Atai Life Sciences' Q3 2022 Financials & Business Update, 'Strong Capability To Execute'

Clinical-stage psychedelics company atai Life Sciences N.V. ATAI reported its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2022 and shared business developments.

Numbers show the company ended Q3 2022 with a cash position of $304.1 million, which combined with committed funding from the Hercules loan facility, is anticipated to provide a cash runway until 2025.

End of the period total cash compares to the $362.3 million position on December 31, 2021, a net decrease atai reported as due to operating activities -$73.9 million- and additional investments in platform companies -$3.6 million-, net of $15 million draw on the Hercules debt, $4.6 million from the conversion of notes, and $2.8 million from stock option exercises and equity issuance.

R&D expenses went up, totaling $19.0 million and $52.4 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, respectively, compared to $13.4 million and $35.0 million for the same periods in 2021.

The company also slightly shortened its G&A expenses: for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, they totaled $19.4 million and $54.6 million, respectively, as compared to $20.3 million and $66.9 million in the same periods in 2021.

Net loss attributable to shareholders for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, was $33.9 million and $107.4 million, respectively, as compared to $31.2 million and $78.9 million for the same periods in 2021.

Business Update & Highlights

atai’s programs pipeline continued to advance in the third quarter and is looking forward to additional clinical milestones for the remainder of 2022, most significantly through its eight compounds now under clinical development. 

In addition to initiating multiple studies, the company announced two positive clinical trial results. Referring to the R-ketamine for Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) study underway, atai’s co-founder and CEO Florian Brand said: “We’re excited about the upcoming Phase 2a topline results of PCN-101 that could represent a meaningful shift in the current treatment paradigm for patients.”

To this, co-founder and CSO Srinivas Rao added: “The third quarter of 2022 demonstrated our strong capability to execute. Not only did we have the first patient dosed on a Phase 1 trial of VLS-01 and the initiation of a Phase 1 trial of EMP-01, we also began collecting data on our digital therapeutic app supporting ‘(mind) set-and-setting’ prior to dosing.”

Rao sai the positive safety, tolerability and pharmacodynamic results from proprietary KUR-101 for opioid use disorder (OUD) and GRX-917 for General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Phase 1 trials reinforce the company’s confidence in a drug selection approach that emphasizes prior clinical evidence. 

“Finally, we continue to strengthen our enabling technology capabilities through initiation of a proof-of-concept Phase 1 clinical trial of a sol-gel based technology which could enable direct-to-brain delivery of various compounds in development across atai’s pipeline,” Rao said.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash