UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, DC 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022

OR

Commission File Number: 001-40493

ATAI Life Sciences N.V.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

+49 89 2153 9035

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒ Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). YES ☐ NO ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, as of June 30, 2022, the last business day of the Registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $411.1 million. Solely for purposes of this disclosure, common shares held by executive officers, directors and certain shareholder of the Registrant as of such date have been excluded because such holders may be deemed to be affiliates.

As of March 15, 2023, the registrant had 166,010,476 common shares, par value €0.10 per share, outstanding.

ATAI Life Sciences N.V.

FORM 10-K

Table of Contents

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 (the “Form 10-K") contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements contained in this Form 10-K other than statements of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitiation statements regarding our future operating results and financial position; the success, cost, and timing of development of our product candidates, including the progress of preclinical studies and clinical trials and related milestones; the commercialization of our current product candidates and any other product candidates we may identify and pursue, if approved, including our ability to successfully build a specialty sales force and commercial infrastructure to market our current product candidates and any other product candidates we may identify and pursue; the timing of and our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals; our business strategy and plans, including the benefits of our corporate restructuring; potential acquisitions, partnerships and other strategic arrangements; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments to fund our operations; available funding under the Hercules Capital, Inc. loan facility; and the plans and objectives of management for future operations and capital expenditures. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “potentially,” “preliminary,” “likely,” and similar expressions are intended to identify 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 important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, including the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions described under "Summary Risk Factors" below, “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of Part I, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 7 of Part II and elsewhere in this Form 10‑K.

Any forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date of this Form 10-K, 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 Form 10-K or to conform these statements to actual results or revised expectations.

GENERAL

Unless the context otherwise requires, all references in this Form 10-K to “we,” “us,” “our,” “atai” or the “Company” refer to ATAI Life Sciences N.V. and its consolidated subsidiaries. References to “Form 10-K” and “Annual Report” herein refer to this Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022.

Corporate Reorganization

We were incorporated pursuant to the laws of the Netherlands as Adripa Holding B.V. on September 10, 2020 to become a holding company for ATAI Life Sciences AG. On January 11, 2021, our name was changed to ATAI Life Sciences B.V. In April 2021, all of the outstanding shares in ATAI Life Sciences AG were contributed and transferred to ATAI Life Sciences B.V. in a capital increase in exchange for newly issued common shares of ATAI Life Sciences B.V. and, as a result, ATAI Life Sciences AG became a wholly owned subsidiary of ATAI Life Sciences B.V. and the former shareholders of ATAI Life Sciences AG became the shareholders of ATAI Life Sciences B.V. In connection with such exchange, the common share in ATAI Life Sciences B.V. held by Apeiron Investment Group Ltd. was cancelled (ingetrokken). On June 7, 2021, the existing issued shares of ATAI Life Sciences B.V. were split applying a ratio of 1.6 to one, and the nominal value was reduced to €0.10. Prior to our initial public offering ("IPO") on June 22, 2021, we converted the legal form of ATAI Life Sciences B.V. into a public company with limited liability and our name into ATAI Life Sciences N.V.

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SUMMARY RISK FACTORS

Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those summarized below. This summary does not address all of the risks that we face. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in this risk factor summary, and other risks that we face, can be found below under the headings “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and the related notes. If any of the following risks occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and future growth prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In these circumstances, the market price of our common shares could decline. The principal risks and uncertainties affecting our business include the following:

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Item 1. Business.

Overview

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to transform the treatment of mental health disorders. We were founded in 2018 in response to the significant unmet need and lack of innovation in the mental health treatment landscape, as well as the emergence of therapies that previously may have been overlooked or underused.

We have a bold and ambitious vision: to heal mental health disorders so that everyone, everywhere can live a more fulfilled life.

Mental health disorders such as depression, substance use disorder, or SUD, and anxiety, which are among our initial focus indications, are highly prevalent and estimated to affect more than one billion people globally. In addition, the total costs of mental health disorders are significant and expected to increase substantially. Between 2009 and 2019, spending on mental health care in the United States increased by more than 50%, reaching $225 billion, and a Lancet Commission report estimates the global economic cost will reach $16 trillion by 2030. While current treatments, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, or SNRIs, are well established and effective for certain patients, a significant percentage of patients either respond inadequately or relapse, translating to a significant unmet patient need.

