The joining of psychedelic specialists Beckley Psytech Ltd. and Atai Life Sciences can now go ahead after the pair announced positive top-line results from the phase IIb study of BPL-003, an intranasal formulation of 5-MeO-DMT benzoate.
Privately held Beckley Psytech Ltd. is to be taken over by Atai Life Sciences in an all-share deal that values the U.K. psychedelic drug specialist at $370 million. After making a $50 million investment in January 2024, Berlin-based Atai already owns 36% of Beckley. It will now issue 105 million new shares to its fellow Beckley investors, giving them 34% ownership of the merged company.
The credibility gap in psychedelic drug development continues to narrow with positive top-line data from a Beckley Psytech Ltd. phase IIa study in depression. The results keep the treatment into a tight race with GH Research plc, which also has an inhalable drug in development.
Beckley Psytech Ltd. is advancing lead BPL-003 psychedelic therapy on two fronts, opening phase IIa trials in alcohol use disorder and in treatment-resistant depression.
DUBLIN – Beckley Psytech Ltd. raised $80 million in an oversubscribed series B round to move its early stage pipeline of psychedelic therapies into the clinic and to continue research on novel compounds with enhanced properties.
DUBLIN – A re-evaluation of psychedelic drugs as potential therapies for major depressive disorder, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other neuropsychiatric conditions has been underway for some time, but this broad effort gained further momentum during 2020, as commercial firms started to raise money at the level needed to enable the field to start moving from small-scale academic studies to the kind of industry-scale trials that will be needed to convince regulators, patients and physicians that these molecules could become viable treatment options.
