Before we get started in earnest with our 2026 coverage, I’m taking a moment to look back at the 150-odd pieces of content we published in 2025 and pick out ten that stood out.
So, below you will find that list, as well as a little context or explanation for each story, and then a few honourable mentions. You will also find a catalogue of the twenty interviews we published last year at the bottom of this article.
Note: This top ten is not based entirely on objective metrics, like the aggregate readership or virality of any given article. The majority of our content is paywalled (join Pα+ today to access all of it), meaning our non-paywalled content naturally has a broader readership, and thus might be overrepresented below.
We have lifted the Pα+ paywall on the Top 10 articles mentioned below for the month of January, as well as any Pα+ content they reference.
– Josh Hardman
Founder & Editor
Pα+ Paywall Lifted on Top 10 Articles: You can read all of the Pα+ articles mentioned in this Top 10 roundup for free this January. Join Pα+ today to read everything in 2026. ∎
1. Enter Big Pharma: AbbVie Acquires Gilgamesh’s Lead in $1.2bn Transaction
(Pα+) AbbVie to Acquire Gilgamesh’s Bretisilocin for Up to $1.2B (August 25, 2025)
Our most read and shared article of the year was our breaking news story that the large pharmaceutical company, AbbVie, had entered into an agreement to acquire Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals’ lead candidate, GM-2505 (aka bretisilocin, a serotonergic psychedelic), which is under development for major depressive disorder (MDD).
That deal came after the private company shared positive results from an early Phase 2 study (N=40) of the candidate in the spring. We broke the news of that data in early May (Pα+), before publishing an in-depth discussion with management (Pα+) later that month.
It also came just over a year after the pair announced a collaboration and option-to-license agreement. In our coverage of that earlier deal (Pα+), we said that AbbVie had “become the latest large pharmaceutical company to dip its toes into psychedelic drug development.” But a company representative quickly reached out to clarify that the collaboration was “focused on the research and discovery of next-generation neuroplastogens, which are a distinct, novel class of compounds”, which it said “are well-differentiated from psychedelics in that they are not expected to elicit any hallucinogenic or dissociative effects.”
Some were surprised, then, to see AbbVie ultimately scoop up Gilgamesh’s decidedly psychedelic lead, with GM-2505, a member of the tryptamine class, demonstrating robust psychoactive effects in human studies. Indeed, the move has gone some way to quieting those who pronounced that pharma would only be interested in non-hallucinogenic psychedelics (aka psychoplastogens, neuroplastogens).
AbbVie doesn’t have a particularly crowded psychiatry pipeline, with only a few candidates in development. It’s been burnt, too: its $8.7bn buyout of Cerevel Therapeutics, announced in late 2023, was something of a flop as the company’s lead, emraclidine, failed in two Phase 2 studies for adults with schizophrenia experiencing acute exacerbation of psychotic symptoms. Following that news, earlier this year AbbVie’s CEO, Robert Michael, told investors that the company would “commit less capital” to experimental psychiatry programs.
But it was willing, evidently, to make a bet on Gilgamesh’s lead. The deal was valued at up to $1.2bn, and we later shared that AbbVie had paid $900M upfront (Pα+), with just $300M tied to milestones. 75% of the deal value paid upfront is substantially higher than one might expect to see in a deal of this kind.
Gilgamesh retains its other assets, which were spun out into Gilgamesh Pharma Inc. Those include its oral NMDAR antagonist (GM-1020), ‘safer’ ibogaine analog (GM-3009), and M1/M4 agonist program.
2. Norway Funds Generic Ketamine for Depression
(Pα+) Norway Approves Public Funding for Generic Ketamine in Treatment-Resistant Depression (August 25, 2025)
On the very same day that the AbbVie-Gilgamesh deal was announced, we shared more breaking news: Norwegian regulators had approved national reimbursement for the off-label use of generic ketamine for treatment-resistant depression (TRD).
We don’t always cover ketamine-related news, but this one seemed important as it could lay the groundwork for the future rollout of psychedelic therapies, with some of those behind the push stressing the importance of patients’ access to psychotherapy as part of the protocol. While the decision does not mandate the use of psychotherapy as part of the protocol, early advocates of the program expect it will be used by many healthcare units that offer IV ketamine for TRD. That psychotherapy won’t take place while people are under the influence of ketamine, and in many cases it won’t happen on administration days at all, but patients are likely to receive psychotherapy as part of the broader protocol.
