

After On Podcast #27: Depression – The Psychedlic Cure?

George Goldsmith and Katya Malievskaia are a married couple whose startup – Compass Pathways – will soon launch the largest triple-blind clinical trial ever of a psychedelic drug, The drug is psilocybin, which is the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. And the condition is treatment-resistant depression. This awful malady plagues over a hundred million people worldwide. And as the term “treatment-resistant” implies, it lacks a cure.

Now, if that sounds a bit implausible, consider who George and Katya have drawn to their company. Their Board of Directors includes Thomas Lonngren, who spent ten years running Europe’s equivalent of the FDA (the European Medicines Agency). Also on their board is the former Chief Medical Officer of Bristol Meyers Squibb - one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Plus, they’ve raised roughly $20 million for their company from some extremely savvy investors.

As you’ll learn from our conversation, Katya & George are both deeply experienced in medical research. They’re perhaps even more plugged into drug approval process, and have designed their trial in consultation with the top drug regulators of multiple countries.

As you’ll learn from our interview, they have a very personal grudge against treatment-resistant depression, because of the way it afflicted someone very dear to them. We’ll talk about Katya and George’s backgrounds & motivations, as well as the trial they’re architecting, and their company Compass Pathways. We’ll also discuss the long clinical history certain psychedelics and other recreational drugs have had, and the major promise several of them are now showing against a diversity of afflictions.