The most important advance in mental healthcare in recent years is arguably the simple fact that more people are willing to acknowledge that they’re suffering and to seek help. At the same time, doctors and healthcare organizations increasingly consider mental health to be a basic component of their patients’ health and are more vigilant than ever about these conditions.
But as we’ve noted before, advances in treatment for mental disorders have been slow to arrive. Despite the availability of talk therapy and medications like SSRIs, tens of millions of people struggle to manage or overcome depression, anxiety, PTSD and other issues. In this environment of national and global need, indications that psychedelic substances may provide safe and effective benefits have been greeted with hopeful excitement.
Excitement — and philanthropic funding interest. Over the years, IP has reported on some of the individual grants and organizations that have funded psychedelic research, including donations like a $1.5 million gift from software developer Eugene Jhong to UC San Diego, ongoing support from groups like the Riverstyx Foundation, and grants from hedge funder Robert Mercer to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies to support clinical trials of veterans suffering from PTSD. While all knowledge and research can be valuable, these commitments have mostly been piecemeal; if ever there was a field that could benefit from a solid landscaping of the complex web of science, legality and accessibility factors, it’s psychedelics.
First, there’s the sheer mystery of the brain and the mind and how they’re affected by these treatments. And then there’s the heavy load of cultural and legal baggage that essentially halted psychedelics research for the last half of the 20th century. In the last 20 years, however, willingness to explore psychedelics for therapeutic use has steadily gained momentum. Dozens of pharmaceutical companies are now actively developing drugs based on various psychedelic substances.
More recently, public awareness of the potential for therapeutic uses of psychedelics grew further with the 2018 publication of “How to Change Your Mind,” a book by the well-known journalist Michael Pollan. The book dug into the study of once-taboo drugs such as LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in so-called “magic mushrooms”) to help people suffering from conditions like depression, addiction and anxiety. Research has also emerged involving such drugs as ketamine for depression, ibogaine for addiction, and MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder. A big selling point for these psychedelics is not only the promising data on their effectiveness, but, if used under proper supervision, their apparent safety.
Understanding this scientific, legal and social landscape is the wheelhouse of the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative, which describes itself as “a community of philanthropists dedicated to enabling access to psychedelic healing.” Its founders established the organization as a 501c3 nonprofit in 2017, recognizing that while psychedelic research and clinical exploration had begun to expand, concerted philanthropy would be needed to advance the field. (For more background on the organization’s founding and goals, take a look at this IP article.) The group now has around 180 members, and many not-yet members interested in the field; so far, PSFC says it has mobilized an estimated $50 million in funding for research and advocacy.
The organization’s latest step is the publication of a comprehensive overview of the psychedelic ecosystem, a framework to assist funders interested in supporting the study of psychedelics and to smooth the legal and regulatory pathways for their use. The PSFC’s recently released “Strategic Roadmap for Collective Philanthropy” incorporates the perspectives of more than 150 researchers, for-profit and nonprofit professionals, advocates, journalists, philanthropists and others with expertise in the psychedelic field. The PSFC hopes the report will help unlock new funding for the field, increase collaboration among donors, and help donors and participants support strategies that advance the entire ecosystem.
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“It is an advisory document to donors, inside or beyond the PSFC, who might have an interest in the psychedelic field and [are] looking for where there might be meaningful philanthropic opportunities,” said Dan Grossman, head of field building for the PSFC.
The document highlights the need to move beyond the mostly piecemeal philanthropic commitments we’ve seen so far. “[The report] makes clear that the work ahead requires a coordinated funding effort across diverse priorities — from research to implementation, from public education to policy reform, from access to safety, and more,” wrote the PSFC.
The PSFC’s strategic roadmap identifies and discusses four focus areas that it believes will be key to the successful development of therapeutic psychedelics: expanding legal pathways; integrating psychedelics into the medical system; public communication and education; and the formation of ethical norms and frameworks for use of psychedelics.
The PSFC believes that research conducted within the framework the report proposes can radically advance psychedelic healing in the U.S. over the next five to seven years. And though the report is extensive in scope, the group says it’s not intended to be the last word in philanthropic funding for the field, nor to suggest that funders eschew other avenues of study related to psychedelic therapies.
“The world is receptive to this,” Grossman said. “There’s been a rush of for-profit capital and to fund the 50 or more drug companies that are now actively working on psychedelics.” Philanthropy has played a role in catalyzing that capital investment and can now continue to advance the field in other ways. These include working to integrate information about psychedelics into psychology and psychiatry graduate programs, and to fund organizations working with state legislatures or state and federal drug regulatory agencies with an aim to balance safety and access.
The road ahead for psychedelics will likely be bumpy. Last year, for example, the FDA declined to approve the use of an MDMA drug for use in treating PTSD, requiring further study to demonstrate safety and effectiveness. Of course, many drugs go through similar cycles of rejection and retesting before winning approval, and as noted above, there are many psychedelic therapies in the development pipeline.
In any case, we’ll likely be hearing more from the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative soon enough. With interest from philanthropy continuing to grow, the publication of the roadmap does represent some evolution for the PSFC. “Historically, the PSFC staff primarily created settings for donors to talk to and learn from each other,” Grossman said. “With the roadmap, we’re taking a bit more of a stronger point of view on what needs to be funded, what should be funded collectively versus individually.”