While Norway is quite a small country with plenty of idiosyncrasies, it has a reputation for having one of the best healthcare systems in the world. Like its fellow European states, the country also drives a hard bargain on pharmaceuticals. Indeed, Norway now reimburses generic ketamine for TRD while continuing to snub Johnson & Johnson’s esketamine nasal spray, Spravato, for the same disease. (Executives from that company were ‘furious’ about the decision, as we noted in a subsequent Bulletin (Pα+).)
Deeper dive: We first covered the potential funding move in July (Pα+), when we shared an outline of the groundwork that practitioners and advocates had laid in order to secure the decision.
3. FDA Publishes MDMA Rejection Letter
BREAKING: FDA Publishes Lykos Therapeutics’ MDMA Complete Response Letter (CRL) (September 4, 2025)
In early September, our Medical Advisor, Michael Haichin, was combing through a data dump from the FDA that included 89 previously unpublished complete response letters (CRLs): communications sent from the FDA to sponsors notifying them why a new drug application (NDA) is not approvable in its current state.
He was looking for one letter in particular: the CRL the agency issued to Lykos Therapeutics in August 2024. Haichin was likely the first to find it in the repository, and so Psychedelic Alpha was the first to break the news and share the document that morning.
That led to our very brief article—which was really just a means to share the document with subscribers—being one of our most-cited of the year, with the underlying CRL (PDF) linked to from many other publications.
There was nothing particularly surprising in the CRL (the contents of which we had reported on throughout late 2024), which identified three major issues that precluded approval: failure to collect ‘positive’ adverse events, lack of durability data, and high rates of prior MDMA use among participants and prescreening failures. The letter went on to suggest that Lykos conduct a fresh clinical trial to address those issues.
Whether that fresh Phase 3 study will be completed prior to the company, which now goes by Resilient Pharmaceuticals (we got the scoop (Pα+) on that rebrand, too), resubmitting the NDA remains to be seen.
4. The View from D.C.
(Pα+) The View from D.C.: Psychedelic Politics, Blockers and Approvals on the Horizon (December 3, 2025)
Many of our readers have shown a keen interest in how changes in the U.S. political and regulatory fabric, and org chart, might affect psychedelic drug development and policy reform projects. After a trip to Washington, D.C., where he spoke with regulators, lawmakers, and insiders, our Editor Josh Hardman shared his thoughts in a Dispatch.
There, he reported a rather chaotic environment among regulators and advocates, which was not helped by a protracted government shutdown. But he also found a ‘quiet confidence’ among those who one might expect to be ‘in the know’ that significant milestones are coming for psychedelics. He ends:
“If you cast your mind back to the mood this time last year, in the wake of the MDMA rejection, the psychedelics field felt down and out. But, far from the end of the road, 2026 could, finally, be the year for psychedelic approvals—plural.”
5. The Psychedelic Practitioner’s First Issue
The Psychedelic Practitioner: Issue 1 (October 9, 2025)
In October, we published the first Issue of our new publication, The Psychedelic Practitioner, which is focused on the evolving practice of psychedelic care.
Over the past half-decade, Psychedelic Alpha has built a large audience of individuals and organisations interested and involved in psychedelics. Many of these are investors, drug developers, and regulators, but many still are practitioners: therapists, clinicians, facilitators, and so on.
We built The Psychedelic Practitioner with these people in mind, to provide a focused place to offer practitioner-relevant insights, research, tools and discussions.
We published our second Issue in December, with future Issues set to publish every other month.
6. Inside the Lykos Takeover
(Pα+) Billionaire Investor Antonio Gracias Plots $100M Lykos Takeover with Doblin’s Backing (January 10, 2025)
In January, we covered billionaire investor and Elon Musk ally Antonio Gracias’ bid to take control of Lykos Therapeutics (now Resilient) via a $100M funding round.
Then, in March, we broke the news (Pα+) that Gracias, who was then busy in an advisory role at the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), had paired up with an even deeper-pocketed individual: Sir Christopher Hohn.
Hohn is known for being a prolific investment manager and philanthropist, earning the title of ‘Europe’s most feared investor’ in the former realm. While most of his philanthropy has focused on issues related to children, reproductive health, and tropical diseases, our reporting found that Hohn has a real interest in consciousness and spirituality, too.
