$100M Investment & Donation To Psychedelics Research From Toms Shoes Founder Blake Mycoskie

Several days prior to the FDA’s issuance of the draft guidance for clinical trials with psychedelics, Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms Shoes pledged the new goal of donating and investing a total of $100 million, 25% of his stated net worth, on psychedelic therapies for the treatment of mental health conditions. The donations will come over the next decade or so, beginning with $5 to $7 million donations by the end of 2023.

The announcement was formally made on June 21 during MAPS' huge

Psychedelic Science conference in Denver, where New York Jets quarterback and longtime psychedelics advocate Aaron Rodgers also supported “the opportunity to change the conversation” by dispelling “archaic myths” on these substances and starting "to share the actual wisdom and truth about it.”

For Mycoskie, “the big vision is for our culture, our government, our elected officials, to start to see that we've really gotten this wrong: these are not drugs; these are medicines, and so everything that I'm doing is really wrapped around that single goal.”

The entrepreneur, who has been living in Costa Rica for the past three years and is now moving back to the U.S., hopes his donation will inspire others with similar financial possibilities to invest in psilocybin, MDMA and other hallucinogens with potential mental health benefits, reported Forbes.

Mycoskie holds a personal belief in psychedelics' healing potential. “I like to say that drinking ayahuasca is like having a date with your soul,” he says, adding that now's the time to get back in the game. "This is it. This is probably the single biggest opportunity in my life to be part of something that could change the course of human history.”

The donation is believed to be the largest ever made in the psychedelics space and is intended to support both academic institutions on studies around these potential medicines as well as nonprofits working toward increasing access for patients in need of treatment.

Mycoskie told MarketWatch that the donation comes from a sense of urgency “to get this right, and have these foundations and nonprofits funded properly.”

Psychedelic Science In Numbers

Mycoskie is joining New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and wife Alexandra, GoDaddy’s Bob Parsons and Dr. Bronner’s, among other donors who support the lengthy and expensive path to move psychedelic molecules toward FDA approval.

Mycoskie has already donated $10 million to several nonprofits and institutions, including MAPS, the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, and Colorado’s ballot-passed Prop. 122 legalizing natural psychedelics. 

To date, big pharma's depression treatment sales are estimated at $50 billion a year globally, while the total mental health market moves about $100 billion annually in sales. Looking ahead, pharma analysts say legal psychedelic-assisted therapy could seize $10 billion annually through the Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) subcategory alone. 

MAPS is responsible for what is the closest psychedelic treatment to gaining FDA approval through the regulatory funnel. An application for legalizing MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD treatment will likely be submitted to the federal agency soon and is expected to receive a nod by mid-2024.

Mycoskie said he will focus his philanthropy and investment in support of MAPS’ work, funding future ballot measures on the therapeutic use of psychedelics and funding research by the VA.

“Within 10 years, I hope we could get at least 20 states to legalize at least one psychedelic medicine, and to really help MAPS commercialize MDMA and set up clinics and trained therapists,” says Mycoskie. “I think that's going to open the floodgates for the other medicines like ayahuasca, ibogaine, or mescaline.” 

Photo: Benzinga edit with photo by chrissmith12 and Bru-nO on Pixabay.