#76 - Cybin CEO: Doug Drysdale on The Future of Psychedelic Treatments

In this episode, we chat with Doug Drysdale, CEO of Cybin.  Cybin, is a life sciences company advancing mushroom based psychedelic pharmaceuticals and non-psychedelic nutraceutical products as potential therapies for psychiatric and neurological conditions. Cybin is developing technologies and delivery systems aimed at improving bioavailability to achieve the desired effects of psychedelics at low dosage levels. 

Doug is an extremely accomplished and experienced CEO who has chaired a NASDAQ-listed company and has built and turned around 3 different pharmaceutical companies over the last 12 years.  He has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare sector broadly and brings a level of expertise to the psychedelics space that is truly incredible.

You can connect with Doug here: LinkedIn, Doug’s website, Cybin website

Links mentioned in the show:
Press Release:  Cybin Completes Reverse Take-Over Transaction
Benzinga Article: Cybin Corp: Canada’s Largest Go-Public Financing in the Psychedelics Sector
Forbes Article: Pharmaceutical Startup Developing Sublingual Psilocybin Raises $34 Million to Fund Clinical Trials

What If Fellowship Program: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

 

HERE ARE SOME THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT

1. Doug tells us about his 30 years of experience in the healthcare field and how it led him most recently to the psychedelics space.
   
   
   
2. Doug shares that his experience working in a hospital lab gave him the motivation to begin work in the mental health field. In his time in the ER, he shares that he saw many teenage suicide attempts and drug overdoses. Like so many of us, his personal connection to depression and addiction is another contributing factor to wanting to work in this space.
   
   
   
3. We discuss how the pandemic has affected the psychedelic space and how mental health issues have been elevated through recent events.
   
   
   
4. We talk about the speed at which psychedelics are growing as a treatment for mental health differences and whether or not it this growth, and the ensuring hype are sustainable or not.
   
   
   
5. Doug explains that while it may seem that psychedelics are this “new solution” that these treatments have been around for more than 50 years, but they are just now coming into the light.
   
   
   
6. Doug explains that the decriminalization in Oregon is a potential “pilot” of sorts, for the rest of the United States.
   
   
   
7. Doug talks about the data that has been collected on psychedelic treatments lately and what we are learning about how these drugs work in ways we never even knew before including by opening up new connections and networks so that the brain is essence, healing itself.
   
   
   
8. We discuss the comparison of the psychedelic space to the cannabis space and how they are quite the opposite of each other. Doug explains the long history of scientific research supporting the use of psychedelics spanning 4-5 decades. 
   
   
   
9. Doug shares his hope that we will see a strong network of compassionate use programs or palliative care centers being developed in the future. People at the end of their life have anxiety and depression, so they could benefit greatly from the use of psychedelics during this particular journey.
   
   
   
10. Finally, we discuss how the future of psychedelics look as investors. Doug advises to start looking beyond just psilocybin as the only molecule that can help people. There could be better compounds out there that we haven’t discovered yet because politics has dampened the growth in this space.

 

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