church in Shanxi province.

In response, most religious groups tread carefully and engage in self-censorship, as I and others have observed during research trips in China.

China tends to treat religions perceived as potentially threatening to the established order harshly, especially if suspected of foreign ties or secessionist tendencies. For instance, for decades China has strictly regulated Buddhism in Tibet, as it has pursued policies aimed at suppressing the cultural and national identities of the Tibetans. That contrasts with more relaxed attitudes towards the form of Buddhism practiced by the Han majority.

The party has explained its recent, ruthless campaign to repress the Uighurs, a Muslim minority in Xinjiang a nominally autonomous region in Northwest China as intended to counteract terrorism and separatism. According to leaked documents, since 2014 up to a million Uighurs have been interned in re-education camps. Its part of a hardline policy of secularization and Sinicization, which implies assimilating the Uighurs into the majority Han culture, at a loss of their religious and ethnic identities.

As it celebrates its 100th anniversary, the Chinese Communist Party seeks to project the image of a unified nation returning to global political and economic dominance.

But at home it faces manifold problems and is engaged in a balancing act: affirming its dual role as a guardian and curator of traditional Chinese culture and religion, but in a manner that enhances rather than undermines its power and authority.

[Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture. Sign up for This Week in Religion.]

See original here:
There's a religious revival going on in China -- under the constant watch of the Communist Party - The Conversation US

Posted in Atheism | Comments Off

Has Australia lost its religion, or merely its affection for institutions? – Sydney Morning Herald

Posted: at 10:29 pm

But here the story gets complicated. As the statistician Ryan Burge argues in his book The Nones, not all Nones are created equal. In the popular imagination, it is easy to equate no religion with atheism. But when sociologists Tim Clydesdale and Kathleen Garces-Foley interviewed twentysomething Americans, they found only 14 per cent of Nones did not believe in God at all. Perhaps surprisingly, 35 per cent reported praying on a daily or weekly basis.

The short story? The dominant trend was disaffiliation more than disbelief. For many, religion is coupled with belonging to an institution more than an indicator of belief. Little wonder, then, that Nones can be atheists, or agnostics, but they can also be unaffiliated believers, spiritual eclectics, or indifferent secularists. As Burge says, not all Nones are created equal.

It is a widely accepted truism that as cultures modernise, they inevitably lose faith. But in actual fact, modernity brings pluralism just as much as scepticism. As Tara Burton puts it in her 2019 book Strange Rites, Westerners havent abandoned their spiritual impulse theyve migrated it. Wellness culture, techno-utopianism, even the creative world of fan fiction all of these can function as sources of meaning, purpose, community and ritual. To quote Burton:We do not live in a godless world we live in a profoundly anti-institutional one.

The religious statistics of Australia likely point to a diverse future as much as an irreligious one. Our immigration programs welcome a plurality of different believers to our land. But even among long-settled Australians, the drop in Christian identification mostly indicates that fewer and fewer of us will affiliate with Christianity as a default. Instead, our search for fullness is a matter of choice, not tradition.

It will do us good to no longer assume too much. Instead of expecting that someone is a believer or a sceptic, perhaps we might try starting conversations with a question: What do you believe, and why?

Dr Mark Stephens is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity and the author of The End of Thinking.

Go here to see the original:
Has Australia lost its religion, or merely its affection for institutions? - Sydney Morning Herald

Posted in Atheism | Comments Off

Has education lost its meaning? – The Kashmir Monitor

Posted: at 10:29 pm

By Syed Mustafa Ahmad

The main aim of education is enlightenment. Enlightenment means the clouds of ignorance must go away. Ignorance in the sense of superstitions, gender bias, immorality, communalism, unfair means, etc. If these things still persist in the presence of education, then there is something terribly wrong with the education system. It is not the malaise of some days, but the handiwork of many factors that have been constantly going for many years. The criteria to know about the compatibility of education in the society is to see etiquettes or manners. In another sense, if there are mannered people, then this society is learned, if not then we can easily say that this society has to overhaul their every domain of life in order to grow.

