Psychedelic Alpha

Pα+ is the insider’s guide to the business, policy and science of psychedelics. Independent data-driven reporting, analysis and commentary on the psychedelics space: from business and drug development through to policy reform and culture. psychedelicalpha.com/join

We spoke to Peter Hendricks about a recent publication that details his group's study of psilocybin for cocaine use disorder. Read the full conversation: psychedelicalpha.com/news/psilocybi…

“So it really behoves us all to recognise that psychedelics, though ancient, represent a completely new and transformative class of medication in psychiatry. They give us the opportunity to revisit what we’ve long known about the importance of psychotherapy, but in a way that can be accelerated and deepened.” Nora Volkow shared her views on psychedelics via a presentation at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in San Francisco. Read the full interview and transcript, and access Volkow's slides, at our website: psychedelicalpha.com/news/if-i-cant…

Check out this thoughtful interview with Dr. Bit Yaden and @Josh__Hardman at @Psyched_Alpha, discussing a collaborative educational project between Johns Hopkins, NYU, Penn, and Yale. The project focuses on training resident psychiatrists on the most important aspects of prescribing psychedelic medicines, including safety, equity and inclusion, and understanding the unique profiles and clinical uses of various psychedelic substances. psychedelicalpha.com/news/bit-yaden…

"Psychiatry has so many tools, and psychedelics are going to be one of them. We should legitimise that, make space for it, talk about it. But we also do patients a disservice if we act like this is the only thing that could ever help them. Psychiatry has much more to offer than just psychedelic medicine." - Bit Yaden Read the full conversation on our website: psychedelicalpha.com/news/bit-yaden…

Compass Pathways' Chief Medical Officer Guy Goodwin spoke at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting earlier this week in San Francisco. There, he shared that the company's synthetic psilocybin candidate, COMP360, could be on the market for treatment-resistant depression as soon as late 2026 or early 2027. "We're at a very exciting stage for a company", Goodwin said, "but I think more importantly, a very important turning point for the whole field; we're going to have psychedelics to use, and it's going to be very exciting for you as practitioners."

NIDA Director Nora Volkow describes psychedelics as “a game changer” for psychotherapeutic drug development. The comments were made at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco on Sunday. Read the full presentation transcript, including the Q&A session, as well as an interview with our Editor on our website: psychedelicalpha.com/news/if-i-cant…

“This underscores the need to have therapists available with experience in dealing with emerging and frightening material, which is common in volunteers with a history of trauma. All the unresolved issues come bubbling to the surface under the influence of the psychedelic.” - Scott T. Aaronson Read the full conversation on our website: psychedelicalpha.com/news/psilocybi…

Speaking now at APA: Compass Pathways CMO Guy Goodwin

“If I can’t change my views based on evidence, then why do science at all?” Nora Volkow on Psychedelics In our latest, we share a full transcript of a conference presentation by NIDA Director Nora Volkow about psychedelics, which was delivered at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in San Francisco. We also include the Q&A session, as well as a brief interview with our Founder and Editor, Josh Hardman. Read the full interview and transcript, and access Volkow's slides, here: psychedelicalpha.com/news/if-i-cant…

We spoke to Peter Hendricks about a recent publication that details his group's study of psilocybin for cocaine use disorder. Read the full conversation: psychedelicalpha.com/news/psilocybi…

Psychedelic drug developers Compass Pathways and Definium Therapeutics at the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

We’re at the American Psychiatric Association’s 2026 Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

“I have been a psychiatrist for over 40 years, and to see an intervention that can give people suffering as much as these folks do relief so quickly is unlike almost anything else I have seen” - Scott T. Aaronson Read the full conversation on our website: psychedelicalpha.com/news/psilocybi…

Breaking: Mike Davis has become Acting Director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) following the departure of Tracy Beth Høeg. Davis spent three years as Chief Medical Officer of psilocybin drug developer Usona Institute before returning to FDA as Deputy Director of CDER last Summer. Beth Høeg’s departure comes as FDA Commissioner Marty Makary also resigned earlier this week.

Since launching in 2023, Oregon’s psilocybin program has served an estimated 17,000 clients and sold more than 42,000 psilocybin products, generating over $1.9M in revenue. At the same time, average product prices have dropped from ~$85 in 2023 to ~$51 in Q1 2026 — likely driven by growing competition among licensed manufacturers. Read more on our website: psychedelicalpha.com/resources/the-…

IRBs Broadly Neutral on Psychedelics Studies, Survey Finds A new journal article by Robinson et al. (2026) surveyed 529 IRB chairs to understand their views on psychedelic research. 212 completed at least 80% of their survey. Participants often selected neutral responses regarding their attitudes towards psychedelics, the authors note, with the majority of respondents reporting similar confidence in their ability to review psychedelic and non-psychedelic protocols. Read more on our website: psychedelicalpha.com/news/p%ce%b1-p…

“My fondest hope is that this will help us allow suicidal subjects into studies and continue to study the efficacy of psychedelics. I think some of the studies with esketamine opened the door, and now we need to do more.” - Scott T. Aaronson Read the full conversation on our website: psychedelicalpha.com/news/psilocybi…

April 2026 Psychedelic Bill Round-up April 2026 was a very busy month for psychedelic policy in the U.S., with bills progressing through statehouses or falling to the wayside as legislative sessions began to taper off and action from the very top of the federal government. More than three dozen psychedelics-related bills saw substantive activity in April across 20 states and at the federal level. Notably, seven became law, two were vetoed in West Virginia, and several others moved one chamber closer to enactment.  Our state-by-state round-up highlights the more significant developments... Read more on our website: psychedelicalpha.com/news/april-202…

“When Resilient submits its updated data to the FDA, I hope the FDA prioritizes the review. It is the only program with completed Phase 3 trials for PTSD and is positioned to begin treating patients immediately following approval.” - @gjurvetson Read more on our website: psychedelicalpha.com/news/trumps-ps…

Psychedelic researcher @RCarhartHarris spoke to us about a new study published in Nature Communications that looks at brain changes after first psilocybin use.