ATAI Life Sciences acquires majority stake in Perception Neuroscience to develop arketamine therapy for neuropsychiatric diseases

Munich and New York (ots) - ATAI Life Sciences AG has acquired a
majority stake in New York based Perception Neuroscience, a
biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative therapies
in neuropsychiatry. Perception was founded by Jonathan Sporn, MD, and
Jay Kranzler, MD, PhD, both of whom have held multiple senior R&D
leadership roles in the pharmaceutical industry and will continue to
be minority shareholders. The company has been advised by Bruce
Leuchter from PJT Partners.

Co-investing with ATAI is New York-based investment firm Morgan
Noble that specializes in transformative healthcare solutions,
Subversive Capital that focuses on companies that require
sophisticated government and regulatory strategies for success and
life sciences investor WPSS Investments.

Perception Neuroscience's lead product is the NMDA antagonist
arketamine (PCN 101), a single isomer of ketamine. Arketamine belongs
to a new generation of glutamate receptor modulators with the
potential for rapid acting antidepressant (RAAD) activity and
anti-suicidal effects. These new RAAD drugs are expected to be more
efficacious than current FDA-approved anti-depressant therapies,
which often take weeks to achieve maximal effectiveness, if at all.
Ketamine, as described in the journal Science "is arguably the most
important discovery in half a century" of research in depression, and
arketamine is anticipated to differentiate robustly from other
development stage RAAD's on both efficacy and safety.

ATAI CEO and co-founder Florian Brand remarked: "We are very
excited about this investment, as arketamine is expected to have
activity across a range of psychiatric conditions, including
treatment resistant depression, bipolar depression, post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and
substance abuse disorder. Perception will initiate its clinical trial
program in early 2019, focusing initially on severe depression,
because it is the leading cause of disability worldwide. In the US
alone, the market for depression medication is expected to grow to
USD 7.3 billion by 2024".

Based on the work of Professor Kenji Hashimoto of Chiba University
in Japan, from whom Perception licensed key patents, arketamine has
demonstrated a more sustained efficacy signal in animal models
compared to other glutamergic drugs in development for treatment
resistant depression (TRD), including esketamine and rapastinel.
Moreover, arketamine has demonstrated better safety than esketamine
in multiple animal studies, as well as in normal healthy volunteers.

Perception founders Jonathan Sporn and Jay Kranzler commented: "We
are gratified to have ATAI on board as an investor and partner, as we
share their ambitious vision, admire their network of world-class
scientists, and intend to leverage the synergies across their
portfolio to significantly speed up the drug development process and
maximize chances for success".

Lars Christian Wilde, co-founder of COMPASS Pathways, another
large ATAI investment added: "Arketamine has the potential to be very
complementary to the psilocybin-based therapy that we are currently
developing for treatment resistant depression, which recently
received FDA breakthrough therapy designation."

About ATAI Life Sciences

ATAI Life Sciences AG is an innovative and ambitious biotech
company founded early 2018 by entrepreneur and investor Christian
Angermayer to enable longer, healthier and happier lives. ATAI's goal
is to grow into a major global biopharmaceutical player following a
company buy-and-build approach. Currently, ATAI's focus is on
psychedelics-based mental health therapies and cutting-edge drug
development targeting longevity, facilitated by artificial
intelligence. Investors in ATAI include Mike Novogratz, Thor
Bjorgolfsson and several other renowned family offices and biotech
investors.

Contact:
ATAI Life Sciences AG
Barer Str. 7
80333 München
Germany
Email: info@atai.life
Web: www.atai.life
Phone: +49 89 2153 9035
CEO: Florian Brand

Original-Content von: ATAI Life Sciences, übermittelt durch news aktuell