Just about everyone in the " Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) movement seems bullish on psychedelics. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spoken favorably about the treatments, and President Trump's surgeon general pick, Casey Means, has described psilocybin therapy (known as magic mushroom) as "one of the most meaningful experiences of life."

That kind of political enthusiasm might suggest a ripe buying opportunity for investors. But Wall Street and pharmaceutical companies have largely stayed on the sidelines. Questions remain. Chief among them is how to commercially scale treatments that leave patients high for several hours.

That might be starting to change. Last week, study results pointed to a potential breakthrough: a therapy that delivers what appears to be a strong clinical effect with far less time required under supervision.

Atai Life Sciences and partner Beckley Psytech -- currently in the process of merging -- released mid-stage results from a trial of BPL-003, a synthetic form of mebufotenin, also known as 5-MeO-DMT.

The compound is a powerful and fast-acting psychedelic that occurs naturally in certain plants and in the venom of the Colorado River toad. Delivering the drug via nasal spray allows for rapid onset and short duration, a potential advantage for both patients and providers.

In the trial of 193 people with treatment-resistant depression, a single 8 milligram dose of the drug led to a 12.1-point drop in depression scores while the 12 milligram dose led to an 11.1-point drop.

That compared with just 5.8 points in the control group, a margin that surpassed investor expectations. (Because placebo effects are harder to mask in psychedelic trials, the control group received a low dose of the drug rather than a sugar pill.)

The benefit persisted through week eight, the companies said, raising the possibility that patients might not need frequent dosing. Safety results were also encouraging: no serious side effects and no increase in suicidal thoughts, a critical concern in depression studies.

Following the results, Atai and Beckley plan to meet with the Food and Drug Administration to design a late-stage trial. A more favorable political environment could help smooth that path.

While previous administrations grew more open to psychedelics, the FDA last year rejected Lykos Therapeutics's MDMA therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, citing data-integrity issues and weaknesses in trial design. The current FDA leadership is signaling it wants to go above and beyond the norms to support the field.

In a recent interview, Commissioner Marty Makary said the agency would "take an expeditious and rapid review" of clinical data for psychedelic therapies.

Beckley Chief Executive Cosmo Feilding-Mellen says the company is committed to rigorous drug-development standards -- but if there are safe ways to fast-track access for patients, they are worth pursuing.

"If you can bring review timelines down from 12 months to two months by being more efficient in how data is shared," he said, "then what's not to like about that? If there's a way to do this safely and responsibly, we'll do it."

Still, there is a long road ahead. The drug must clear a larger, late-stage trial, which could take several years. And investors have reason to be cautious: Mid-stage success doesn't always translate into final approval.

Compass Pathways, one of the sector's early leaders, delivered late-stage results of its psilocybin trial that underwhelmed investors. Its shares, as well as those of other psychedelic companies, trade at a fraction of their pandemic-era highs.

Even so, some analysts see signs that the industry is regrouping. Jefferies analyst Andrew Tsai believes Atai is applying lessons from earlier missteps and taking a more disciplined approach to trial design.

Perhaps the most important advantage of the Atai-Beckley treatment is its delivery via a nasal spray that acts quickly and wears off within two hours. That isn't just a medical convenience -- it could be a commercial breakthrough.

One of the biggest hurdles in psychedelic medicine is the need to monitor patients for long, costly sessions. Psilocybin (magic mushroom), for example, can induce a high lasting six hours or more.

In contrast, the nasal spray aligns with a treatment model already familiar to the FDA and the market. Johnson & Johnson's Spravato, a ketamine-based nasal spray for depression, requires just two hours of observation in a certified facility. That drug is already a blockbuster, on pace to generate more than $1 billion in annual sales, with analysts expecting it to grow further.

Spravato is currently one of the few approved options for treatment-resistant depression -- a condition affecting millions of Americans who often cycle through ineffective treatments for years. If psychedelics can offer rapid, lasting relief with only a handful of supervised sessions each year, it could unlock a large, underserved market.

That is why Atai's stock jumped more than 20% following the news. Tsai and others believe the drug has the potential to generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue. If that forecast plays out, Atai's current sub-$1 billion market capitalization could prove to be a bargain.