How Big Pharma is Using Trump to Monopolize Psychedelics

On Friday, the Trump administration issued an executive order promising to fast-track approval of psychedelic pharmaceuticals, leading several biopharma corporation stocks to skyrocket. Surrounded by cabinet members, health influencers, and podcaster Joe Rogan, the president claims he made this decision after receiving text messages from his friends about the benefits.

This shift in policy reflects that interest in psychedelics is climbing nationwide, though support remains mixed. More than two dozen cities from California to Michigan to Massachusetts have voted to end arrests for their personal use. And in states like Colorado and Oregon, the fraught legalization process has raised serious questions about affordability and safety. Amidst this backdrop, pharmaceutical corporations are working to corner the market in psychedelics should the FDA approve certain formulations and procedures.

As grassroots advocates for psychedelic decriminalization and education, we believe that fast-tracking approval of pharmaceutical psychedelics will lead to treatments costing tens of thousands of dollars. This reform may also unnecessarily stir public anxieties about their safety, as happened in Oregon where 7 in 10 counties have moved to ban psychedelic facilitation centers in the first state to legalize. The result will be that only the ultra-wealthiest among us will access legal psychedelics, while the rest of us will still face the risk of arrest for growing them or sharing them.

In Australia, where its equivalent of the FDA legalized medical use of MDMA in 2023, the cost of a single dose is more than $25,000. While a very small number of people may be able to access scholarships, the overwhelming majority of Aussies could not afford to pursue this pathway. Similarly, if the FDA approves a modified version of psilocybin developed by BeckleyAtai or COMPASS Pathways, we should anticipate that treatments would be extremely expensive.

Seven in ten Americans work paycheck to paycheck. If given the nod by FDA, per reporting by the New York Times, corporations like COMPASS would have the monopoly rights to sell these psychedelics and associated therapies for at least six years through a process known as “exclusive authorization” in addition to patents they successfully file.

At least one of these corporations has admitted that treatments would cost tens of thousands of dollars, yet claims that insurance would cover the costs of this care. However, there is no evidence that insurance companies will cover psychedelic treatments. Under our profit-driven healthcare system, most people switch insurance providers throughout their lives. This means that even if MDMA treatments could save money over conventional PTSD treatments in the long-run, insurance companies would not want to pay the exorbitant upfront costs for this alternative when they can just pay for less expensive palliative care.

Even if a handful of insurance companies eventually covered these treatments, one in every two Americans struggles to pay their insurance deductible and copays even when they have insurance. This is why ketamine therapies, like Spravato, still remain too expensive to be accessible for most people.

For our part, we have been raising these issues since we began our community organizing in 2020, decriminalizing growing and sharing psychedelics in ten cities across three states. In 2024, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a hybrid non-profit and for-profit corporation that has also gone by "Lykos Therapeutics” tried and failed to seek FDA approval to patent to sell MDMA. In June 2024, the FDA's advisory board voted 10-1 to reject this effort citing several cover ups in its research and biased data.

MDMA may hold treatment potential, yet this potential relies strongly on the context of its use. For example, the current board chair of MAPS, the predecessor to Lykos, was credibly implicated in using MDMA to steal millions of dollars from an elderly man. This is not the first time this company has been implicated in using MDMA to take advantage of people in vulnerable states. Therapists involved in the trials forcibly held down a woman in her bed and aggressively groped her. Another trial participant alleges the therapist in her trial used the influence of MDMA to form a romantic relationship with her and ultimately assault her.

This points to a little appreciated reality of this reform. The culture of the companies that stand to benefit from FDA approval may have significant impacts on the culture of psychedelic use that will follow. Had the FDA given Lykos exclusive authorization, the corporation would have had the sole authority to train therapists and sell MDMA treatments. A culture of abuse and coverups could, sadly, still become an industry norm. Yes, FDA is in desperate need of reform as an institution. Yet, it is important that we think very carefully about what we are approving and how that will play out in practice given the great power that psychedelics have for better and, frankly, worse.

In the end, this entire marketplace seems like an inflated investment bubble. As we explained to USA Today, there is extremely low-demand for these treatments because most people who use a psychedelic only do so once or twice their entire lives. Moreover, at the price point that these pharmaceuticals will be offered, many well-to-do people will likely consider flying to Jamaica or Costa Rica for a lavish, guided retreat, perhaps limiting the reach of medicalized psychedelics.

Psychedelics will continue to have their cultural moment for the foreseeable future. Yet fans and detractors alike should stand up against their pharmaceutical commercialization in favor of robust public education and research. After all, the veterans administration is already expanding its own research with universities rather than for-profit pharmaceutical companies.

The best path forward, in our view, is not to nationalize this, risking it becoming yet another culture war issue. It is educate, community by community, so that people who can benefit can find a psychedelic experience that is rooted in friendship, joy, and care, not profit.

After all, it would seem the president only learned about this subject because a friend texted him about it with candor and enthusiasm. For us, as grassroots advocates, that tells us that peer-to-peer education works even when policy itself fails.