Psychedelic Business News Spotlight: January 15, 2021

This week in psychedelic business news, Peter Thiel-backed ATAI Life Sciences positions for an IPO, Numinus opens stock options to employees, Revive partners with a major university, and more.

Peter Thiel-backed ATAI Life Sciences is about to IPO. The Berlin-based company just took a  majority stake in Recognify, a company working to treat schizophrenia with psychedelics. ATAI now plans to go public within the next few months with a valuation between $1-$2 billion.

Psychedelics biotech company Entheon Biomedical Corp. just acquired biotech company HaluGen Life Sciences Inc. in an all-stock transaction worth 5.1 million shares. HaluGen is currently working on tests that could identify genetic predispositions to psychedelics for  treating mental health issues. This will allow it to establish sensitivities and risks for patients before starting psychedelic treatments. 

Numinus Wellness Inc. just released nearly two million incentive stock options to its employees. The company is working to develop various psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies. It issues 1.8 million stock options to directors and officers of the company. Those shares are valued at $1.16 each. An additional 175,000 options went to employees with an exercise value of $1.09.

Ketamine therapy providers Kalypso Wellness Centers are now part of Eleusis Ltd, the company announced this week. Eleusis is a clinical-stage life science company working with psychedelics in treating a number of mental health issues. The acquisition was an all-stock transaction.

Revive Therapeutics has announced a research partnership with North Carolina State University. The goal is to develop a novel biosynthetic version of psilocybin based on a natural biosynthesis enzymatic platform. The move builds on its recent announcement that it would be acquiring PharmaTher. The company works with psilocybin and ketamine on developing drugs for neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders.