Psychedelic drug developer Atai rises as RFK Jr picked for top US health agency role

COMPASS Pathways

15/11/2024 12:06

** U.S.-listed shares of psychedelics-based drug developer
atai Life Sciences  9VC.F   ATAI.O  rise 11.7% to $1.53
premarket 
    ** President-elect Donald Trump selects Robert F. Kennedy
Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services
    ** Kennedy has previously criticized the U.S. FDA over its
"aggressive suppression" of psychedelics
    ** ATAI has several drugs in development that are based on
psychedelic drugs, including VLS-01 for treatment-resistant
depression that is a formulation of dimethyltryptamine, or DMT,
and EMP-01 for social anxiety disorder that uses a form of MDMA
    ** "RFK Jr seems positively inclined and sounds motivated to
help foster psychedelic drug development," and appears to
recognize "responsible" use of MDMA, Jefferies analyst Andrew
Tsai said in a note on Monday
    ** Brokerage notes programs from cos such as ATAI, Compass
Pathways  CMPS.O  and GH Research  GHRS.O  that are using
pyschedelic-based drugs
    ** Up to last close, ATAI shares had fallen 2.8% YTD versus
a 5.4% increase in the Nasdaq Biotechnology index  .NBI 

 (Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru)
 ((Leroy.Dsouza@thomsonreuters.com))