When this is the case, how can a society afford to ignore education? In Kashmir, the relevance of education had been lost long ago. Corruption, proxy candidates, question paper leakages, faulty recruitment, etc., have made our educational system a commodity to be bargained. After getting into the educational sector through illegal ways, how these people can do anything for society. When their motives are to earn back the money, which they have spent in getting jobs, we cannot expect from them to do anything positive. This situation has many causes. Let us try to know some of them.

The first is materialism. When the main motive of life is to earn money, education itself follows the path of money. Every moral or immoral class runs around money and nothing else. In this way, education loses its main value and the society doesnt produce enlightenment personalities that are assets for a nation.

The second is faulty syllabi. With changing times, everything must undergo a reasonable change. However, in case of education, the change is quite slow. In the 21st Century, when AI and Machine Learning are occupying our minds, we cannot go on admonishing machines nor we can go on following them blindly. A man is planning to colonize the Mars, the Venus, etc., in order to live a happy life, but in some parts of the world, students are taught to learn about the things that have no relevance in the present. In this way, students get fed up and they think that it is futile to learn and consume our marvellous brains in such things that are of no use, but money and fake fame.

The third is religion. Religiosity in the garb of religions, has made lives hellish. Religions are for the sake of comfort, but due to orthodoxy and superstitions, they have hijacked the whole society. Students are taught that science is atheism. It makes a person atheist. It is better to prepare ourselves for the Hereafter. In this situation, students fall prey to them. They abhor scientific things like medicine, smartphones, electricity, televisions, etc. And the result is that science and technology and other disciplines, that have come to our rescue, become the soft targets.

The fourth and last is our attitude. We never ponder over things and become fascinated by some charming words or slogans. If we had pondered over everything, we would not have reached the present situation. We work in haste and regret at the end of the day.

So, the need of the hour is to make education relevant. Without education, it is quite unthinkable to grow and develop. We have live examples of America, USA, Britain, Singapore, etc., that are doing quite well in this regard. They have made it possible not to let education become the soft target of any kind of disturbance. They have set a goal before them and are living for that goal. Their mornings and evenings revolve around that goal. Last but not the least, they are corruption free. They dont allow corruption to seep into their countries and decompose the tall pillars of society. They are strongly opposite to it. So, it is an opportunity for us to show our mettle in the competitive world. If not, history will remember us losers. Are we ready for this tag?

(Views expressed are personal. Email: [emailprotected])

";n.innerHTML="window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({mode:'thumbnails-a', container:'taboola-below-article', placement:'below-article', target_type: 'mix'});";insertAfter(t,e);insertAfter(n,t)}injectWidgetByMarker('tbmarker');

View original post here:
Has education lost its meaning? - The Kashmir Monitor

Posted in Atheism | Comments Off

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Shot at Games immortality as Lisa Carrington storms into another final in the K1 500m – New Zealand Herald

Posted: at 10:28 pm

Sport

5 Aug, 2021 12:56 AM3 minutes to read

Unbeatable Lisa Carrington storms to another final. Video / Sky Sport

Turbo-charged kayaker Lisa Carrington has a shot at Olympic immortality today after qualifying for the final of the K1 500m.

With original superlatives in increasingly short supply, the GOAT in the boat won her semifinal convincingly to give her a shot at her third gold medal of these Olympics.

Carrington jumped out hard and early, seemingly having her race locked up by the halfway mark, where she led Australia's Alyce Wood by 1.27s. She maintained that gap to win in 1m 51.680s, the fastest time of the four semifinals.

If Carrington finishes in the top three this afternoon, she will take her total Olympic medal haul to six, one more than fellow kayakers Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, and equestrian Mark Todd. Her current total of four gold medals puts her equal with Ferguson.

Given the fact she is world champion in the discipline, it would take a major upset, or a sudden onset of fatigue given her taxing programme, for her to miss out.

Carrington was not the only New Zealander bidding for the final.

Caitlin Regal left everything on the course in her bid to make the A final but just tied up in the final 100m to finish third, qualifying her for the B final.

With a gold medal in her locker in the K2 500m and the K4 to come, it has been an outstanding regatta for the Aucklander but with 250m to go it looked like it was going to be even better.

