“In my opinion, psychedelics are not drugs – not what is commonly called drugs, but rather medicines.” Investor Christian Angermayer, originally from the Upper Palatinate, says this sentence to the camera. He talks to YouTuber “Geldmustbart” about his visions. And they are big. Angermayer believes in the use of psychedelics as medication. He publicizes this on numerous online platforms.
He himself has experimented with psilocybin – the so-called “magic mushrooms” – he says on his Instagram channel. He believes it can be used to cure mental illness and thus “solve one of the biggest health problems in the world”.
Investors like Angermayer hope the substances, also known as drugs, will help, among other things, people suffering from treatment-resistant depression.
Gold Rush Humor in the Market
One thing is for sure: there is clearly a lot of money to be made with substances like psilocybin. According to media reports, even before its IPO in 2020, the biotech company Compass Pathways had raised well over $100 million from investors like Christian Angermayer. Initial studies with a small number of participants reported huge treatment successes. The topic made the covers of magazines and daily newspapers.
In 2018, Christian Angermayer founded atai Life Sciences, a biotechnology company that is also researching other hallucinogens, psychedelics and other so-called party drugs to combat mental illness. These include the anesthetic ketamine for depression and a chemical variation of MDMA known as ecstasy, which is said to help with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Neither the group nor investor and founder Christian Angermayer responded to Bayerischer Rundfunk’s request.
Expert is skeptical
Psychology professor Reinhard Maß is suspicious. He speaks here of a “suspicious hype”. Larger studies with a larger number of test subjects have not yet been able to prove the phenomenal success of the first smaller studies.
Maß criticizes the fact that such studies are carried out or financed by those who ultimately want to sell the drugs. According to the professor, the focus is on the “interest of profit”: “In a scientific process that involves research and the acquisition of knowledge, one would be much more careful. A study with great results means nothing at first glance. It has to be independently confirmed by several parties.”
Study of the Charité Berlin
Compass Pathways, for example, co-funded a psilocybin study conducted at Charité Berlin on the efficacy of the drug it produces and intends to sell. In response to a BR query about this, Compass Pathways writes:
“All clinical trial centers receive reimbursement for procedures performed within the scope of the trial, which corresponds to market value. In addition, the hospital’s ethics committee and research committee are aware of the reimbursements agreed.” The company did not comment on the amount of payments to the Charité Clinic.
The clinic itself refers to academic freedom in a statement. The remuneration was in line with market rates and covered costs. Charité sees no conflict of interest. A spokeswoman told BR that none of the employees involved had any financial interest in the company or the product.
Critic: Conflicts of interest are common
Conflicts of interest are not uncommon in drug research. This is also illustrated by the example of esketamine administered as a nasal spray to treat severe depression. A study conducted at the Goethe University in Frankfurt on the effectiveness of ketamine, which is actually used as an anesthetic but is also known as a party drug, was funded by the pharmaceutical company Janssen. And it sells this drug.
Esketamine nasal spray is already approved. The study author also co-wrote the “National Guideline of Care for Unipolar Depression,” the official treatment recommendation.
His colleague Tom Bschor, a professor of psychiatry in Berlin, is particularly critical of the extremely high cost of the nasal spray. Bschor is also the author of the guideline. According to him, the monthly costs of the treatment could also be used to pay for a caregiver “who would only look after this depressed person for the whole month”. You have to ask yourself what has the greatest effect, Bschor said in the interview with BR.
Bschor and many of his colleagues remain skeptical about the study’s initial results and the use of psychedelics to treat people with mental illness.
You can find out more about this topic today (July 3) at 12:17 p.m. on the BR24 radio program Funkstreifzug. The podcast of the program is now available in the ARD audio library. There you will also find the first part of this research.