ATAI snags $125M to bankroll mental health pipeline

ATAI Life Sciences is topping off a busy year with a $125 million financing, which will support the preclinical and clinical development for its mental health pipeline, including programs in opioid use disorder and depression. The series C round follows a $43 million round in March 2019.

The proceeds will see ibogaine, a potential one-and-done treatment for opioid use disorder, and arketamine, a ketamine-like drug in development for treatment-resistant depression, through phase 2 readouts. ATAI is working on the former through a $22 million joint venture it set up with DemeRx in January and the latter through its portfolio company Perception Neuroscience.

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The capital will also allow ATAI to finish phase 1 studies and start phase 2 trials for four other programs, the company said in a statement on Monday. And that’s not all—the company will expand its pipeline and keep building its different platform technologies.

“We are grateful to have the strong support of both new and existing investors, comprised of forward-thinking individuals that share in our belief that innovation in mental healthcare is urgently needed and possible,” ATAI CEO and co-founder, Florian Brand, said in the statement. We believe that our psychedelic and non-psychedelic compounds have compelling therapeutic promise based upon a growing body of scientific evidence.”

The company did not say which four programs the funding would support, but it has several projects in phase 1 or preclinical development.

Besides DemeRx and Perception, ATAI’s companies include Neuronasal, which is working on a through-the-nose concussion treatment, and Compass Pathways, which is developing depression treatments based on psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. In 2020, it launched EmpathBio to create treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder based on the “party drug” MDMA, and Viridia to develop treatments based on ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew used traditionally in South America.

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“With COVID-19 only accentuating the failures of existing standards of care, we are at an inflection point when it comes to seriously addressing this global mental health crisis,” said Christian Angermayer, founder of ATAI, in the statement.

Angermayer backed the series C round through his family office, Apeiron Investment Group, alongside Peter Thiel, Catalio Capital Management, Future Ventures, Galaxy Investment Partners, Falcon Edge Capital and Pura Vida Pro.