Fast out of the blocks, as seems to be the New Zealand way, she was behind only hot favourite Tamara Csipes (Hungary) at the halfway mark and well ahead of Belgium's Hermiem Peters.

As the red lane markers signifying 100m to go came into view Regal started to tie up and Peters overtook her with about 50m to go. To Regal's credit she hung in there and finished just .666s out of second.

4 Aug, 2021 11:50 PMQuick Read

5 Aug, 2021 12:00 AMQuick Read

4 Aug, 2021 10:35 PMQuick Read

5 Aug, 2021 10:00 AMQuick Read

Full Kiwi schedule below. Click on a name to see athlete's bio, upcoming events, past Games performance and medal chance.

Carrington, 32, will line up in the final against Csipes, Peters, Wood, Danuta Kozak (Hungary), Teresa Portela (Portugal), Linnea Stensils (Sweden) and Emma Jorgensen (Denmark).

Hungary's Csipes is potentially the biggest impediment to the top step. Her semifinal time of 1m 51.698s was just .018 outside Carrington's time.

Kiwi duo Max Brown and Kurtis Imrie will also be racing for a medal thanks to a strong race in the K2 1000m semifinal.

Brown and Imrie finished second in the first semi in a time of 3:17.684, .607 behind the dominant Australian pair of Thomas Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen.

Their final is at 3.55pm this afternoon. Carrington goes for gold at 3.29pm.

See the rest here:

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Shot at Games immortality as Lisa Carrington storms into another final in the K1 500m - New Zealand Herald

Posted in Immortality | Comments Off

Researchers Concerned About Whitewashing of Psychedelic-Assisted Mental Health Research – Mad In America – James Moore

Posted: at 10:27 pm

A new article published in Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy discusses the importance, and challenges, of racial equity within the resurgent field of psychedelic-assisted mental health treatment. The authors express concern about the systemic underrepresentation of minoritized groups in psychedelic research, discussing the ways in which poverty, psychedelic medicalization, and public health contribute to this disparity.

Research has demonstrated promise in the field of psychedelic-assisted mental health treatment for a variety of mental health disorders, including the treatment of depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol dependence, and even cancer-related existential crises. These promising results will likely lead to psychedelic-assisted mental health treatments becoming approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) upon completion of the ongoing clinical trials.

Recently, the first study of its kind focusing on psychedelic use outcomes addressing racial trauma for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) suggested that the naturalistic use of psychedelics or MDMA were associated with significant reductions in traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms related to experiences of racism.

The authors write,

Currently, clinical trials on psychedelics comprise predominately white samples (>80%), therefore lacking generalizability of the findings to communities of color, and calling into question the equity of access to such trials. The authors share,

Some of the systemic reasons for the lack of diversity and underrepresentation of BIPOC participants includes a lack of cultural inclusivity and racial diversity within the research community overall, stigma related to mental disorders, and recruitment methods that fail to emphasize recruitment to BIPOC communities. Additionally, there are larger historic and systemic factors as play, such as the history of racist and unethical research practices which have led to mistrust in biomedical institutions. For example, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, wherein Black men were deceived regarding their diagnosis and deprived appropriate treatment over the course of decades. Another high-profile case was that of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cells were taken without her consent while undergoing cancer treatment at John Hopkins Hospital in 1951. With these injustices, and many more, it is clear why many BIPOC might be disinterested in participating in such studies today.

An additional barrier to BIPOC participation lies in economic inequities. These trials are often time-intensive, and largely funded by non-profits that do not provide financial incentive for participation. Therefore, it is unrealistic to recruit individuals from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds who may be unable to take time away from work and family responsibilities, without compensation. With the median net worth of Black and Hispanic families being less than 15% that of white families, BIPOC face substantial barriers to research participation in psychedelic trials due to economic inequity.

While increasing diversity among psychedelic research remains a fundamental goal, it is important to note that these treatments will not solve all health disparities. The social determinants of health still hold a far greater impact than an individual-focused treatment approach, and dismantling systemic racism and social inequities remains of utmost importance. Further, should psychedelics reach FDA approval status, these treatments will almost certainly be expensive, difficult to access, and most easily available to those most economically well off.