Our Model and Strategy

We have a team of experienced drug discoverers, developers and innovators working to heal mental health disorders. We operate a decentralized model to enable scalable drug or technological development at our atai companies. Our atai companies drive development of programs that we have either acquired a controlling or significant interest in or created de novo. We believe that this model provides our development teams the support and incentives to rapidly advance their programs in a cost-efficient manner. To continue to grow our business and to aid in the development of our various programs, we intend to continue to incubate, acquire and invest in companies that share our goal of advancing transformative treatments for patients that suffer from mental health disorders.

This model enables a modular approach to capturing value as we advance therapies through commercialization. While our primary goal is to pursue commercialization of products independently, we also intend to continue opportunistically establishing collaborations and/or divest atai companies entirely based on several factors, including, without limitation, the strategic rationale and financial return potential. The model is designed to maximize the value of each drug that we successfully develop and generate returns for shareholders through these value-capturing strategies.

An example of a value-capturing event includes geography-specific collaboration agreements, such as the “Otsuka Agreement”, pursuant to which one of our atai companies, Perception Neurosciences, received a $20.0 million upfront payment and Otsuka was granted exclusive rights to develop and commercialize arketamine, known as PCN-101, in Japan.

Our Programs

We have built a diversified pipeline of drug and discovery development programs, including psychedelic and nonpsychedelic compounds. Psychedelics are emerging as novel breakthrough therapies for mental health disorders, such as depression and, with growing scientific support, recent regulatory advancements and increasing patient and physician acceptance. There is a growing body of clinical evidence that supports the potential efficacy and safety profile of psychedelics, which may have potential therapeutic benefits, such as a rapid onset of effect and sustained efficacy after a short-course of administration. Our pipeline also includes nonpsychedelic compounds. We believe these programs, which include new molecular entities as well as variants of known compounds with unique pharmacology, have the potential to address unmet needs in mental health disorders.

These programs vary across stage of development, indication and mechanism of action, which we believe will improve the commercial potential and risk profile of our pipeline in the aggregate. We also prioritize the development of compounds and compound classes that have shown potential for efficacy and safety in prior clinical trials or observational studies.

Our Enabling Technologies and Drug Discovery Platforms

We are developing enabling technologies that have the potential to support the programs in our pipeline. We currently have enabling technologies housed at our atai companies, including Introspect Digital Therapeutics, as well as IntelGenx Technologies, a strategic investment of ours. While many of these technologies remain in early stage development, we are currently investigating the IntelGenx Technologies’ oral thin film ("OTF") drug delivery system in a Phase 1 clinical trial as a novel formulation of Viridia's VLS-01.

In addition, we also conduct early-stage drug discovery through our discovery platform companies. Expanding intellectual property has been essential to our strategy since inception, with key investments made to unlock NCEs. We have made substantial progress in our drug

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discovery efforts to date, synthesizing and screening approximately 700 compounds and identifying novel scaffolds that display potential in targeting mental health disorders.

Our Ownership in COMPASS

COMPASS Pathways plc (“COMPASS”) is developing its investigational COMP360 psilocybin therapy, which comprises administration of COMP360 with psychological support from specially trained therapists, with an initial focus on treatment-resistant depression (“TRD”). COMPASS is currently conducting a Phase 3 pivotal program composed of two pivotal trials, each of which will have a long-term follow-up component. Topline pivotal data for the first and second trials are expected in the summer of 2024 and mid-2025, respectively.

As of December 31, 2022, we beneficially owned 9,565,774 shares representing a 22.4% equity interest in COMPASS. Certain of our founding investors were also seed investors and/or founders of COMPASS. Our interest in the product candidates of COMPASS is limited to the potential appreciation of our equity interest.

Our Key Clinical Programs

Our pipeline currently consists of therapeutic candidates across multiple neuropsychiatric indications including depression, cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia ("CIAS"), anxiety, opioid use disorders ("OUD"), and post-traumatic stress disorder ("PTSD"). We believe there may be additional indications with potential for treatment using psychedelic therapeutics, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and eating disorders, each of which we believe represent areas of unmet medical need. The table below summarizes the status of our product candidate portfolio as of the date of this Form 10-K.

Note: DMT = N,N-dimethyltryptamine; MDMA = 3,4-Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine

The following details our lead clinical programs, including related prior evidence in humans based on third-party clinical trials or studies, recent advancements, and upcoming milestones, as applicable.

