Numinus CEO Payton Nyquvest Says Psychedelic Therapy Shouldn’t Be The ‘Last’ Option For Treatment

After his keynote presentation at Wonderland: Miami last week, Numinus (CVE:NUMI) CEO Payton Nyquvest joined The Dales Report aboard the Maryam to talk shop and reflect on the first major in-person event for the psychedelic industry.

“The interesting thing with the industry is we’ve been an industry that totally birthed during COVID,” he said. “I think the biggest takeaway for me is there’s still a lot of interesting collaboration in the space, there’s not a lot of competitiveness, people are very excited, obviously, and keen about where they feel the industry is headed. It’s nice to get everybody in the same room.”

Nyquvest noted that interest from financial and institutional supporters continues to grow, with more focused support from established biotech and healthcare companies. “There’s been a lot of education that’s happened in the space, so the questions are becoming a little more focused, and people are understanding a little bit about where the space is headed,” he said.

Progress Takes Time

While some might be driven by frenetic energy (and, ahem, greed) to see the psychedelic space advance more quickly, the CEO said one thing investors should consider as they survey the space, is which companies are building long-term plans. He said Numinus often gets positive feedback from investors who are drawn to their five-year outlook.

“There’s a big opportunity here, everybody talks about this paradigm shift in healthcare. That’s not going to happen in six months,” he said. “The data is super compelling, regulators are already making changes, but it’s going to take a little bit of time.”

Now, he said, is a very exciting to start to recognize who is “really here to make a significant difference, who has got the infrastructure and team in place in order to do that, and who has got the capital.”

Where Psychedelic Therapy Fits Within The Healthcare System

During his keynote presentation, Nyquvest addressed psychedelic therapy’s role as an intervention within the healthcare system. Rather than seeing it as an endpoint, where most position it, he suggests that it should be considered earlier on in a patient’s treatment journey, to decrease burden to the healthcare system.

“The reason why the psychedelic industry is here is because we recognize that current treatments have limitations, and there’s this massive burden on the healthcare system, so why are we talking about putting psychedelic therapy at the end of a patient journey [as far as] treatment resistant depression and treatment resistant PTSD? That’s not alleviating the pressure on the healthcare system.”

At Numinus, psychedelic therapy is positioned as a standard of care, and something that could potentially be at the beginning of a person’s journey to healing.

So far, people understand and are receptive this notion, he said. 

“If we’re here to try and alleviate the burden on the healthcare system, then let’s alleviate it—let’s not wait until it needs to be at the end, and then have it be an adjunctive therapy.”

Accessibility Over Novelty

While Nyquvest said he understood the focus some other companies have on developing new molecules, he doesn’t prescribe to the idea that psilocybin or MDMA are “old news,” especially because the latter drugs are not yet being offered in a clinic setting.

“Let’s get off the ground. Let’s focus on accessibility. If every deck has the slide that shows there is a trillion-dollar addressable market… then why are we not focusing on that addressable need? There’s tons of room for innovation, but let’s not put the cart before the horse and focus on big downstream innovation before we’ve even got accessible treatments out yet.”

Watch the interview in full to hear Nyquvest weigh in on the latest data from Compass, the importance of integration, and Numinus’ ongoing work with MAPS.

__________

* In accordance with an executed agreement between The Dales Report and Numinus Wellness, The Dales Report is engaged with the aforementioned on a 12-month contract for $10,000 per month, with the purpose of publicly disseminating information pertaining to Numinus Wellness via The Dales Report’s media assets, encompassing its website, diverse social media platforms, and YouTube channel. Compensation for The Dales Report services involves the receipt of a predefined monetary consideration, which may, on certain occasions, encompass ordinary shares in instances where monetary compensation was not obtained. In such instances where share compensation was received, The Dales Report hereby asserts the right to engage in the acquisition or disposition of such shares subsequent to the conclusion of the aforementioned contractual period, in compliance with provincial, state, and federal securities regulations. Please refer to the “Disclosures” section below, which is to be interpreted in conjunction with this disclaimer.