In recent days, Atai Life Sciences (Compass’ biggest shareholder) increased its ownership in Compass Pathways buying another 619,095 shares, taking its stake in the company from 19.4 to 20.8 percent.
Research into psychedelic therapies is an expanding field that seeks to offer alternative treatments, for instance, to the more than 50 percent of patients receiving therapy for major depressive disorder (MDD) who do not respond to approved depression medications.
The move by Atai follows a recent announcement from Compass that its psilocybin treatment called COMP360 demonstrated a “statistically significant and clinically relevant reduction in depressive symptom severity after three weeks.”
While forging ahead with notable clinical studies, Compass Pathways is not without controversy.
In 2020, Compass faced criticism over its position that psilocybin therapy should only be approved by medical regulators such as the FDA, not by legislators — a position meant to support and protect the company's methods, which it hopes will be adopted as the key regulatory framework for the legalization of psilocybin therapy.
Following passage of the measure, Oregon is now in the process of creating an intricate statewide system for qualified caregivers to deliver psilocybin therapy in therapeutic settings.
While dual tracks of state and federal approaches to the legalization of psychedelic therapies may present conflict moving forward, popular acceptance over previously taboo psychedelic therapies and the expanded access they hopefully will provide people, are certainly worth noting.
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