RL-007 (Recognify Life Sciences)

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It is estimated that schizophrenia affects over 21 million people globally and approximately 2.4 million people in the United States. Approximately 300,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States. Nearly every schizophrenia patient is affected by CIAS, limiting both social and non-social cognitive functions.

While antipsychotics are most commonly used to treat the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia, they fail to address the cognitive and negative symptoms of this condition. Moreover, there are no drugs approved for the specific treatment of CIAS.

Non-Clinical

RL-007 has been shown to be active in a broad range of non-clinical models, consistently exhibiting pro-cognitive, anxiolytic, antinociceptive and anticonvulsant effects.

Although the precise molecular target and mechanism of action for RL-007 has not been elucidated, studies with co-delivered antagonists suggest that RL-007 modulates both inhibitory and excitatory neuronal signaling through the γ-aminobutyric acid GABAB and α4β2 nicotinic receptor complexes. In addition, a microdialysis study has demonstrated that the oral administration of an intermediate (10 mg/kg) but not high (100 mg/kg) dose of RL-007 to rats results in increased extracellular concentrations of GABA in the ventral hippocampus (a brain structure understood to play an important role in memory).

In contrast to other compounds that increase extracellular concentrations of GABA or that are agonists of GABAB receptors, RL-007 does not appear to induce the classic GABA side effects such as sedation (in animal models), suggesting the involvement of additional pharmacological mechanisms.

Studies in several species have demonstrated that RL-007 can reverse the effects of scopolamine, a muscarinic antagonist that induces temporary cognitive impairment, and can also improve performance in complex memory tasks in aged animals, bringing their performance to a comparable level as young animals. For example, in an in vivo model in normal and scopolamine challenged dogs, RL-007 demonstrated enhanced effects on cognition. In the figure below, investigators observed enhanced learning and memory with an inverted U-shaped dose response.

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Phase 1 Scopolamine Challenge

A third-party Phase 1 study enrolled 23 healthy volunteers to evaluate the effect of RL-007 on the scopolamine cognition model in healthy volunteers. RL-007 was administered ter in die, or three times a day (“TID”) for one day and then co-administration with scopolamine on Day 2 to induce a temporary cognitive impairment. RL-007 was well tolerated. A statistically and clinically significant reversal of the scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment was observed with the 30 mg TID dose. Additionally, marked changes in quantitative encephalogram (qEEG) were found at all doses tested. Notably, and consistent with non-clinical evidence, the dose response was inverted U-shaped, with the most significant changes observed at the 30mg dose-level.

Phase 2 Study in Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathic Pain (DPNP)

A third-party conducted a Phase 2 study that enrolled 181 patients with DPNP in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. While unsuccessful in demonstrating a clinically meaningful effect on pain scores with RL-007, as part of this trial, cognitive function was assessed using a standard computerized cognitive test battery, Cogstate, which assessed cognitive abilities such as attention, concentration, verbal learning and memory, working memory and global cognitive functioning. In the cohort receiving RL-007 at the lower dose (40 mg TID for one week, then 80 mg TID for three weeks), significant improvement in immediate and delayed word recall was observed compared with placebo, suggesting that RL-007 may be associated with cognitive enhancement. In addition, investigators observed subjects in the lowest dose cohort (40/80 mg) exhibited an improvement in verbal learning (Cohen’s d = 0.31) and memory (Cohen’s d = 0.36), underscoring the effects on cognition and inverted-U dose response observed in prior clinical and non-clinical studies.

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Phase 2a Study in CIAS

Recognify initiated a Phase 2a proof-of-mechanism study in the United States for RL-007 in 32 CIAS patients. The study was designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of RL-007, as well as effects on clinical activity endpoints, including a subset of the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) to assess cognition. In December 2021, we announced positive clinical data from the Phase 2a study of RL-007 in CIAS patients. RL-007 was well tolerated and demonstrated a clinically meaningful pro-cognitive profile consistent with previous Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials of this compound.

In the figure below, we show the results on a subset of the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) demonstrating a inverted-U response on the key cognitive endpoints of HVLT, symbol coding and category fluency. On symbol coding at the 20mg dose, a Cohen’s d of 0.79 was observed. The MCCB is recognized by the FDA as an approvable endpoint for measuring cognitive function in CIAS.

