Henry Harrison-Topham (Partner and Head of the Health & Wellness Team) and Ariadna Peretz (Director) attended Plant Medicine Week (PMW), organised by Microdose, which is part of Conscious Fund, a Malta-based and psychedelic-focused VC firm that has partnered with Buchanan.
The conference was focused on how the psychedelics industry can take off – through legislation and regulation, tapping the private and public capital markets, integration into the mainstream health sector, and the many purposes psychedelics serve (e.g. women’s health, addiction, PTSD) and how to deliver them to society (e.g. retreats, clinics).
Speakers included Anne Philippi (CEO at The New Health Club), Courtney Barnes (Counsel, Partner, Policy Advisor at Feldman Legal Advisors PLLC, Barnes Caplan LLP, Decriminalize Nature), Tristan Gervais (Head of Cannabis Advisory at Chrystal Capital Partners), Catharine Dockery (Founding Partner at Vice Ventures), Bek Muslimov (Co-Founding Partner at Leafy Tunnel), Varun Renjen (Managing Director, Life Sciences Strategy at KPMG Advisory), Graham Pechenik (Registered Patent Attorney and Founder at Calyx Law), Justin Hanka (Co-Founder & Director at MindBio Therapeutics), Saboto Caesar (Minister of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, rural transformation, industry and labour for the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines) and Daniel Koppelkamm (Managing Partner at Convergence Partners AG) (among others).
Interestingly, the bulk of the corporates were from North America but the majority of the investors in attendance were from Europe and Israel. While it’s true that the large majority of companies in the sector nowadays are North American, arguably the best research and some of the most interesting companies are from this side of the Atlantic. We look forward to seeing how the sector evolves by this time next year. What we hope to see is more UK and European businesses in the spotlight and accessing funding from UK and European sources.
We very much look forward to the 2023 edition of Plant Medicine Week and hope to see you there!