Indigenous forms of healing have been utilizing psychedelics for centuries, and it is important that the medical adoption of psychedelics in the West not become yet another discovery of America by colonizing forces. Further, wealthy and predominately white investors have greatly profited off the rapid commercialization of formerly illegal substances for which many BIPOC have faced criminal penalties.

The recent decriminalization of cannabis in many states across the US is a relevant example of this, and the research community has a responsibility to make sure that promising psychedelic therapies are equally effective and accessible to communities of color.

In closing, the authors share:

****

Thrul, J., & Garcia-Romeu, A. (2021). Whitewashing psychedelics: Racial equity in the emerging field of psychedelic-assisted mental health research and treatment. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 28(3), 211214. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2021.1897331 (Link)

Researchers Concerned About Whitewashing of Psychedelic-Assisted Mental Health Research - Mad In America - James Moore

Posted in Psychedelics | Comments Off

Cybin Becomes First Psychedelics Company On The NYSE: CEO Explains Everything You Need To Know – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 10:27 pm

Cybin (NYSE: CYBN), a biotech company in the psychedelics space, began listing its stock on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

The company is the first in the sector to enter the NYSE, following a trend of five psychedelics companies to debut on the Nasdaq since the beginning of the year.

This validation by the NYSE is incredibly humbling, said CEO Doug Drysdale in an exclusive interview with Benzinga. He added that the listing provides a real opportunity for increased awareness as well as for growing the companys shareholder base, especially among retail investors.

Cybin is developing a pipeline of novel psychedelic molecules for the treatment of diverse mental health indications, including a proprietary formulation of psilocybin (the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms), currently in phase 2 clinical trials.

Always Nice To Be First

While the Nasdaq has so far been the only major U.S. exchange to receive companies from the psychedelics sector, Drysdale said the NYSE felt like a more natural fit for his company, as many of its partners are already listed there.

It's always nice to be first doing something, but that's not really the reason we chose the New York Stock Exchange, he said.

The CEO added that the exchange is eager to welcome more drug development and technology companies among its lists.

Cybin will continue to offer its shares in Canada through the NEO Exchange, and uplist its U.S. OTC shares (currently under the symbol 'OTCQB: CLXPF') to the NYSE American.

Cybins Flagship Program At A Glance

Cybin is laser-focused on drug development, leaving other lines of business within the psychedelics ecosystem to other players in the space.

We have several programs underway, and a lot of milestones coming up, Drysdale said

The companys flagship program is a proprietary delivery method for psilocybin, in the form of a sublingual film called CYB001, which is targeting major depressive disorder.

Story continues

In May, Cybin received approval to launch a phase 2a clinical trial that will test the company's formulation against a 25mg psilocybin capsule on 40 patients.

The concept behind the film is that it's loaded with [psilocybin] and is placed under the tongue, where it's in touch with the sublingual membranes above and below. The goal with this is to deliver psilocybin very quickly, right into the bloodstream and quickly to the site of action without having to go through the guts, without having to go through the liver, Drysdale explained.

If successful, the research will continue in a Phase 2b trial on 120 patients, where the safety and efficacy of the product will be assessed.

With the sublingual film, the company is hoping to see a rapid onset of action and possibly a shorter duration because bypassing the liver means using far less active substances to achieve the same effects.

This thesis will be tested in the Phase 2a trial, which should output its result by the end of the year.

Cybin is not the first nor the only company in the psychedelics space to launch clinical development on psilocybin for depression. Both Compass Pathways (NASDAQ: CMPS) and nonprofit Usona Institute have ongoing phase 2 trials testing psilocybin for this indication, though theyre using an orally administered version.

If Cybin can prove that its formulation offers improved benefits against orally administered capsules, the product could gain a competitive edge against other psilocybin options even though it is lacking the first-mover advantage.

These are large markets that we're working in. Depression, anxiety and alcohol use disorder, theyre very large markets with huge unmet needs. Maybe seven or eight hundred million people globally are impacted by these, says Drysdale.

Novel Psychedelics For Alcohol-Use Disorder And Anxiety

The company also has other molecules in the works, which are currently in late-stage preclinical trials. CYB003 and CYB004 are proprietary psychedelic molecules aimed at alcohol-use disorder and anxiety disorders, respectively.

