atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ:ATAI, ETR:9VC) said it has enough cash, marketable securities, and a committed loan facility to support its operations into 2026 to advance its psychedelic-based therapies targeting several mental health conditions.
The biopharmaceutical company's shares moved higher on the release of its 2023 financial report, adding 5% at US$1.88 in early trade on Thursday.
atai exited 2023 with cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $154.2 million.
During the year, it used cash of $84.1 million for operating activities, set aside $25 million for its strategic investment in privately held biotech firm Beckley Psytech, and invested $15 million to advance its clinical programs.
The company significantly narrowed its fourth quarter and full-year losses from $45 million and $152.4 million to $18.3 million and $40.2 million, respectively.
For the full year, licensing revenue grew year-over-year from $233,000 to $314,000 while it reduced its total operating expenses from $145 million to $125.8 million.
Recent clinical highlights included positive results from Beckley Psytech's Phase 2a study of BPL-003, an intranasal formulation of 5-MeO-DMT, in patients with treatment-resistant depression.
atai in January 2024 made a strategic investment in Beckley Psytech, adding two clinical-stage assets (BPL-003 and ELE-101, a novel IV formulation of psilocin) to its programs. It owns a 35.5% stake in Beckley Psytech.
“The recent BPL-003 Phase 2a data from Beckley Psytech are encouraging in anticipation of the larger Phase 2b results in the second half of this year,” atai CEO Florian Brand said.
“The data showed that acute effects resolved on average in less than two hours, the antidepressant effect was rapid, and was sustained for three months.”
He noted that another asset that has been designed as a two-hour in-clinic treatment is VLS-01, an oral transmucosal formulation of N,N-DMT, which recently started dosing in a Phase 1b trial.
“Looking ahead, we anticipate several important milestones throughout the next year, including the Phase 2b readout from BPL-003,” Brand said.
Research and development expenses were $14.2 million for the three months that ended in December and $62.2 million for the year. This represented a decrease of $12.1 million year-over-year in 2023 due to $10.1 million less in contract research organization expenses and $2.1 million less in personnel costs due to the deprioritization of certain programs.
- Updated with share price movement -