MAPS founder Rick Doblin had hoped Gracias and Hohn might bring the company closer to its nonprofit progenitor, though it is unclear to what extent this has been the case.
7. Matt Zorn Joins HHS
(Pα+) Matt Zorn, the Government’s Former Adversary, Is Now Its Psychedelics Czar (May 25, 2025)
In May, we reported that a prominent cannabis and psychedelics-focused attorney, Matt Zorn, had assumed the role of Deputy General Counsel in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
That was somewhat surprising, as Zorn has been a key adversary to governments of both stripes on drug-related matters. He was a key figure, for example, in a petition to reschedule psilocybin (Pα+) that is now sitting with HHS.
But it had since become clear that Zorn was looking to capitalise on upheaval and realise potential regulatory changes in light of the Trump administration. (In December 2024, we interviewed Zorn to discuss this very topic: Bullish on Chaos: Matt Zorn on How Psychedelics Could Benefit from Trump’s Second Term.)
8. EU’s First Psilocybin Compassionate Use Program Established in Germany
Germany Establishes EU’s First Psilocybin Compassionate Access Program (July 31, 2025)
Over the summer, we broke the news that Germany had become the first EU country to allow legal access to psilocybin under a compassionate use program for treatment-resistant depression (TRD).
Germany is the bloc’s largest pharmaceutical market, with the move suggesting that more profitable countries might continue exploring access pathways beyond traditional drug approval paradigms. The country is also seen as quite pragmatic by its European peers, so the significance of BfArM’s decision should not be lost.
But this one is likely much less threatening to drug developers than those seen elsewhere in the world. Generally, compassionate use programs are wound down in the event of a marketing authorisation of a product containing the active ingredient in the country. That means that, should a developer like Compass Pathways secure approval in Germany, we should expect to see this program cease to operate in its current form.
It remains to be seen just how many patients will access psilocybin through the pathway, however, as paying for treatment remains a large barrier. (Though Henrik Jungaberle, Head of Development at OVID Clinic Berlin, one of the two sites participating in the program, says that the group is looking to negotiate “special reimbursement plans with statutory health insurance payers” for the pathway.)
9. New Mexico’s Medical Psilocybin Act Passes
BREAKING: New Mexico Passes Nation’s First Legislature-Driven Psilocybin Access Act (April 8, 2025)
In Spring, we reported on the passage of New Mexico’s Medical Psilocybin Act, which became the first psilocybin access pathway to be established via a state legislature, as opposed to a popular ballot initiative. It passed the state’s Senate 33-4 and House 56-9, with bipartisan support in both chambers.
Put simply, the Act creates a framework through which patients with qualifying conditions, such as treatment-resistant depression and PTSD, can access non-synthetic psilocybin through consultation with a licensed healthcare provider.
More recently, in Bulletin 216, we reported on the acceleration of the program’s implementation (Pα+). While the Act stipulates that the state’s Medical Psilocybin Advisory Board has until December 2027 to get the program up and running, it has now resolved to see the first patients access the scheme in December 2026, bringing forward the program by a whole year.
If the Board is successful in securing access to patients in December 2027, it could be doing so on a very similar timeline to Compass Pathways, which looks set to be the first drug developer with a shot at FDA approval for a psilocybin product. Compass’ is, of course, synthetic, and it hopes it is proprietary. Q4 2026 and Q1 2027 will likely be very busy.
10. Compass Accelerates Launch Timeline by 9-12 Months
(Pα+) Compass Pathways Accelerates Psilocybin Launch Timeline by 9-12 Months (November 4, 2025)
As alluded to above, we reported in November that psilocybin developer Compass Pathways is accelerating its launch timeline by 9-12 months, following a “positive” meeting with FDA and the completion of enrolment in its second, larger Phase 3 study.
The company has also revamped its readout schedule, with 9-week data from its second, larger Phase 3 study now expected in Q1 2026. It will also provide a more detailed look at 6-week data from its first phase 3, as well as week 6-26 data from that study, though this won’t include granular MADRS time course data.
Earlier in the year, Compass cleared its first Phase 3 hurdle, though some observers and investors are hoping to see a larger MADRS effect after a second dose of the study drug.
