The Department of Health and Human Services announced two psychedelic research investments on November 12, the day after Veterans Day, with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appearing alongside Department of Veterans Affairs leaders. Through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, HHS committed up to 4.9 million dollars over five years to advance ibogaine as a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and other serious mental illnesses.
The money is groundwork, not treatment. Teams led by Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. will build the regulatory, clinical, chemical and engineering foundation for a single molecule ibogaine hydrochloride product made in the United States: investigational new drug applications for future trials, a supply of clinical grade ibogaine, and domestic manufacturing processes. Continued funding depends on hitting accelerated research milestones. HHS was explicit that the awards do not fund patient treatment or human subject research and do not authorize clinical trials. ARPA-H plans future awards on ibogaine for substance use disorders, including opioid use disorder.
Separately, the National Institute of Mental Health posted a 20 million dollar funding opportunity to build a research network on rapid acting psychotropic drugs, including ketamine, esketamine and psilocybin. The institute expects to award 10 million dollars in this fiscal year and 10 million dollars in the next, with recipients announced in the summer of 2027.
Both moves execute the April 18, 2026 executive order, titled Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness, which directed agencies to speed psychedelic research and also authorized 50 million dollars in federal funding supporting a Texas ibogaine research initiative in veterans. For listed psychedelic developers, the signal is that the federal government is now paying to remove the class’s practical bottlenecks, drug supply, manufacturing and trial readiness, rather than waiting for companies to fund that infrastructure alone.