Funding for the deal reached $125 million, larger than the $80 million raised by Compass, announced in April. It also surpassed the $30 million raised by nonprofit groups, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative.
“ATAI’s great virtue is to take mental illness as seriously as we should have been taking all illness all along. The company’s most valuable asset is its sense of urgency,” said Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ: PYPL) and Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR).
The impact of COVID-19 pandemic
ATAI obtained the funding as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to bring light to the mental health problems affecting individuals.
“With Covid-19 only accentuating the failures of existing standards of care, we are at an inflection point when it comes to seriously address this global mental health crisis,” said Angermayer.
ATAI is an investor of and other psychedelic drug developers
According to ATAI, it will use the money to expand its existing areas of research and the range of possible drugs that the companies it supports might use to treat mental health disorders.
