New company to put psilocybin on dissolvable sublingual strips to help treat depression

There is a magical moment in the pharmaceutical industry when a government approves a new treatment. For companies researching psilocybin, the psychoactive component in psychedelic mushrooms, that moment is now.

Late last year, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated psilocybin as a “Breakthrough Therapy,” a label that fast tracks clinical trials. The move only comes when there is significant evidence that a new treatment might prove far more effective than current treatments.

In the case of psilocybin, it’s drug-assisted therapy for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). So far, in clinical trials, the results of psilocybin-assisted therapy have outstripped those of early trials of antidepressants.