Beckley Psytech Ltd.. (12/22/20). "Press Release: Beckley Psytech Raises £3m to Develop Ground-breaking Psychedelic Medicines".

	Organisation	Beckley Psytech Ltd.
	Organisation 2	Beckley Foundation
	Product	5-MeO-DMT
	Product 2	venture capital
	Index term	Beckley Psytech–SEVERAL: investment, 202005 financing round Series A £3m
	Person	Reed, Richard (Innocent Drinks 202012 Co-Founder)
	Person 2	Feilding, Amanda C. M. (Beckley Foundation 1998– Founder)

Beckley Psytech, the psychedelic medicine company, has raised £3m of Series A funding to develop a pipeline of psychedelic drugs into licensed pharmaceutical medicines for treating psychiatric and neurological diseases. Investors in the round include prominent British businessmen Jim Mellon and Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks.

The Beckley Psytech team comprises talent from the psychedelic and pharmaceutical fields. Co-founded by world-renowned leader in psychedelic research Lady Amanda Feilding and CEO Cosmo Feilding Mellen, the executive team also includes Marc Wayne as Chairman of Board and Dr Steve Wooding, Chief Scientific Officer. Wayne is a pioneer of the Canadian medical cannabis industry and Wooding is the former head of global commercial strategy for Janssen, Johnson and Johnson’s pharmaceutical division.

The prevalence of mental health and central nervous system (CNS) disorders is growing year on year, with roughly 1 in 4 people1 around the world affected by these conditions in their lifetimes, and with mental health set to become the biggest disease burden globally, potentially exacerbated by the current pandemic. Existing treatments are often suboptimal and may cause treatment limiting side-effects 2, however currently controlled “psychedelic” drugs such as psilocybin and MDMA have shown early promise in the treatment of debilitating mental and neurological disorders.

Beckley Psytech is developing a drug pipeline of psychedelic medicines with significant commercial potential to address this unmet clinical need. The company is borne out of a strategic partnership with the Beckley Foundation, a renowned non-profit NGO with a 20 year track record of advancing scientific research into psychedelic medicine. The Foundation initiated the first ever brain-imaging study of psilocybin, the active ingredient in ‘magic mushrooms’, and, subsequently, the first clinical trial of the drug for treatment resistant depression (TRD) at Imperial College London. In addition to its own pipeline, Beckley Psytech will have first opportunity to support the commercialisation of the Foundation’s intellectual property and will allocate a share of its revenues to fund the Foundation’s ongoing research as part of its commitment to corporate social responsibility.

Beckley Psytech will use the Series A funding to advance its lead programme exploring the use of synthetic 5-MeO-DMT, a unique psychedelic agent with a short duration of action, in the treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases. The funding will help with scaling up resources to develop novel pharmaceutical formulations and delivery methods for synthetic 5-MeO-DMT, as well as to progress preclinical and clinical trials.

Cosmo Feilding Mellen, co-founder and CEO, Beckley Psytech, says: “Our diverse and experienced leadership team is perfectly positioned to deliver on our mission of making effective and safe psychedelic medicines available to patients in need and integrating these treatments into mainstream medical practice."

“This investment comes at an exciting time as we look to build on our progress into an area with transformational potential for society. The capital will enable us to put more resources into exploring 5-MeO-DMT and creating a viable pathway for it to enter the market, as well as the exploration of other agents.”
— Cosmo Feilding Mellen, co-founder and CEO

Dr Steve Wooding, Chief Scientific Officer, Beckley Psytech, says: “There is a significant market opportunity for psychedelic medicines and we are developing a pipeline of assets which we hope will deliver transformative care to patients.

“Beckley Psytech will capitalise on its unique medical, scientific and commercial connections to develop under-researched psychedelic agents into fully licensed medicines that could significantly improve quality of life for patients suffering from intractable, chronic mental and neurological conditions.”
— Dr Steve Wooding, Chief Scientific Officer

Footnotes:

1. WHO World Health Report [https://www.who.int/whr/2001/media_centre/press_release/ en/]

2. Royal College of Psychiatrists ‘Position statement on antidepressants and depression’ [https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/docs/default-source/improving-care/better-mh-policy/ position-statements/ps04_19---antidepressants-and-depression.pdf?sfvrsn=ddea9473_5]

Record changed: 2023-06-05