New Zealand is building a small but increasingly active psychedelic medicine sector, with clinical psilocybin access, Māori-led research and a handful of organisations shaping its development.
For years, New Zealand has been a relatively quiet player in the global psychedelic medicine industry.
That is starting to change.
The country now has a pathway for individual doctors to seek approval to use psychedelics such as psilocybin for specific clinical purposes. Research is expanding, including a Māori-led programme investigating psilocybin-assisted therapy, while companies such as Rua Bioscience are becoming involved in the emerging research ecosystem.
New Zealand remains a long way behind Australia in terms of market size and commercial activity. There is no equivalent cluster of ASX-listed psychedelic companies, and clinical access to psilocybin remains extremely limited.
But the country’s approach is beginning to take its own shape, particularly around Māori health, indigenous knowledge and community-led research.
New Zealand opens a pathway for clinical psilocybin
The biggest regulatory development came in 2025.
In July, Medsafe published guidance on how medical practitioners could apply under Regulation 22 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1977 to prescribe, supply and administer psychedelics including psilocybin for defined clinical purposes outside a research setting.
Psilocybin remains a Class A controlled drug in New Zealand. The new pathway does not legalise psilocybin generally or make it an approved medicine. Instead, individual practitioners can seek permission for specific clinical use.
Christchurch psychiatrist Professor Cameron Lacey became the first New Zealand psychiatrist authorised to use psilocybin clinically for treatment-resistant depression.
The first known treatment outside a research trial took place in 2025. Lacey has continued treating patients under the tightly controlled approval process and, according to reporting in 2026, remains the only psychiatrist in New Zealand authorised to do so.
The country’s system remains highly restricted. There is no broad commercial market for psilocybin-assisted therapy and no general prescribing pathway comparable with conventional medicines.
Australia took a different regulatory route
Australia introduced its own pathway in 2023 through the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s Authorised Prescriber Scheme.
Authorised psychiatrists can access unapproved psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and MDMA for PTSD, subject to TGA requirements and approval from a Human Research Ethics Committee.
The TGA has continued to refine those requirements. Changes announced in 2026 include requirements relating to psychiatrist competency, therapy teams, prescriber oversight and treatment sites.
New Zealand instead uses its existing controlled-drug legislation and individual approvals under Regulation 22.
The two systems allow highly restricted clinical access to psychedelic medicines, but Australia has built a more formalised framework around a growing clinical sector.
Australia also has a considerably larger commercial market, supported by a bigger population, deeper capital markets and a number of listed and private psychedelic companies.
New Zealand is still at an earlier stage.
The Māori-led psychedelic research programme
One of the country’s most distinctive projects is Tū Wairua, a psychedelic research programme led by Rangiwaho Marae in Tairāwhiti.
Tū Wairua is investigating psilocybin-assisted therapy within a Māori-led framework. Its initial research focused on methamphetamine addiction and brought together Rangiwaho Marae, Rua Bioscience, Mātai Medical Research Institute, the University of Auckland, the University of Waikato, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, ESR and Tūranga Health, among others.
The programme incorporates mātauranga Māori and tikanga Māori into the research process, alongside conventional clinical and scientific methods.
In January 2025, the first cohort of participants underwent preparation and psilocybin sessions at Rangiwaho Marae.
The Phase I work was designed to examine safety, acceptability and feasibility while developing a treatment model appropriate to the community in which the research is being conducted.
The psilocybin used in the initial trial was supplied by Canadian psychedelic company Optimi Health. Rua Bioscience has separately been involved in cultivation research involving New Zealand’s native psilocybin-containing fungi.
The programme has since expanded into another area of research.
In 2026, New Zealand’s Health Research Council awarded NZ$490,550 over 24 months to Dr Patrick McHugh of Rangiwaho Marae for research into psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for persistent symptoms associated with mild traumatic brain injury.
Tū Wairua now sits at the intersection of psychedelic science, Māori health research and community-based healthcare.
Rua Bioscience links the research sector to the market
Rua Bioscience is listed on the New Zealand Exchange under RUA and is one of the most visible companies connected to New Zealand’s psychedelic research sector.
Its primary business is medicinal cannabis rather than psychedelic drug development.
Rua has supported Tū Wairua’s research into New Zealand’s native psilocybin-containing fungi, including Psilocybe weraroa, and has been involved in cultivation work associated with the programme.
The company’s involvement gives the New Zealand psychedelic sector a listed-company connection, although Rua should not be grouped with dedicated psychedelic drug developers such as Compass Pathways or atai Life Sciences.
Its core commercial operations remain focused on medicinal cannabis, including international sales and distribution.
For now, Rua’s psychedelic activity is concentrated around research rather than a commercial psilocybin medicine.
New Zealand’s research base
New Zealand’s psychedelic research activity extends beyond Tū Wairua.
Professor Cameron Lacey’s work at the University of Otago predates his clinical authorisation and includes research into the feasibility and acceptability of combining psilocybin with psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression.
Researchers have also examined the role of psychotherapy alongside psilocybin treatment and how different therapeutic approaches might work with psychedelic medicines.
Mātai Medical Research Institute is another part of the developing ecosystem through its involvement with Tū Wairua and its broader work in medical research and community health.
Universities, clinicians, Māori health organisations and specialist companies are increasingly connected through these projects.
For a country of roughly five million people, the research network is relatively substantial even though the commercial market remains small.
Clinical access remains the biggest constraint
New Zealand’s psychedelic sector is still at an early stage.
There is no large network of psychedelic clinics and no major domestic pharmaceutical company focused specifically on psychedelic medicines.
There is also no NZX-listed pure-play psychedelic company.
Clinical access remains highly restricted, with individual approvals required for treatment outside research.
Tū Wairua is also still a research programme. Its early work can provide information about safety, feasibility and the practical delivery of psychedelic therapy, but it cannot establish that psilocybin is an effective treatment for the conditions being studied.
The same caution applies to the growing commercial interest around indigenous fungi. Research into native Psilocybe species does not automatically translate into a pharmaceutical product or an approved treatment.
Two markets developing alongside each other
Australia and New Zealand are now moving through some of the same stages of psychedelic medicine development.
Australia has the larger commercial ecosystem and a more established clinical pathway. It has also developed national quality standards for MDMA and psilocybin products supplied or manufactured under the relevant framework.
New Zealand has fewer companies and far less clinical activity, but its research sector is developing around Māori health, indigenous knowledge and community leadership.
The two countries are also closely connected through academic research and clinical trial networks.
For international companies and investors, Australia is likely to remain the larger commercial opportunity. New Zealand offers a much smaller market, but one with research programmes and community partnerships that are difficult to replicate elsewhere.
The beginnings of an Australasian psychedelic sector
New Zealand does not yet have a psychedelic industry on the scale developing in Australia.
It does have the foundations of a sector.
Rua provides a connection to the listed life-sciences market. Cameron Lacey’s work has established a route into tightly controlled clinical treatment. Mātai and the country’s universities provide research infrastructure. Tū Wairua is developing a Māori-led approach to psychedelic therapy and indigenous psychedelic research.
The next stage will depend on whether research can translate into larger clinical studies, whether more doctors receive approval to provide treatment, and whether companies see enough commercial potential to invest in the New Zealand market.
For now, New Zealand is unlikely to challenge Australia on size.
Its significance may come from elsewhere: developing a model of psychedelic medicine that combines clinical research with Māori knowledge, community leadership and indigenous science.
That model is still being tested.
But it is no longer theoretical.
