☁️🍄 Issue No. 030

Happy Sunday

August 27, 2023

Welcome back to Headlines, everyone. Hope you’re having a great weekend. We’re going to get right into the news today.

QUICK HITS

  • Soulware. Say hello to Sibyl AI, the world’s first spiritual/metaphysical LLM. 

  • Tok walk. The latest mental health trend on TikTok — #silentwalking.

  • LSD for OCD. New research suggests psychedelics’ potential for managing OCD

  • POTUS v PTSD. GOP hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy backs psychedelics for veterans. 

  • Fungi freedom. Minneapolis becomes first US city to decriminalize psychedelic plants and fungi through executive order by the mayor.

  • Cann I? Incannex prepares FDA application for its psychedelic psychotherapy program. 

  • Change of mind. Woebot reverses previous stance on LLMs, testing out the effect of generative AI. 

  • Do Good Ranch. Ex-NHL player constructing psychedelic retreat center for athletes, military. 

  • On hold. Nearly 74% of parents missed work last year to address their child’s mental health or academic performance. 

  • Best buds. Attend a live e-seminar on how to live closer to your pals. [Re-read Issue No. 029: Live Near Your Friends]

NEWS & TRENDS

1) Tech for addiction  

As the addiction crisis reaches historic highs and the youth vaping epidemic worsens, the future of addiction recovery will be a crucial one to invest in. Virtual clinic Pelago (formerly Quit Genius) offers personalized substance use care and just announced results from its healthcare cost savings analysis — a 3X ROI while reducing annual medical claims by $9,367 per participant.

Meanwhile, behavioral change digital health company Pivot—utilizing a combination of wearable tech, personalized coaching, and various tools and challenges—released long-term results from its trial on Pivot Breathe, a digital tobacco cessation program, demonstrating quit rates of 44% at the one-year mark. 

2) $150M for precision neuromedicine

How precise can mental health treatments get? That’s a question Rapport Therapeutics wants to answer, and it just received a cash influx of $150M from a laundry list of investors to further advance its discovery platform. The Series B round comes just five months after the company, a spinout from Johnson & Johnson, emerged from stealth with $100M.

By focusing on receptor-associated proteins (RAPs) and targeting specific neuroanatomical regions, Rapport aims to create therapies that are more effective and tailored to the individual needs of patients. It's a shift from broad-brush philosophies to a fine-tuned strategy, aiming to transform the way neurological diseases are understood and treated.

DEALS & DEBUTS

🍄 Cybin, a psychedelic biotech company, announced that it renewed its at-the-market (ATM) equity program that allows it to sell up to $35M of common shares. → source

🏛️ The Biden-Harris Administration announced over $64M in grants to address the mental health crisis through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).→ source

🤱 The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $24M in first-year funding to create ten Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence. The grants are expected to last seven years and total as much as $168M. → source 

✍ UnitedHealthcare awarded $100K to five federally qualified health centers to expand access to behavioral health services across the state. → source

🎒 Youme Healthcare, a pediatric mental illness provider, acquired Hurdle Health and rebranded to Backpack Healthcare.→ source

🎓 Uwill, a college mental health startup, teamed up with Highland Community College to offer teletherapy to students.→ source

WHAT I’M READING

  • Finding hope in the dark power of fungus. “The power of fungi — to transform, destroy, deconstruct and resurrect — holds an almost sacred allure as industrial modernity falls apart at the seams and we are left to face its mess.” → NOĒMA

  • Healing from C-PTSD. How complex trauma can affect a person’s quality of life, what recovery can look like, and how to stay hopeful amid the ups and downs of healing. → Group Therapy

All set — keeping it short and sweet this week. 🍬

Take care of yourselves out there,-Mel