Mush­room mag­ic draws $80M in­jec­tion for Lon­don-based men­tal health start­up

The coro­n­avirus out­break has in­ter­fered with a mid-stage de­pres­sion tri­al test­ing its psilo­cy­bin com­pound, but the mag­ic of the mush­room has scored Pe­ter Thiel-backed Com­pass Path­ways an $80 mil­lion in­jec­tion in fresh fund­ing.

Ex­as­per­at­ed with the of­ten-in­ef­fec­tive ex­ist­ing slate of an­ti­de­pres­sants, the com­pa­ny set up shop in Lon­don in 2016 and made a bee­line for psilo­cy­bin, the psy­choac­tive in­gre­di­ent in mag­ic mush­rooms. It re­ceived the FDA break­through ther­a­py sta­tus for the com­pound for treat­ment-re­sis­tant de­pres­sion in 2018.

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