Launch of pioneering platform to accelerate mental health treatment discovery
pharmafile | January 28, 2022 | News story | |
The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to transform the treatment of mental health disorders, atai Life Sciences, has launched a platform company committed to developing new chemical entities (NCEs). Invyxis, the new, wholly owned platform company, aims to bring proven medicinal chemistry tools and comprehensive biological screening approaches to atai’s growing enterprise of drug discovery and design.
“The global mental health crisis continues to escalate at an alarming rate and many patients do not find sufficient relief from currently available treatments. We urgently need newer, better options and innovative drug discovery is integral to this,” said Florian Brand, CEO and Co-Founder of atai Life Sciences. “With the addition of Invyxis, atai is now even more equipped to bring forward revolutionary new treatments and optimize next-generation therapies to better meet patient needs.”
Invyxis is committed to developing NCEs and further pioneering next-generation mental health treatments. Invyxis aims to progress atai’s research and development pipeline of psychedelic and non-psychedelic compounds, and add proven medicinal chemistry and comprehensive biological evaluation capabilities in order to grow atai’s portfolio of NCEs. Early focus will be on designing unique, novel compounds aimed at the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor, with other central nervous system (CNS) targets to follow.
“Expanding IP and growing our library of NCEs has been essential to our strategy since our inception,” said Srinivas Rao, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of atai Life Sciences. “By establishing differentiated potential treatments, with near, middle, and long-term developmental timelines, we add value and sustainability to our extensive pipeline of novel compounds with potential in targeting mental health indications. We are uniquely positioned, as a leading developer of psychedelic therapeutics, with the resources necessary to commit to and deliver this forward-looking strategy.”
Mental health disorders are a growing global crisis and impact over 1 billion people around the world. Medical innovation has, however, failed to offer recent novel solutions. Only 7 treatments have been approved by the FDA for psychiatry disorders since 2015. For perspective, in this time, approximately 100 have been advanced in oncology.
Ana Ovey
