Numinus Wellness Inc. (“Numinus” or the “Company”) (TSXV: NUMI), a company creating an ecosystem of solutions centred on the research, development, and delivery of safe, evidence-based, accessible psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies, has completed the first legal extraction of Psilocybe mushrooms in Canada by a public company for research and development purposes. This follows Numinus’ successful completion of the cultivation and harvest of the first legal flush of Psilocybe mushrooms at Numinus Bioscience, the Company’s 7,000 square foot analytics and research laboratory.

“Completing the first legal extraction of Psilocybe mushrooms in Canada is a critical next step to providing a natural product for safe, evidence-based psilocybin-assisted psychotherapies to those in need,” said Payton Nyquvest, CEO, Founder, and Chairman. “Numinus continues to be a vanguard of positive change for the industry, and this announcement demonstrates our ability to deliver yet another first.”

Numinus Bioscience is establishing itself at the forefront of analytical testing for psychedelic substances, as a centre of excellence for psychedelic product research and development, and as an ancillary for psychedelic therapy clinical trials. Health Canada licences, scientific expertise, and state-of-the-art technologies facilitate ongoing innovation, while revenue from high-throughput contract cannabis testing is reinvested to further its psychedelic initiatives.

“This is an important milestone in our comprehensive research strategy, following our successful harvest announced in October,” said Sharan Sidhu, Science Officer and General Manager. “In the extraction process, Numinus Bioscience’s goal is to optimize Psilocybe mushrooms to standardize psilocybin and multiple therapeutically important components, increasing the efficacy of the extract. To further our position as a centre of excellence in the space, we are in the process of submitting amendments to supply the extract for use in clinical trials and the Special Access Programme, which, when accepted, will mark a significant move forward in scaling the delivery of psychedelic-assisted therapies.”

“While direct comparisons cannot be made, there is a clear recognition in the cannabis space that synthetic cannabinoids are far less attractive than naturally occurring cannabinoids,” indicated Dr. Evan Wood, Numinus’ Chief Medical Officer. “Numinus is of the view that, ultimately, nature knows best, and we’re excited to be at the forefront of exploring the fascinating world of working with Psilocybe mushrooms as part of a focused drug development program.”

This announcement follows Numinus’ advocacy work that contributed to Health Canada’s groundbreaking announcement of its intention to revise the Special Access Programme (SAP) to permit access to MDMA and psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in the same way other investigational medications are accessed in Canada. In addition, earlier this week Numimius announced the exciting acquisition of Montreal -based Mindspace Psychology Services Inc (DBA Mindspace Wellbeing) bringing together the capabilities of two leading Canadian organizations to develop and scale delivery of evidence-based psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Health Canada’s Notice of Intent regarding the SAP will be open for public consultation and comments for the next 60 days, and Numinus strongly encourages the community to weigh in on the benefits of the revision. View the notice here: http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2020/2020-12-12/html/notice-avis-eng.html#nb2.