Australia is not the wild west - we err on the side of caution with these matters and that's fine.
The shortsighted aspect of the decision is that these substances are readily available and people ARE self-medicating with them in a manner that is far less controlled than if regulations were relaxed a little, and people could seek treatment in a more structured setting.
That said, I am not completely unappreciative of the view that those structured settings are still being developed, and there is some merit to wanting at least one indication to gain approval after successful trials.
Finally, consider that the decision has protected Incannex's Psi-GAD market in Australia. A rescheduling could have greased the way to a number of less rigorously researched approaches: I imagine Incannex would like the rescheduling to occur once their programs have reached completion, just as the TGA probably prefers to seriously reconsider rescheduling at that time.
Meanwhile, Incannex almost certainly expects its psychedelic programs to find their first commercial application overseas. The US will no doubt have a number of states with a green light for these treatments. Oregon was the first state to legalize psilocybin, and a handful of US cities have decriminalized it. So that's where the action is going to be, and Incannex, as we all know, is positioning its patents, trials, regulatory procedures and PR towards the US.
In terms of the Australian market, the expectation is for Obstructive Sleep Apnea candidate drug IHL-42x to yield positive results from it's now-soon-completed Phase 2 trial, and to then move relatively quickly to approval for sales to patients through the Special Access Scheme. This would not only build a revenue stream: it would do a lot of good for Incannex's reputation at home, which will help the cause of psilocybin regulation shift if/when Incannex's candidate therapy program comes of age.
That's what the outlook looks like to me!
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