The totality of the results observed in this Phase 2a study supported the progression of RL-007 in clinical development to further demonstrate the pro-cognitive benefit of RL-007 in CIAS.

GRX-917 (deuterated Etifoxine -GABA Therapeutics)

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There are several types of anxiety disorders, including GAD, social anxiety disorder and panic disorder, which are distinct but share common symptoms.

Anxiety disorders are generally treated with medication, psychotherapy or both. First line pharmacotherapy often involves use of antidepressants, including SSRI/SNRIs. SSRI/SNRIs work by increasing levels of serotonin in the brain, but they typically have a slow onset of action, requiring treatment for four to six weeks before significant therapeutic benefits are observed, and maximal benefits often requiring up to twelve weeks of treatment. SSRIs also have a number of side effects, including sexual dysfunction, insomnia and gastrointestinal disturbances.

Benzodiazepines are also used to treat anxiety and can offer rapid reduction of symptoms, with relief as soon as thirty minutes after administration. However, many patients experience sedative side effects resulting in drowsiness or lethargy, decreased mental sharpness, slurring of speech and decreased coordination. The long-term use of benzodiazepines is associated with the development of tolerance and dependence, making discontinuing such medications challenging for most patients.

Etifoxine & GRX-917 Non-Clinical

Etifoxine and GRX-917 have shown anxiolytic effects in the elevate plus maze (EPM) mouse model. Finasteride, an inhibitor of neurosteroid biosynthesis, was able to fully inhibit the anxiolytic activity of GRX-917 and etifoxine in the EPM model, suggesting that both compounds work via modulation of neurosteroidogenic activity. In humans, the anxiolytic activity of etifoxine hydrochloride is not inhibited in the presence of the benzodiazepine antagonist flumazenil (Schlichter et al, 2000), supporting the notion that etifoxine’s anxiolytic effects are not driven by the direct activation of the benzodiazepine site of the GABAA receptor.

GRX-917’s half-life in human and rat liver microsomes is increased by 82% compared to etifoxine. In rats, this enhanced in-vitro metabolic stability translated in-vivo to a 1.7-fold increase in maximum concentration (i.e. Cmax) and a 2.5 fold increase in exposure (i.e. AUC) for the GRX-917 compared to etifoxine. Terminal half-life was also increased by 20%. The effect of deuterium substitution on enhancing microsome stability is identical (+82%) in rats and humans, pointing to a similar metabolic pathway. Therefore, GRX-917’s superior rat pharmacokinetic profile is expected to translate to humans.

Phase 1 Safety, Tolerability and PK Study of Etifoxine

In 2020, GABA Therapeutics completed a Phase 1 study of etifoxine to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (via qEEG) of single (100 mg) and multiple doses (100 mg, twice a day (“BID”) for seven days) of oral etifoxine in normal healthy volunteers. The results quantified the PK of etifoxine and served as a benchmark for the single and multiple ascending dose study GRX-917.

Phase 1 Single and Multiple Ascending Dose Study

In June 2021, GABA initiated a Phase 1 single and multiple ascending dose trial of GRX-917. The Phase 1 trial was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of single and multiple-ascending doses of GRX-917 up to 500mg as single doses and 300mg given every twelve hours for seven days, respectively.

In January 2023, we announced positive final results from the Phase 1 study. GRX-917 was well-tolerated in the single ascending dose and multiple ascending dose cohorts. Additionally, the data confirmed an improved pharmacokinetic profile including longer half-life and increased bioavailability compared to etifoxine. Quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) data showed dose-dependent increases in frontal beta power, providing evidence of target engagement.

Regulatory Authorities Pharmacovigilance assessments of Etifoxine

An analysis of the safety profile of etifoxine (2000-2012) was completed by the French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (“ANSM”) France showed that the profile of Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) is globally similar to that expected and there were no new safety data regarding the risks identified in the spontaneous reporting data. In over 14 million prescriptions of Stresam® between 2000 and 2012, there was a low ADR rate of ~ 21 per million treatments. There were only sporadic reports of ADRs relating to abuse, misuse or dependence. Data from this pharmacovigilance study were reviewed by the ANSM and this resulted a confirmation of the favorable risk-benefit assessment subject to the conduct of

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additional studies. As risk mitigation measures, revisions were made to the label information and a letter was sent to healthcare professionals in 2014.

