A turnabout for MAPS
Rick Doblin
Several years ago, an investor offered to pay $150 million for 20 percent of MAPS public benefit corporation, the for-profit drug-development subsidiary of MAPS, according to Rick Doblin, the nonprofit’s founder and president. MAPS — it stands for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies — has for decades been working to bring psychedelic medicines to the mainstream. It has completed two Stage 3 clinical trials of MDMA-assisted therapy to treat PTSD, and is thought to be close to winning FDA approval for its protocol.
Doblin turned down the investor. He told Lucid News that the valuation was too low, and that MAPS would sell equity in its drug-development unit “only as a last resort.” He did not want to give up control or put at tisk the values of the organizations to which he has devotes his adult life.
Well, now it’s last resort time.
This week, reporting for Lucid News, I broke the story that MAPS last fall hired Cowen & Co., a New York investment bank, to sell shares in MAPS PBC, as the wholly-owned drug development unit is known. MAPS PBC estimates that it will need to spend somewhere between $70 million and $250 million to commercialize MDMA-assisted therapy, assuming the treatment is approved by the FDA.
So far at least, MAPS has been unable to raise that money through philanthropy. Since Doblin founded MAPS in 1986, it has raised a total of about $140 million in donations. Donations during the first nine months of last year added up to less than $10 million.
Can Doblin raise the money to commercialize MDMA from a mix of investors and donors? The stakes are high, not just for MAPS and for those suffering from PTSD who could benefit from its work, but for the entire psychedelics sector.
Although MDMA, which is known on the street as ecstasy, is not a classic psychedelic, it is classified as a Schedule 1 drug by the DEA, meaning that the government believes that has no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Getting FDA approval for a combination of talk therapy and MDMA will mean that the medicine has been shown, through rigorous clinical trials, to provide benefits. Getting insurers to cover the treatment would further reinforce the idea that MDMA has value to patients. Finally, a successful rollout of MDMA to treat PTSD could bring enormous relief to millions of people, including combat veterans and victims of sexual assault or abuse, who suffer from PTSD. It would show that at least one psychedelic medicine can deliver on its promise.
As Daniel Goldberg, a founder of the venture capital fund Palo Santo, told me for my story: “It’s incredibly important to the entire sector and to the movement in general that MDMA gets across the finish line.”
MAPS PBC is exploring a variety of way to raise money for commercialization, an executive there told me after my story ran. Lenders and equity investors are definitely interested, this executive said. The question is, what will they ask for in return—seats on the board, influence on the speed and scope of the rollout, a focus on short-term profits?
It remains conceivable that a super-rich philanthropist could pay for the rollout, on his own or with a few wealthy friends. The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation has been one of MAPS’ most generous donors, giving the organization $3.4 million, largely to support its work with veterans. The billionaire owner of the New York Mets, whose fortune supports the foundation, could write a check for 50 times that amount and hardly miss it.
Goldberg, for one, believes that Doblin will successfully finish the work to which he has devoted much of his adult life. “If anyone can do it, MAPS, and particularly Rick, will find a way to get it done,” he said. Let’s hope he’s right.
You can read my story about MAPS here.
