Successful legalization of psychedelics simply cannot happen without commercialization—but advocacy for psychedelic-assisted therapy has gone from being driven largely by medical academics, philanthropists, and various grassroots enthusiasts, to being dominated by entrepreneurs and investors. Shareholders seem prone to accepting company press releases regarding ethical concerns rather than questioning the approaches being taken by the relevant pharma startups they are stakeholders in. What can supporters of psychedelic therapy effectively do to ensure that healing, safety and accessibility get prioritized over ROI and market control?
Copying part of a response I made to another question:
Another point is that I think there is a role for nonprofits to play in monitoring and litigating the patent landscape. I support the appropriate use of IP, and when it works this incentivizes innovation that pushes advances that wouldn’t have been made otherwise. But there is a need to make sure the system is not abused, and that patents are not awarded to ideas that truly don’t meet the legal standards such as non-intuitiveness and originality.
Successful legalization of psychedelics simply cannot happen without commercialization—but advocacy for psychedelic-assisted therapy has gone from being driven largely by medical academics, philanthropists, and various grassroots enthusiasts, to being dominated by entrepreneurs and investors. Shareholders seem prone to accepting company press releases regarding ethical concerns rather than questioning the approaches being taken by the relevant pharma startups they are stakeholders in. What can supporters of psychedelic therapy effectively do to ensure that healing, safety and accessibility get prioritized over ROI and market control?
Copying part of a response I made to another question:
Another point is that I think there is a role for nonprofits to play in monitoring and litigating the patent landscape. I support the appropriate use of IP, and when it works this incentivizes innovation that pushes advances that wouldn’t have been made otherwise. But there is a need to make sure the system is not abused, and that patents are not awarded to ideas that truly don’t meet the legal standards such as non-intuitiveness and originality.