Further to the ANSM’s study, in 2021 the ANSM initiated a referral towards the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) leading to a review of Stresam’s (etifoxine) benefit-risk based on additional available data including the results of a new study. The review was carried out by the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (“CHMP”) which concluded that Stresam can continue to be used for the treatment of anxiety disorders, but it must not be used in patients who previously had severe skin reactions or severe liver problems after taking etifoxine.

Third-Party Non-Inferiority Study of Etifoxine vs. Lorazepam

A third-party conducted a study to compare the efficacies of etifoxine (50mg TID) and lorazepam (.5 – 1mg BID) monotherapies in the treatment of adjustment disorder with anxiety over a period of 28 days. The study demonstrated that etifoxine works as rapidly as lorazepam, with etifoxine continuing its effects beyond the treatment period, while lorazepam shows rebound post-treatment.

Viridia Life Sciences: VLS-01 (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine; (“DMT”)) for TRD

We are initially focused on a subtype of MDD, referred to as TRD. TRD is a severe form of MDD, comprising patients who do not respond adequately to two or more pharmacological treatments. Approximately one third of patients with MDD are diagnosed with TRD.

TRD is estimated to affect approximately 100 million people globally. People with TRD are often unable to perform daily tasks, are less productive at work and have high rates of unemployment. People with TRD are also more likely to receive disability or welfare benefits and are reported to have a higher frequency of co-occurring conditions, including hypertension, anemia, and diabetes, compared to people with MDD that are not treatment resistant. In addition, direct medical costs for people with TRD are estimated to be two to three times higher than for people with MDD that are not treatment resistant, with an average of twice the number of inpatient visits and hospital stays that are over one-third longer. It has been found that the proportion of people with TRD that have attempted suicide may be as high as 30%, approximately a seven-fold increase compared to people with MDD that are not treatment resistant.

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While there are a wide range of available pharmacological therapies for depression, including SSRIs, SNRIs, and atypical antipsychotics, these drugs have significant limitations for many patients, including slow onset of effect, inadequate response, and significant side effects.

Given the limitations of existing therapeutic treatments, there continues to be a high unmet need for antidepressants that provide faster onset of effect, greater efficacy, higher remission rates, and improved tolerability.

VLS-01 Non-Clinical

Neural plasticity is considered to be a critical mechanism by which serotonergic psychedelics exert antidepressant effects. DMT acts as a partial agonist of the 5-HT 1A/2A/2C receptors, primarily in cortical neurons and the limbic system, where it is believed to increase neuroplasticity and decrease functional connectivity. In vitro and in vivo assays for neuritogenesis and synaptogenesis in the prefrontal cortex of adult rats demonstrated DMT’s potential to significantly increase dendritic arbor complexity along with functionality (assessed by ex-vivo slice recordings of excitatory postsynaptic currents [EPSCs]), suggesting the potential to restore prefrontal cortex deficits observed in the pathophysiology of depression.

In a series of behavioral experiments conducted in male rats, a single intraperitoneal injection of 10 mg/kg DMT, a hallucinogenic dose based on rodent drug discrimination data, demonstrated an antidepressant-like effect in the forced swim test, as indicated by a significant reduction in immobility and increase in swimming.

DMT has limited oral bioavailability, and current clinical studies conducted by third parties typically involve either IV or inhaled routes of administration. Given the challenges—both commercial and safety—with these routes, we are developing VLS-01 as an OTF formulation, which is expected to provide a more convenient and acceptable route of administration. Our proprietary formulation has demonstrated good mucosal penetration of DMT when tested in vitro in a standard model involving pig mucosal tissue:

Phase 2a Study of IV DMT fumarate in Major Depressive Disorder

The third-party Phase 2a study investigated the safety and efficacy of DMT fumarate with supportive therapy compared to placebo with supportive therapy, in 34 patients with moderate/severe MDD. Patients were administered a short IV infusion of 21.5mg of DMT fumarate, resulting in a 20 to 30-minute psychedelic experience. The study met the primary and key secondary endpoints, demonstrating a placebo-adjusted reduction of -10.8 (p=0.002) and -7.4 (p=0.02) in MADRS scores at one- and two-weeks post-dose, respectively. DMT fumarate was well tolerated with no drug-related serious adverse events reported, including no reports of suicidal ideation or behavior. There were no clinically significant safety concerns in any treatment group, including with vital signs, electrocardiogram (ECG) or clinical laboratory findings.