Honourable Mentions
Beckley’s Phase 2b Readout; AtaiBeckley Merger
Beckley Psytech’s Phase 2b study of its intranasal 5-MeO-DMT (BPL-003) for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) impressed in July. We covered the readout in detail, and shared an interview with company management that dived even deeper (Pα+) into the data and development plans for the candidate. It is expected to enter Phase 3 in 2026.
Of course, Beckley has since merged with atai Life Sciences, with the pair now trading as AtaiBeckley. (We broke that story (Pα+) in June, too.)
State Legislature Coverage in H1’25
In the first half of 2025, we regularly reported on the dozens of bills introduced in legislatures across the U.S., with around thirty states deliberating psychedelics-related policy reforms by April (Pα+).
We’re planning similar coverage in 2026, including a new Psychedelics Bill Tracker. Both will be exclusively for our Pα+ subscribers. (Join Pα+ today.)
Reflecting on MDMA’s Rejection
One year on from FDA’s rejection of Lykos’ MDMA new drug application, we spoke to various people (Pα+) close to the matter to weigh in on whether they believe, with the benefit of a year’s hindsight, the agency’s decision was surprising and/or justified, what the company could have done differently, and the future for Lykos and psychedelic drug development more broadly.
In that lengthy, interview-led deep dive, you heard from MAPS founder Rick Doblin, a former Lykos executive familiar with the contents of the CRL and the company’s strategy, other company insiders, members of that apparently fateful FDA Advisory Committee (AdComm), critics of the program, investigators and academics, and investors.
20 Interviews from Across the Field
We published 20 interviews with experts from across the psychedelics field and beyond in 2025. 11 of those were exclusively for our Pα+ subscribers: join today to read all of our interviews and more in 2026.
- Pα+ mpathic Co-Founder Danielle Schlosser on AI Oversight of Psychedelics Trials (January 17)
- Magic Mushrooms Meet Corporate Conspiracy: Steve Hely on Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects (February 17)
- Pα+ MDMA for Active-Duty Troops: Aaron Wolfgang on DoD’s Unprecedented Study (February 19)
- Forging a Path to Access: Congressmen Correa and Bergman on the Future of Psychedelics in the U.S. (March 4)
- Pα+ Inside the World’s Most Active Psychedelic Therapy Site: A Conversation with Sunstone Therapies (March 12)
- Behind the Bill: Inside a Bipartisan Effort to Bring Psychedelic Therapy to Veterans (April 4)
- The VA, Psychedelics, and the Future of Mental Health: A Conversation with Shereef Elnahal, Former VA Under Secretary for Health (April 14)
- Pα+ Hope, Hype, and Humility: Dr. Charles Raison Reflects on Psychedelics’, and Psychiatry’s, Wild Ride (April 18)
- Psychedelics in Japan: Dr. Hiroyuki Uchida on Studies, Stigma, and the Road Ahead (May 21)
- Pα+ Beckley Execs Talk Phase 2b Data, Competition, and Phase 3 Plans (July 1)
- Reconstructing Meaning: Chris Timmermann on the Neurophenomenology of Psychedelics (July 3)
- Pα+ From Senate to Psychedelics: Kyrsten Sinema’s Ibogaine Advocacy Playbook (July 7)
- Pα+ Therapy or Threat? UK Expert Warns of Rising Ketamine Addiction as Phase III Alcoholism Trial Launches (August 5)
- From Huxley to Heffter: Mark Geyer Reflects on a Life in Psychedelic Research (August 12)
- Pα+ ‘No Prejudice, No Hype’: Florence Butlen-Ducuing on Europe’s Psychedelic Renaissance (September 11)
- Pα+ Recovered or Reimagined? Samuli Kangaslampi on Psychedelics and Autobiographical Recall (October 14)
- A European Model: Robert Schoevers on the Continent’s Growing Psychedelic Research Agenda (October 22)
- Beyond the Brain Reset: Óscar Soto on Mechanisms of Psychedelic Action (November 13)
- Pα+ Bringing Psilocybin to Market: Compass’ Steve Levine on Infrastructure, Access and Competition (November 26)
- Pα+ Evidence and Experience: Samuel Wilkinson on the State of (Es)ketamine Therapy and What Comes Next (December 10)
We have featured many more interviews in The Psychedelic Practitioner, too.
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