We often receive calls from potential ketamine clinic clients that just signed a letter of intent (“LOI”) or term sheet to acquire entire medical practices that are undertaking ketamine treatments. In the psychedelics space, many companies are starting off with off-label ketamine treatments while building towards a bigger suite of psychedelic services as the laws
Cannabis is legal and regulated in most U.S. states. Oregon legalized and will soon regulate psilocybin. Cities around the country decriminalized (and more are decriminalizing) a host of other psychedelics. Ketamine clinics are popping up around the county. Next up is MDMA (referred to in some forms as “ecstasy”). Today, we’re going to talk about
Can companies in the psychedelic space register their trademarks, for psychedelics themselves? This is a question that often comes up, given U.S. trademark law’s requirement that marks be lawfully used in commerce as a precondition to registration. In recent times, many trademark applications filed by cannabis businesses have been refused on lawful-use grounds, though this
Something strange happened yesterday. Psychedelics unicorn Compass Pathways released data for the largest clinical trial ever conducted of a psilocybin drug. Not only did the drug seem to work, but the heavily anticipated data were “breathtaking” in the words of Compass’ CEO. Immediately, the company’s publicly traded shares dropped 16%. Including the day prior, it
As we have written about before, the corporate practice of medicine doctrine (“CPOM”) is a creature of state law (click here to review a prior post on CPOM). While some states do not have a CPOM doctrine (like Florida), other states have very strict CPOM doctrines (like New York and California). At its core, CPOM
Public and scientific interest in psychedelics such as psilocybin and MDMA is expanding. Once off-limits because of federal prohibition, a trickle of research from the 1990s has grown into a stream. But despite increasing acceptance by the public, and commercial investment in psychedelic therapies, aging federal laws stem the flow of vital research. Psilocybin, a
You are an experienced cannabis operator. You have dealt with nonsensical regulations. You’ve navigated the world of dealing with a highly regulated substance. You’ve solicited large investments and beat out your competitors. You’ve learned enough about corporate governance and tax to go toe to toe with the best. Think you can easily pivot to the
The Physician Self-Referral Law, commonly referred to as the Stark law (42 U.S.C. § 1395nn), is one of several federal fraud and abuse laws. We have previously written about the federal anti-kickback statute (“AKS”) (click here to review). While the two laws may seem similar at first, they have very different rules and penalties. The
Last week, I came across an article surveying the 50 (!) psychedelics companies that are now publicly traded on U.S. exchanges— a handful of which we are proud to call our clients. Of these, 41 are listed on over the counter (OTC) markets, while the remaining nine outfits are traded on either the Nasdaq or
As the economy continues to flourish, there is a proliferation of merger and acquisition activity in the healthcare space. We continue to see a rise in ketamine clinic acquisitions as well as investors who are starting management services organizations (“MSO”) to assist such clinics with their administrative burden. Likewise, we have seen an increase in
