Aphrodite Health, All-Female Founded And Managed Psychedelics Company Launches, Will Focus On Helping Women

Aphrodite Health, a first-of-its-kind biotech company in the emerging multibillion-dollar psychedelics medicine industry, launched on Friday. Founded and operated by women, Aphrodite will focus on women’s mental and physical health with psychedelic enhanced treatments and a long-term drug discovery program to bring FDA-approved drugs to market.

It also plans to roll out a low-dose medicine for the treatment of hormone-related mood disorders in menopause.

Co-founder, Tesla La Touche, will take on the role of CEO, after nearly two decades of professional experience at various healthcare giants, where she held managerial roles.

“The time is now for the psychedelic medicine industry to differentiate itself with innovation in research study design that addresses value-based outcomes, population health and socio-health economics,” La Touche said. “Aphrodite Health has a clear mission to elevate women’s health and autonomy.”

Vestaen Balbuena, one of the founding members and senior associate of funding backers The Conscious Fund, noted that diverse founders account for less than 5% of founding teams in venture capital nowadays.

“It’s important that we level the playing field so fifty percent of our portfolio includes underrepresented entrepreneurial teams," Balbuena said. "With this in mind, I am delighted to join Aphrodite Health as a co-founder and proud to be part of the team that is blazing a new trail in supporting women’s healthcare needs.”

Olivia Mannix, founder and CEO of Denver-based Cannabrand, is another co-founder. As a  cannabis and psychedelics industry trailblazer, Mannix will serve as chief strategy officer of Aphrodite Health.

 “Helping others has always been the driving force behind the work that I do,” Mannix said. “I’m thrilled to bring my extensive experience in highly regulated markets to the Aphrodite Health team and to join this leading group of female innovators focused on women’s health issues.”

Photo by Christopher Ott on Unsplash