News Release Details

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- atai Life Sciences (Nasdaq: ATAI) (“atai”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to transform the treatment of mental health disorders, today announced it has entered into an amended and restated loan agreement (“Loan Agreement”) with strategic partner IntelGenx Technologies Corp. (“IntelGenx”) to support IntelGenx’s conditionally approved graduation from the TSX Venture Exchange to the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”). Completion of the uplisting and the commencement of trading of IntelGenx’s common shares, 8% convertible debentures with a maturity date of June 30, 2022, and share purchase warrants expiring on February 11, 2023 is subject to the satisfaction by IntelGenx of all of the final conditions of listing.

atai has agreed to increase the principal amount of its outstanding US$2,500,000 loan to IntelGenx by an additional US$6,000,000, with US$3,000,000 to become available to IntelGenx in each of January 2022 and January 2023, subject to customary conditions. The loan is in addition to atai’s previously announced initial equity investment of an approximately 25% interest in IntelGenx. The loan bears interest at a rate of 8% per annum, payable at maturity, and matures in January 2024. The borrower under the secured loan is IntelGenx’s wholly-owned subsidiary, IntelGenx Corp., and the loan is guaranteed by IntelGenx.

As part of the strategic partnership, IntelGenx partnered exclusively with atai to develop formulations of compounds for the prevention or treatment of mental health diseases or disorders, including compounds that have psychedelic, entactogenic and/or oneirophrenic properties (such as DMT and psilocybin, among others). atai agreed to increase the loan principal in part on the basis of early data generated from its ongoing feasibility studies conducted with IntelGenx.

“We are proud to deepen our relationship with atai, while strengthening our positions of leadership and boldly innovating novel psychedelic therapies,” said Dr. Horst G. Zerbe, CEO of IntelGenx. “I’m excited about our companies’ mutual efforts to advance our robust pipelines, while finding synergistic ways to work together to develop better compounds and modes of delivery to benefit patients.”

“This transaction illustrates our confidence in IntelGenx’s film technology and the potential it has in the development of product candidates to treat mental health disorders,” said Florian Brand, CEO of atai. “We look forward to collaborating to transition this innovative film delivery technology into the clinic.”

About atai
atai is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to transform the treatment of mental health disorders. atai was founded in 2018 as a response to the significant unmet need and lack of innovation in the mental health treatment landscape. atai is dedicated to acquiring, incubating and efficiently developing innovative therapeutics to treat depression, anxiety, addiction, and other mental health disorders. atai's business model combines funding, technology, scientific and regulatory expertise with a focus on psychedelic therapy and other drugs with differentiated safety profiles and therapeutic potential. By pooling resources and best practices, atai aims to responsibly accelerate the development of new medicines across its companies, seeking to effectively treat and ultimately heal mental health disorders. atai's mission is to bridge the gap between what the mental healthcare system currently provides and what patients need. atai has offices in New York, London, and Berlin. For more information, please visit www.atai.life.

About IntelGenx
IntelGenx is a leading drug delivery company focused on the development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical films.

IntelGenx’s superior film technologies, including VersaFilm®, DisinteQ™, VetaFilm™ and transdermal VevaDerm™, allow for next generation pharmaceutical products that address unmet medical needs. IntelGenx’s innovative product pipeline offers significant benefits to patients and physicians for many therapeutic conditions.

IntelGenx's highly skilled team provides comprehensive pharmaceuticals services to pharmaceutical partners, including R&D, analytical method development, clinical monitoring, IP and regulatory services. IntelGenx's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility offers full service by providing lab-scale to pilot- and commercial-scale production. For more information, visit www.intelgenx.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “initiate,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “potentially,” “preliminary,” “likely,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements include express or implied statements relating to, among other things,
the uplisting of IntelGenx to the TSX and continued strategic cooperation between atai and IntelGenx. The forward-looking statements in this press release are neither promises nor guarantees, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond our control and which could cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including without limitation: we are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company and have incurred significant losses since our inception, and we anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future; we will require substantial additional funding to achieve our business goals, and if we are unable to obtain this funding when needed and on acceptable terms, we could be forced to delay, limit or terminate our product development efforts; our limited operating history may make it difficult to evaluate the success of our business and to assess our future viability; we have never generated revenue and may never be profitable; our product candidates contain controlled substances, the use of which may generate public controversy; clinical and preclinical development is uncertain, and our preclinical programs may experience delays or may never advance to clinical trials; we currently rely on qualified therapists working at third-party clinical trial sites to administer certain of our product candidates in our clinical trials and we expect this to continue upon approval, if any, of our current or future product candidates; if third-party sites fail to recruit and retain a sufficient number of therapists or effectively manage their therapists, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially harmed; we cannot give any assurance that any of our product candidates will receive regulatory approval, which is necessary before they can be commercialized; research and development of drugs targeting the central nervous system, or CNS, is particularly difficult, and it can be difficult to predict and understand why a drug has a positive effect on some patients but not others; we face significant competition in an environment of rapid technological and scientific change; third parties may claim that we are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and may prevent or delay our development and commercialization efforts; a change in our effective place of management may increase our aggregate tax burden; we identified material weaknesses in connection with our internal control over financial reporting; and a pandemic, epidemic, or outbreak of an infectious disease, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may materially and adversely affect our business, including our preclinical studies, clinical trials, third parties on whom we rely, our supply chain, our ability to raise capital, our ability to conduct regular business and our financial results. Other risk factors include the important factors described in the section titled “Risk Factors” in our final prospectus, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on June 21, 2021 pursuant to Rule 424(b) under the Securities Act, and in our other filings with the SEC, that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially and adversely from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

Any forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date of this press release, and you should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, performance, or achievements reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release or to conform these statements to actual results or revised expectations.

Contact Information

For atai Life Sciences:

Investor Contact:
Greg Weaver
ATAI – Chief Financial Officer
Email: greg.weaver@atai.life

Media Contact:
Anne Donohoe
KCSA Strategic Communications
Phone: +1 (212) 896-1265
Email: atai@KCSA.com

For IntelGenx:
Stephen Kilmer
Investor Relations
(514) 331-7440 ext 232
stephen@intelgenx.com

Or

Andre Godin, CPA, CA
President and CFO
IntelGenx Technologies Corp.
(514) 331-7440 ext 203
andre@intelgenx.com