EMD is recruiting therapists in NSW as national clinic rollout accelerates

Our psychedelic and mental health Investment Emyria (ASX: EMD) just launched a recruitment campaign for psychiatrists and therapists in Sydney - its first move into the NSW market…

EMD already has clinics operating in Perth (WA) (at full capacity), in Brisbane (QLD) and is about to open its first facility in Victoria (expected to be opening this quarter). (source)

And now it looks like we shouldn’t be that far off an expansion into the NSW market.

We have shared the following image before - which shows EMD’s “near-term potential sites” (the green pins):

Now, we wait to see those opportunities get converted into open, fully operating clinics.

(source)

NSW has the highest population of any state in Australia - so naturally its the largest addressable market in the country.

For some context - psychological injury claims in the state increased 64% between 2019-20 and 2023-24. (source)

NSW Police alone had approximately $1.75BN in psychological injury compensation costs in the five years prior to June 2024. (source)

See our recent commentary on EMD’s data for effectiveness on patients 12 months post treatment in this section of our most recent article here: Strong data means more payers…Global validation for the sector keeps building

We Invested in EMD because we think it can build the leading national network of psychedelic-assisted therapy clinics in Australia, with a clear first mover advantage in this space.

And we think that first mover advantage, not just in Australia but globally, will put EMD in a strong position as the broader psychedelics assisted therapy space develops around the world.

We monitor what’s happening around the world fairly closely and it feels like the psychedelic therapy sector is moving toward a commercial inflection point.

Multiple drug/therapy development programs are now in late-stage Phase 3 trials and just a few days ago we saw Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s acquire Transcend Therapeutics for up to ~US$1.25BN:

(source)

We also recently saw this article in the new york times:

(source)

Some key quotes for us from that is:

“The preliminary positive results have caught the attention of Australian insurers… each of which recently agreed to cover the cost of MDMA and psilocybin therapy.”

“For many people, the current system is not working… half of all psychiatric patients covered by the company are readmitted to the hospital within 12 months.” - Dr. Andrew Wilson, Medibank Chief Medical Officer.

A reminder that EMD has an agreement in place with Medibank to fund treatment of its members, so these words are positive for what EMD is achieving.

Oh, and a very popular podcast in the US dedicated a whole episode to talking about the neurological impacts of psychedelics (it ran for 38 minutes and already has 400k views since being released 6 days ago):

Bryan Johnson: I Just Took the Most Powerful Dose of DMT in the World… Here’s What It Was Like

It feels like momentum is building up for the sector - especially in the US…

AND our Investment EMD is positioning itself as THE leaders in being able to deliver therapies and treatments at scale.

So if the US starts looking for a company who has an established delivery model - $42M EMD could be on the top of their watchlists.

See our most recent deep dive article on EMD here: First mover in psychedelics - EMD’s clinics are at capacity, major payers are onboard, and the data shows the treatment worksWhat we want to see next from EMD

We want to see EMD execute its national rollout in Australia

Basically, we want to see EMD open more clinics around Australia.

Here are the milestones we are tracking:

• ✅ Perth and Brisbane clinics - operational
• 🔄 Victorian clinic - Mornington Peninsula with Avive Health and Medibank funding - set to open during Q2 (source)
• 🔄 NSW recruitment underway - psychiatrists and therapists in Sydney - Today (source)
• ⬜ NSW clinic opened - establishing EMD’s fourth state-based clinical operation

⬜ Revenue growth from existing clinics

With clinics now running in three states and NSW on the way, we want to see patient throughput and revenue building.

EMD has both Medibank Private (~$12BN market cap) and DVA (government program) as funding pathways, so the reimbursement infrastructure is in place.

⬜ Expansion into new indications

We also want to see EMD expand its therapy programs to new indications and drug therapies over time to broaden its addressable market beyond PTSD and treatment-resistant depression.

Here is the image we shared in a recent note which helps visualise the impact this would have on EMD’s business:

(source)

What we want to see over the coming months is that more of those circles move from the “scoping” stage into the “active” stage, this is where EMD gets the revenue…