Dalriada Drug Discovery to Collaborate with atai Life Sciences’ New Platform Company to Discover Next-Generation Therapies for Mental Health
- Invyxis to leverage Dalriada’s agile Turn-KeyTM model to establish and rapidly advance a pipeline of NCEs in mental health
Toronto, ON, January 27, 2022 - Dalriada Drug Discovery (“Dalriada”) is pleased to announce a strategic collaboration with atai Life Sciences’ N.V. (Nasdaq: ATAI) newly launched platform company Invyxis, focused on developing next-generation small molecule therapies based on psychedelics and related compounds for mental health disorders. The goal of the partnership is to establish a diversified pipeline of new chemical entities (NCE) designed to improve upon current compounds in clinical and preclinical development to treat these disorders.
Initial work will focus on designing novel compounds aimed at the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor with other central nervous system (CNS) targets to follow. In addition to the creation of the pipeline, the collaboration critically includes the creation of a substantial pharmacology platform that will enable deep interrogation of known and novel compounds at a target level.
There is a significant opportunity for improved next-generation therapies to address mental health disorders. Over the past several years, a massive amount of preclinical and clinical knowledge has been generated around the use of psychedelic and related compounds for the treatment of these disorders. Investing in rapidly advancing NCE programs in this emerging and rapidly evolving space is a critical opportunity.
As part of the collaboration, Dalriada assumes responsibility for the discovery R&D programs, including the hit identification, hit to lead, and lead optimization stages up to the nomination of the development candidate. atai will be responsible for the preclinical and clinical development.
Dalriada Chief Executive and co-founder, Diana Kraskouskaya said of the partnership with atai: “We are delighted to be working with atai, a company equally relentless in their pursuit of better medicines. An agile approach is a key factor for success and Dalriada brings this to the collaboration by providing our Turn-Key™ drug discovery resource that includes R&D expertise, infrastructure, and highly skilled scientific teams spanning medicinal chemistry, biology, bioanalytical and computational chemistry."
Dalriada’s Chief Scientific Officer, Prof. Patrick Gunning commented: “There is a significant opportunity to deliver enhanced small molecule therapies building on the existing and emerging knowledge of psychedelics’ mechanism of action. Our work with Invyxis will add proven and innovative biological and medicinal chemistry capabilities to grow atai’s portfolio of NCEs. We look forward to innovating with this global leader in psychedelic therapeutics to deliver much needed and improved treatments for mental health.”
atai Life Sciences Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Florian Brand commented: “We are delighted to be collaborating with Dalriada as we launch Invyxis. Dalriada brings exceptional expertise in NCE discovery that complements atai’s existing drug discovery and clinical development capabilities. Invixys will enable us to further build out our pipeline and bring forward revolutionary new treatments to mental health patients in need.”
