atai Life Sciences Announces Strategic Investment in Beckley Psytech to Accelerate the Clinical Development of Short-Duration Psychedelics

• Strategic investment in Beckley Psytech reinforces atai’s position as the biopharmaceutical company with the largest and most diverse portfolio of clinical-stage psychedelic candidates
• Two patent-protected, clinical-stage programs BPL-003 (intranasal 5-MeO-DMT) and ELE-101 (intravenous psilocin) complement atai’s existing drug development programs
• Multiple clinical readouts anticipated from this investment in Beckley Psytech within next 12 months, including a Phase 2b readout of BPL-003 in Treatment Resistant Depression in 2H24
• BPL-003 has the potential to become a first-in-class short-duration psychedelic treatment with rapid acting and durable antidepressant effects
• Anticipated synergies through collaborating on digital therapeutics, commercial and market access activities in preparation for potential future commercialization
• atai to hold conference call & webcast on Thursday, January 4, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. ET

NEW YORK and BERLIN, Jan. 04, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ: ATAI) (“atai” or “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to transform the treatment of mental health disorders, today announced a strategic investment in Beckley Psytech Limited (“Beckley Psytech”), a private clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to transforming short-duration psychedelics into effective and rapid-acting medicines for neuropsychiatric conditions.

This strategic investment and collaboration aims to accelerate the development of Beckley Psytech’s two clinical-stage, patent-protected, short-duration psychedelic candidates, BPL-003 and ELE-101, by adding them to atai’s mental health innovation platform. BPL-003 is a novel, short-duration, intranasal formulation of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT also known as Mebufotenin), and ELE-101 is a novel intravenous formulation of psilocin, the primary moiety of psilocybin.

“This transaction underscores our conviction in the potential of psychedelics as groundbreaking treatments for people living with mental health disorders. Short-duration psychedelics have the potential to offer similar clinical benefit to longer-acting psychedelics, in a more efficient and scalable way, which could lead to increased patient access. By including BPL-003 and ELE-101 in the atai platform, we are building the largest portfolio of psychedelic compounds with prior clinical evidence,” said atai Founder and Chairman, Christian Angermayer.