Bretisilocin

Amid the rise of psychedelics in the mental health space, researchers have begun to explore psilocybin as a potential treatment for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. A study published September 3 in Science showed that giving psilocybin prior to chemotherapy prevented the development of pain hypersensitivity caused by neurotoxic chemotherapies, with protection maintained up to 8 months in mice. “This study is opening a new avenue for research on how to prevent those toxicities and how to expand the world of psychedelics and their different indications,” said Moran Amit, M.D., Ph.D., professor of head and neck surgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and lead study author. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is characterized by tingling, numbness or pain in the hands or feet. These sensations can arise during chemotherapy treatments in up to 68% of patients and affect nearly 30% of patients beyond six months. Current treatments for CIPN include ice packs on the hands while receiving chemotherapy or Eli Lilly’s Cymbalta, a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), shown to give small amounts of symptomatic relief, explained Gregory Jones, M.D., assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Psilocybin is a natural psychedelic compound found in many species of mushrooms. Once ingested, it acts as a prodrug that the body converts to psilocin, which acts as a serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonist. In the body, bundles of peripheral neurons make up nerve endings that are always stretching out to distal areas, such as the skin. This extension takes energy, which comes in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from the body’s natural energy source, the mitochondria. When the body is exposed to chemotherapy, the nerves freeze and stop extending to distal sites, which can cause nerve endings to die if they cannot get back to distal sites quickly after the chemotherapy clears the body, Patrick Dougherty, Ph.D., professor of pain medicine at MD Anderson and lead study author, explained. In the study, psilocybin given to mice before chemotherapy activated the serotonin 2a (5-HT2a) receptors on peripheral neurons and preserved mitochondrial transport down these cells, which is required for nerve survival. “The 5-HT2a agonist [psilocybin] is speeding the transport machinery to get mitochondria back down to those distal sites to support them as they now recover from that, as the toxins cleared and the system starts to try to work like normal again,” Dougherty said. The researchers uncovered this mechanism by using live cell imaging of mitochondria in human peripheral nerves in a dish, where they observed psilocybin preserving the active transport of mitochondria down the nerves. Amit emphasized the importance of carefully regulating the dosing of psilocybin and monitoring patients post-treatment: “To do this uncontrolled outside of the clinical trial settings would be [irresponsible] and it might be even dangerous,” Amit said. “But in the settings that we've created here at MD Anderson, we are doing this in a safe manner.” In April 2026, President Donald Trump ordered the FDA to prioritize reviews of psychedelic drugs for the treatment of mental illness. But prior to that push, Big Pharmas were already riding the psychedelics wave. A year ago, AbbVie penned a $1.2 billion deal for Gilgamesh Pharmaceutical’s bretisilocin program for patients with major depressive disorder. Then in March 2026, Otsuka Pharmaceutical paid $700 million for Transcend Therapeutics and its MDMA analog for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. More recently, Eli Lilly acquired AtaiBeckley for $2.8 billion upfront . Newer players are getting in on the action too, such as Jupiter Neurosciences, which shelled out $3.3 million upfront for Canada's PharmAla Biotech, in turn acquiring the U.S. rights to an MDMA drug to treat neuropsychiatric disorders. In about a month, the researchers are launching the phase 2 interventional NeuroGuard trial assessing the efficacy of psilocybin in preventing CIPN in patients undergoing chemotherapy for breast, colorectal and head and neck cancers.