The molecules are currently being studied in large animal models.

With these molecules, the company was able to take existing serotonergic psychedelics, and alter their duration of action without modifying either receptor binding or toxicology profiles.

We've modified them through dueteration. So we've switched out some of the hydrogen atoms for deuterium. And the reason we've done that, is weve taken really, really short-acting tryptamines that last maybe 10 or 15 minutes, we've made them a little bit more tolerable, forty five minutes to an hour.

While the chemistry of these molecules has not been released, based on their description, we can speculate that the initial molecules used in the development of these novel compounds were either DMT or 5-MeO-DMT.

The company hopes to see something that fits in with a regular clinic treatment paradigm, longer than DMT, but shorter than orally administered psilocybin.

The CEO expects CYB003 to begin clinical trials for alcohol use disorder around the first quarter of next year, and CYB004 in the second quarter.

Cybins Financials

On Tuesday, the company closed an overnight public offering of approximately 10 million shares, which raised CA$34 million ($27 million). To date, Cybin has raised over $95 million and has a market cap of $477 million.

On its last earnings call, Cybin announced cash and cash equivalents totaling CA$64 million ($51 million) as of March 31, 2021. While the current cash position is not available, it is estimated that the company holds south of $78 million minus operational spendings since late March.

The CEO said the company is very well capitalized for many years into the future.

While Cybin already held a strong balance sheet before the last offering, Drysdale said that drug development takes a long time and its expensive, thus the need to be well-capitalized and hold a strong balance sheet becomes obvious.

I've learned from my past that you take capital when you're able to and not wait until the last minute when you need it. So, we certainly didn't need capital at this time, but we knew we would need more at some point.

Although the last raise meant issuing more stock, Drysdale said it was well-received by existing shareholders, who saw share prices double from $1.43 on June 1 to $3.02 at market close on Wednesday.

Partnering To Improve Research

Cybin boasts several strategic partnerships meant to improve its drug discovery process.

Though Drysdale says the company has no plans to build brick-and-mortar psychedelics-therapy clinics, he recognizes the need for a clinical infrastructure to advance psychedelic drug research.

When I look at the pathway to market, and not just commercial distribution in the future, but all the steps along the way that we have to take to develop these drugs through phase 2 and phase 3 studies, that requires a pretty significant clinical infrastructure. It requires investigators and therapists and physicians and locations that are all experienced and knowledgeable of psychedelics.

With an exclusive research and development agreement with Greenbrook TMS Inc. (TSX: GTMS) (NASDAQ: GBNH), a company that operates 129 outpatient mental health service centers in the United States, Cybin has the potential to access an extensive patient base to advance clinical research on its compounds while facilitating the recruitment of participants for upcoming trials.

The goal with Greenbrook initially is to create a few centers of excellence where we can tap into their vast knowledge of delivery of care in depression. We can bring in our 'Embark'

psychotherapy program with trained therapists, and then we can set up these pilot clinics that are models for future studies and future distribution.

A partnership with Kernel, a brain imaging company, will allow Cybin to gain a better understanding of the brain under the influence of psychedelics.

Kernel has developed a wearable device called Kernel Flow, which offers a non-invasive brain interface.

This is really the first time that anyone's been able to miniaturize this kind of neuroimaging technology. And our hope is that we can be able to see real-time brain activity during this psychedelic treatment session. And maybe from that, we can learn about how to better target these molecules in the future.

Cybin is also co-sponsoring a clinical trial, in partnership with the University of Washington in Seattle, that will test the benefits of psilocybin treatment in health workers experiencing COVID-related distress.

Photo: Chokniti Khongchum from Pexels

See more from Benzinga

Go here to read the rest:

Cybin Becomes First Psychedelics Company On The NYSE: CEO Explains Everything You Need To Know - Yahoo Finance

Posted in Psychedelics | Comments Off

Guide to the psychedelics industry: Companies, investors, science – Business Insider

Posted: at 10:27 pm

The psychedelics space is booming.

Over the past year, startups focused on turning psychedelic compounds into approved medicineshave raised hundreds of millions of dollars from private investors and dozens have gone public.

