Florian Brand
@flobrand
Co-Founder and ex-CEO of @ATAI_life - NASDAQ:ATAI. Passionate about building companies, mental health and biotech. Views are my own. No investment advice.
Interesting new mechanistic insights on Ketamine. The authors of a new study just published yesterday in @NatureMedicine investigated the potential role of the opioid system in modulating glutamatergic effects of ketamine, demonstrating that naltrexone pre‑treatment reduced…
1/ Just out in @NatureMedicine : we show the opioid system modulates ketamine’s effects in major depressive disorder, with naltrexone pre‑treatment reducing acute glutamatergic activity and acute antidepressant effects. nature.com/articles/s4159…
Edgy indeed, @hubermanlab! When we pioneered this space by starting $ATAI and $CMPS around 8 years ago, we were met with A LOT of skepticism from the traditional (neuropsychiatry) drug development community - we were literally laughed out of rooms. It took a lot of focused hard…
Psychedelics used to be so edgy to talk about. Now, federal tax $ is used to study their effects in mice & there are human clinical trials completed & ongoing. People are discussing psilocybin for longevity. MDMA & ibogaine likely to gain FDA approval soon. Things. Have. Changed.
Time to “change your mind” - if you haven’t already done so 😉
History shows how hard it is to grasp paradigm shifts early, especially in biotech/pharma: A decade ago, most analysts predicted cancer immunotherapy would peak at ~$5-10B annual revenues. Today, the top three checkpoint inhibitors generate $41B+ annually. I expect the same…
I truly believe in the value of healthy competition to drive innovation, breakthroughs and excellence in biotech. So thank you $GHRS and $MNMD for being formidable competitors over the last years. It pushed us at $ATAI to be even more laser-focused and obsessed to develop only…
Given the escalating mental health crisis we unfortunately find ourselves in, I am confident that psychedelic drug developers and ultimately patients will greatly benefit from this new FDA pilot program. $ATAI $CMPS
Today, I am pleased to announce that companies may now submit statements of interest for participation in the Commissioner's National Priority Voucher pilot program, which offers drug developers enhanced communication throughout the development process and dramatically shortens…
2 weeks without smartphone internet significantly improved sustained attention. The effects were similar to being a decade younger.
A great post for raising money from VCs.... "Best Practices for Pitching, Geared Towards First-Time Founders" - from @AtlasVenture's @AimeeRaleigh13 ... lifescivc.com/2025/07/best-p…
The FDA just published 200+ Complete Response Letters (CRLs) - making drug-rejection rationales public for the first time to help developers learn & avoid repeat errors. Details: fda.gov/news-events/pr… You can download the CRLs here: open.fda.gov/apis/other/app…
