Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-12-07)

 BUSINESS

BWTalks GeorgeGoldsmith

○ Interviewsareeditedforclarityandlength.ListentoBloombergBusinessweekWith

CarolMassar, weekdaysfrom2 p.m.to6 p.m.ETonBloombergRadio.

Millionssufferfromdepression.Does

thatmakethisa goodmarketfroma

businesssense?

There’sa tremendous

amountofsuffering.And

I thinkwe’vebeenpretty

goodatdevelopingtools

toameliorate70%ofthat.

But[helping]theother

30%is quitedifficult.Sowe

havetheopportunitytodo

somethinguniquehere.

Is thispotentiallya billion-dollardrug?

Well,I thinkit hasthe

potentialtobea therapy.It’s

reallyimportantthatit’snot

justa drug.It’sa drugthat’s

givenin combinationwith

psychologicalsupport,and

that’sthecriticalbit.

Howdoesyourtherapywork?

Weprovidea veryhighdose

ofpsilocybinin a carefully

controlledsettingunder

supervisionbyspecially

trainedtherapists—sothis

isn’tanythingtodoathome.

Patientslistentoa special

soundtrack,andthey’re

reallysupportedthrough

this process. Afterwards,

many patients experience

an immediate reduction in

depression that actually

lasts for quite a while.

More research is being conducted?

We’re operating now in 10

countries doing clinical

research at 21 sites. We’re

looking at how do we do

the real, deep research to

generate the information

and insight we need to go to

Phase III trials.

Despite getting the FDA designation,

you’ve got to do more rigorous testing,

especially with some concerns about

hallucinogenics?

Absolutely, because

obviously there’s a history

here. So the first port of call

for us was to speak with

regulators and payers, and

they saw this is promising.

There’s almost a third

of [depression] patients

who aren’t helped by

[conventional] medicines.

I think there’s a huge

opportunity to develop a

new model of care for them.

○ Goldsmith and his physician wife were drawn to research on

hallucinogenic mushrooms while seeking a treatment for their son’s

mental health issues. ○ The Food and Drug Administration designated

their work a “breakthrough therapy” in 2018 ○ It’s now in Phase II trials

Compass Pathways developed a synthetic

form of psilocybin, the psychoactive

ingredient found in “magic mushrooms,” for

use in treating depression. CEO Goldsmith

says the key is using the hallucinogenic as

part of a broader therapy. —Carol Massar

drugmakers will further clog the system. Pfizer Inc.
plans to ship 1.3 billion doses of its vaccine by the
end of 2021. Moderna Inc. is ramping up to a pro-
duction level of 500 million injections per year.
AstraZeneca Plc has the capacity to make 2 billion
doses. “What we have to do is very quickly help the
world get up on its feet,” says Dennis Lister, vice
president for cargo at Emirates, the largest long-
distance airline. “Part of that is making sure we get
vaccines on planes to people that need it so we get
people flying again.”
The vaccine developed by Pfizer and
BioNTech SE must be transported at –70C (–94F),
colder than winter in Antarctica. The choreogra-
phy will be delicate, because virtually no aircraft
are capable of keeping items so cold on their own.
Carriers will instead rely on Pfizer’s special thermal
shipping containers, which can be used as tempo-
rary storage units for as long as 15 days if refilled
with dry ice. There’s no room for error: Once
thawed, the vials can’t be refrozen.
United Airlines Holdings Inc. has already begun
flights to position Pfizer’s vaccine in areas where it
will be needed if it receives regulatory approval,
says a person familiar with the matter. Pfizer and
the airline declined to comment on the flights.
Delta Air Lines Inc., American Airlines Group
Inc., and other carriers say they’re prepared to
handle shipments of supercold vaccines. Delta nor-
mally considers dry ice to be a “dangerous good”
that can’t account for more than 50% of hold space,
but it’s increasing the amount it will allow to be
used with vaccines carried on its planes.
“If all vaccine producers ship within a narrow
time frame, the situation would require all cargo
carriers to be involved,” says Vittal Shetty, who
helps oversee cargo operations at American.
United Parcel Service Inc. has built facilities in
Louisville and in the Netherlands with a total of
600 deep freezers that can each hold 48,000 vials
of vaccine at temperatures as low as –80C. FedEx
Corp. has added freezers and refrigerated trucks
to its already extensive cold-chain network, and
Richard Smith, who’s heading its vaccine effort, has
pledged to free as much air and ground capacity as
needed. “We’re just waiting until they tell us they
have a vaccine ready, and we will be ready to go out
there and deliver it to every ZIP code in the U.S.,”
he says. “We’ll be ready to deliver it around the
world as well.” —Christopher Jasper and William
Wilkes, with Layan Odeh, Mary Schlangenstein, and
ThomasBlack

THE BOTTOM LINE It would take the equivalent of 8,000 loads in
a Boeing 747 freighter to carry all the vaccines needed to inoculate
the global population, making airlines key to ending Covid-19.

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