Pα+ Psychedelic Bulletin #228: Inside the Lilly-Atai Deal; An Update on the GH-AtaiBeckley Patent Standoff; Field Reacts to FDA’s Guidance; Resilient Readies Resubmission

Inside the Lilly-Atai Deal, and a Patent Standoff with GH Research

Getting anyone familiar with the specifics surrounding the Eli Lilly-AtaiBeckley deal to go on the record has been challenging, but we have spoken with people familiar with the details on the condition of anonymity.

While Endpoints reports that other large pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson, are said to have taken a look at AtaiBeckley, we also understand that Lilly conducted a thorough sweep of the psychedelic drug development field, too.

That includes both private and public companies, with Lilly apparently having explored candidates like COMP360 before landing on AtaiBeckley.

While one individual told us that Lilly viewed the duration of psychedelic effects of Compass’ psilocybin to be a sticking point, at least one other person familiar with the company’s thinking said that this was not a blocker.

It does seem clear, though, that Lilly at least found the short duration of 5-MeO-DMT to be attractive, and potentially a neat fit for the Spravato clinical infrastructure. But that’s all in theory, for now, with several people telling Psychedelic Alpha that they have concerns around the ability to slot ‘the God molecule’ into such a framework...