iStock, ma_rish Eli Lilly’s proposed acquisition of AtaiBeckley is “the clearest strategic validation to date” of psychedelics as an emerging pharmaceutical category, according to H.C. Wainwright. The analyst cautioned, however, that the transaction should not be seen as “supporting a uniform re-rating of every psychedelic developer.” Last week, Eli Lilly became the latest top pharma to buy into the psychedelics craze. Analysts are calling Lilly’s bid to buy AtaiBeckley for up to $3.8 billion the biggest endorsement yet of the sector, which could secure its first-ever approval this year. “Lilly’s pending acquisition of AtaiBeckley is the clearest strategic validation to date of psychedelics and interventional psychiatry as an emerging pharmaceutical category,” H.C. Wainwright analysts wrote in a note to investors Monday morning. With the intended buyout, “Lilly raises the floor, and the bar” for the psychedelics space, the analysts added, and “moves large-cap biopharma participation from partnerships, options, and selective asset acquisitions to outright ownership of a public platform centered on a Phase 3 short-duration psychedelic.” The deal follows AbbVie’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals’ bretisilocin, which closed in October 2025. ezstandalone.cmd.push(function () { ezstandalone.showAds(129); }); H.C. Wainwright cautioned, however, that not all psychedelics biotechs are created equal, and that Big Pharma’s interest in the space will not necessarily be a tide that raises all boats. The Lilly-AtaiBeckley acquisition, the analysts wrote, “should not be interpreted as supporting a uniform re-rating of every psychedelic developer: it raises the strategic floor for differentiated late-stage assets while also raising the bar for clinical maturity, indication selection, intellectual property, treatment duration, durability, and real-world scalability.” AtaiBeckley’s lead asset, BPL-003, is a synthetic form of a psychedelic compound called 5-MeO-DMT being studied for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and currently in Phase 2 development. BPL-003, which is designed to be delivered via nasal spray, elicited an antidepressant response in 66.7% of patients by the second day in a Phase 2a trial . It is a “differentiated short-duration psychedelic that has shown rapid, meaningful, and durable efficacy” in TRD, Jefferies said in a Thursday note. H.C. Wainwright noted that AbbVie’s interest in Gilgamesh’s bretisilocin also fits this “short-duration” profile. Bretisilocin, a novel, short-acting serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonist and 5-HT releaser, was in Phase 2 trials for major depressive disorder (MDD) at the time of the acquisition. “Both AbbVie and Lilly paid up for shorter-duration assets, AbbVie . . . for bretisilocin’s compressed psychoactive window, and Lilly for BPL-003’s approximately two-hour in-clinic session, reflecting the strategic value of clinic throughput and a lower episode-of-care burden,” the analysts noted. This isn’t to say that a fast-acting therapeutic is necessarily a home run. “A shorter-duration therapy becomes commercially superior only if it preserves a sufficiently compelling clinical effect while meaningfully reducing the cost and operational burden of delivery,” H.C. Wainwright said. Psychedelics Lilly makes up to $3.8B psychedelics play in AtaiBeckley takeover With the AtaiBeckley acquisition, Eli Lilly is jumping into psychedelics, a drug class that Jefferies analysts say could herald the “biggest change” for the field of psychiatry. July 16, 2026 · 2 min read · Tristan Manalac Read more While the first indication du jour for the contemporary psychedelics space was post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression—in particular TRD—has taken center stage since Lykos Therapeutics failed to secure approval for its MDMA-assisted PTSD therapy in August 2024. Compass Pathways’ COMP360—which H.C. Wainwright in its Monday note dubbed “the most clinically and regulatorily advanced [psychedelic] asset”—also targets TRD. The candidate, for which Compass expects to complete a rolling FDA submission in the fourth quarter, demonstrated its durability in a Phase 3 trial earlier this month, as 39% of patients who received two fixed doses of the psilocybin-based drug achieved a clinically meaningful reduction in depression severity by week six, according to a July 7 release . Johnson & Johnson’s esketamine-based nasal spray Spravato is currently on the market for TRD, though the company has previously told BioSpace it does not consider Spravato to be a classic psychedelic. Meanwhile, other psychedelic developers are still pursuing PTSD. Otsuka Pharmaceutical, for example, picked up Transcend Therapeutics and its methylone treatment TSND-201, which is in Phase 3 development for PTSD, for up to $1.2 billion earlier this year. TSND-201 was one of three psychedelics to receive Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers, intended to radically speed drug reviews, in April. With the broad range of assets covered in recent deals, H.C. Wainwright pointed to continued differentiation in the psychedelics space. “In our view,” the analysts wrote, “this breadth demonstrates that strategic buyers are not waiting for a single mechanism or delivery model to emerge as the definitive winner before acting.”