Research on compounds like psilocybin, the active compound found in magic mushrooms, and MDMA is resurfacing after years of neglect amid the war on drugs.

Venture-capital investors have been at the center of the psychedelics boom. In early 2020, startups in the space said they were beginning to see signs that investor appetitewas growing.

Then, we saw a flurry of activity, which one industry exec called a "psychedelic renaissance."

Soon, VC firms focused on psychedelics companies specifically began to emerge. Insider's list of the top 11 venture-capital investors in the space collectively deployed $139.8 million into startups in just a few short years.

They also gave us their predictions for the coming months. Some told us that biotech giants were looking to get into the space, while others predicted a boom in tech companies and clinics that would lay the groundwork for when medications come to market. We can also expect to see new compounds and a slew of startup failures, they said.

Meet the top 11 VCs who've bet the most cash on turning MDMA and magic mushrooms into medical treatments

Top VCs in psychedelics say Big Pharma is knocking at the door and it could fuel a wave of deals

Top psychedelics VCs predict a tech boom and a rise of clinics over the next year

Top VCs predict new compounds and impending failures will shape the future of the psychedelics industry

ATAI Life Sciences CEO Florian Brand. ATAI Life Sciences

A slew of companies have entered the psychedelics industry, but a few stand out as frontrunners.

In February 2020, Atai CEO Florian Brand said that he was turning to pharma and biotech investors as the company looked to further grow. At the time, Atai was a private company that made headlines for winning over backers like Mike Novogratz and Peter Thiel.

In March of this year, the company raised a record $157 million, pushing psychedelics further into the mainstream.

Meanwhile, change has been bubbling on the state and local levels. In November, Oregon legalized psilocybin for therapeutic purposes but that doesn't mean you'll see the giants rush in.

The biggest companies in the space told Insider they were focused on seeking approval for their experimental substances from the Food and Drug Administration. Atai founder Christian Angermayer said recently that while he personally supports decriminalization, he thinks legalizing psychedelics could create a backlash for the industry.

Compass Pathways CEO George Goldsmith told Insider soon after the company's IPO last fall that he expects treatments to come on the market by 2025. Atai's Brand said there are challenges to address between now and when treatments become widely available, such as scalability and reimbursement.

The CEO of a $1.2 billion psychedelics company told us he expects psilocybin-based treatments by 2025 and predicts a 'Cambrian explosion' of innovation in the industry

The founder of the biggest psychedelics company says legalizing magic mushrooms risks creating a backlash that could undermine the industry

The CEO of the biggest psychedelics company lays out the 3 challenges he has to address before treatments hit the market

The first page of Compass Pathway's 2019 pitch deck. Compass Pathways

Drug development takes a lot of capital, and startups are focused on getting the funding they need.

Insider got ahold of three pitch decks that companies used to raise tens of millions of dollars. Beckley Psytech raised $18.6 million in December to develop a slew of new treatments focused on rare diseases and mental health.

Compass Pathways raised $80 million from investors like Founders Fund in 2019, fueling its rise to the top.

Meanwhile, startups focused on clinics, where psychedelic treatments are expected to be administered, are raising capital too. Novamind raised $7.8 million with this pitch deck.

Psilocybin found in magic mushrooms is a type of psychedelic Alexander Volkov/Getty Images

Another way to get access to capital is to go public, and there are now dozens of psychedelics companies in the US and Canada.

We broke down the 7 companies with the biggest market caps and laid out their business models, drug pipelines, and timeline to get treatments to market.

What to know about the major public psychedelics companies, including a guide to their business models and when they expect to sell medications

See the pitch deck a psychedelics startup just used to raise $18.6 million to develop new treatments derived from the Sonoran Desert toad

See the 20-slide pitch deck a psychedelics startup used to raise funds to build out a network of ketamine clinics

See the pitch deck that Compass Pathways used to raise $80 million and fuel its rise into one of the world's biggest psychedelics companies

A look at a legal psychedelic retreat hosted by The Synthesis Institute The Synthesis Institute

Private startups are still a core part of the space.

Earlier this year, we published a list of the psychdelic startups that raised the most cash in 2020. The 14 names on that list raised over $222 million.

