Magic Mushrooms Producer Optimi Keeps Betting On The FDA-approval Of Psychedelics

Optimi Health OPTHF has released an operational update on its planned year of commercialization, including the launch of psychedelics catalog.

Optimi is licensed by Health Canada as a producer and supplier of natural GMP psilocybin and synthetic psychedelic substances.

Beginning in 2022’s first quarter, the company's initiative is oriented to scaling revenue generation through market demand of natural psychedelics and functional mushrooms as well as synthetic psychedelic substances.

The general landscape for psychedelics-assisted therapy is definitely on track to becoming a real market, considering that the Biden administration recently issued a letter admitting that FDA approval of psychedelics is expected within 24 months. A recent meeting held between Canadian Health Minister Carolyn Bennet and members of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board also adds hope to psychedelics becoming approved medicines soon.

Optimi's Commercial Ventures

Since the inauguration of its Princeton, B.C. cultivation and processing facility in May 2022, Optimi has signed five domestic psilocybin supply agreements with Halucenex Life Sciences, Filament Health, ATMA Journey Centers, SABI Mind, and Bloom Psychedelic Therapy and Research Centre, and an additional international one with Promises Innovative Recovery Center.

The company recently partnered with Canadian psilocybin patient advocate Thomas Hartle to create Blue Serenity, the first therapeutic psilocybin product available for approved patients and research entities in Canada and which will feature in the company’s September 2022 psilocybin product catalog together with other articles. 

Optimi has also recently began exploring into other psychedelics, receiving an amendment to its Health Canada Controlled Substances Dealers Licence for manufacturing and distributing synthetic substances like MDMA, for which Optimi has scheduled a large-scale production starting October 2022 and which would make it “the first company to supply an all-Canadian made MDMA product to a Canadian MDMA trial.”

In this regard, CEO Bill Ciprick expressed: “The existing MDMA deal structures we have observed to date give us every confidence that there is plenty of room for Optimi to occupy a significant piece of the market.” 

Ciprick believes that their on-site production and analytical facilities “will be able to improve upon the logistical efficiency of current offerings,” out of which “clinicians and drug developers have difficulty obtaining consistent products synthesized, tested, and brought to market in-house” by a single supplier.

Optimi’s CEO further added that the company is “keeping a keen eye on jurisdictions that are loosening supply regulations and are in active discussions with Health Canada on how to further supply Canadians with homegrown medicine.”

Photo courtesy of Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.