We recently asked the biggest investors in the space to name two top startups in the industry one they had invested in and one in which they hadn't and came back with 15 names.

Meet the top 14 psychedelics startups raising the most cash to develop new ways of treating depression, addiction, and more

VCs name the top 15 startups in the psychedelics industry

DMT research at Imperial College London Thomas Angus, Imperial College London

Meanwhile, it's not just investors and companies that are building out the foundation for what could become a $100 billion market.

Academics have continued to publish promising studies on the benefits of psychedelic compounds.

Wealthy philanthropists are responsible for the rush of funding entering academia as prestigious universities set up psychedelic research centers. One scientist told us that as psychedelic research has emerged from the fringes, donors have begun to catch the "psychedelic bug."

"What psychedelics seems to do is, when it grabs you, you really seem to get it," he said.

Lawyers and analysts are also wading into the space. As a slew of companies began to go public, analysts at investment banks began to cover the industry. Lawyers originally focused on cannabis clients also took the plunge.

Amid all this growth, a key battle over the role of patents in the psychedelics space has been brewing, as companies race to protect their intellectual property and longtime advocates in the space work to protect information that they say belongs in the public domain.

A Canadian investment bank that capitalized on the cannabis rush is now looking toward a new market. Meet the first analyst covering the burgeoning psychedelics industry.

Cannabis lawyers are wading into the psychedelics industry as companies push forward with mega-deals and medical trials to win a slice of the $100 billion market

Wealthy donors are fueling a psychedelics renaissance as universities vie for funding to study 'magic mushrooms' and MDMA

A landmark study shows the main compound in magic mushrooms could rival a leading depression drug

Experts share how a brewing fight could shape the future of the $100 billion psychedelics industry

Go here to see the original:

Guide to the psychedelics industry: Companies, investors, science - Business Insider

Posted in Psychedelics | Comments Off

Three Additional Cities Across The Country Are Considering Decriminalizing Psychedelics – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 10:27 pm

As a wave of psychedelics decriminalization measures sweeps across the country, three new jurisdictions are joining the list of possible places where the use and possession of small amounts of psychedelic drugs could soon become a low-level law enforcement priority.

Most psychedelics continue to be classified as Scheduled I substances under federal law. However, a number of U.S. jurisdictions have already reduced penalties on natural psychedelics such as psilocybin mushrooms and ayahuasca, allowing for a de facto circulation of these substances.

New Cities Could Soon Join The Psychedelics Decriminalization Trend

Marijuana Moment reported that Easthampton, Massachusetts; Grand Rapids, Michigan and Arcata, California are currently exploring avenues to reduce criminal penalties for psychedelics use.

All three jurisdictions share borders with other cities that have already passed decriminalization resolutions, including Oakland and Santa Cruz in California, Ann Arbor, Michigan as well as three Boston suburbs in Massachusetts.

In Grand Rapids, a city commissioner told a local newspaper that theres likely enough support among Grand Rapids elected officials to decriminalize the use, possession, growing and gifting of psychoactive plants and fungi.

The commissioner, Kurt Reppart, said he expects a resolution to be introduced and likely approved this fall.

In Easthampton, three city councilors are sponsoring a resolution that could decriminalize a host of psychedelic substances as did neighboring Northampton in April of this year.

In California, the state assembly is waiting to vote on a measure that could reduce penalties for possession, personal use and social sharing of certain natural and synthetic psychoactive drugs.

Meanwhile, the city council of Arcata in Northern California, will vote on a resolution to remove penalties on natural psychedelics this coming August 18.

Benzinga photo.

See more from Benzinga

Visit link:

Three Additional Cities Across The Country Are Considering Decriminalizing Psychedelics - Yahoo Finance

Posted in Psychedelics | Comments Off

Taking psychedelics while on lithium may increase risk of seizures, bad trips: study – The GrowthOp

Posted: at 10:27 pm

Breadcrumb Trail Links

Of the 62 reports involving lithium and psychedelics, 47 per cent reported seizures.

Author of the article:

Patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder who are considering psychedelic therapies may want to take stock of their pharmaceutical treatments and consult their psychiatrists before taking the plunge, suggests a new analysis from researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.