We believe this study provides strong proof of concept data for DMT as a potential treatment for depression and supports the development of the OTF formulation of DMT, VLS-01, which may simplify in-clinic administration relative to an IV formulation.

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DemeRx IB: DMX-1002 (ibogaine) for OUD

We are initially focused on OUD, a form of SUD characterized by uncontrolled and persistent self-administration of opioids, resulting in significant impairment, distress, and mortality. In 2017, an estimated 2.1 million people in the United States had an OUD, and 47,600 people died from an opioid drug overdose. OUD’s societal effects are extremely far-reaching as the condition burdens multiple stakeholders. A retrospective secondary analysis using 2018 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and the CDC WONDER Database attributed a $787 billion societal cost to OUD in the United States alone. The most common treatments for OUD are directed at achieving abstinence and include psychological and social interventions.

For many patients, pain relief and substance use disorders are fundamentally linked, given that the use of opioids to manage acute pain can lead to drug dependence. While opioids are indeed effective for most forms of acute pain, they are associated with a variety of adverse effects, including risk of addiction and respiratory depression, the latter being the main cause of death among opioid users. Of individuals prescribed at least one day of opioids, 6% are still taking them one year later. Moreover, it is estimated that 8% to 12% of individuals prescribed opioids for chronic pain ultimately develop OUD.

There are limited pharmacological agents available to treat OUD, with the current options divided into two classes: (i) synthetic opioid receptor full or partial agonists, such as methadone and buprenorphine, respectively, and (ii) opioid antagonists, such as naltrexone and naloxone. These therapies suffer from a number of limitations, including high relapse rates, inconvenient treatment regimens, difficult access and an inability to maintain abstinence after medically assisted withdrawal.

Ibogaine was generally well tolerated when administered in a highly controlled clinical setting. All patients experienced a hallucinatory, dream-like state which typically resolved between six and 12 hours after dosing, though subjective effects were observed up to 24 hours after dosing in some subjects. There were no serious adverse events or deaths that occurred from administration of ibogaine to drug dependent patients in the dose range used in this trial.

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As shown below, opioid-dependent patients reported significant decreases in drug craving as measured by all Heroin Craving Questionnaire-29 subscales at discharge and at one-month follow-up. Similarly, assessments of mood (The Beck Depression Inventory, or BDI, The Profile of Mood States, or POMS, depression subscale, Symptom Checklist-90 depression subscale) revealed significant reductions in depression, as well as improvement in mood scores from baseline to post-dose and at one-month follow-up (p<0.01 for all).

EmpathBio: EMP-01 (MDMA derivative) for PTSD

The current first line treatment for PTSD is the use of trauma-focused psychotherapy, but access to these psychotherapies is typically difficult, and not all with PTSD respond to psychotherapy alone. Similarly, medication-only treatment is ineffective in controlling PTSD symptoms in as many as 40% to 60% of patients, and many of these medications commonly produce problematic side effects. Given the issues with access to trauma-focused psychotherapy and ineffectiveness of current pharmacotherapy, PTSD is a mental health disorder of high unmet medical need. We believe novel interventions are needed to better treat PTSD.

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In addition, a recent third-party randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 study of 90 patients with severe PTSD showed a statistically significant reduction in PTSD symptoms in the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy group versus placebo.

Our Other Clinical Programs

Perception Neuroscience: PCN-101(R-Ketamine) for TRD

In January 2023, results from the Phase 2a proof-of-concept study were announced. The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of PCN-101 for the two doses, 30 mg and 60 mg, which were sub-dissociative and non-sedating based upon Phase 1 results. To achieve a sufficiently differentiated and commercially viable treatment in TRD in line with our internal target product profile, we set the following targets for the single dose Phase 2a study. On efficacy, we targeted a placebo adjusted change from baseline of 5 or more points on the MADRS at 24 hours, the primary endpoint. On safety/tolerability, we targeted sedation and dissociation comparable to placebo, operationalized as a risk ratio of less than 2. The observed mean change from baseline on the MADRS at 24 hours was -15.3 for PCN-101 60 mg and -13.7 for placebo (placebo adjusted change of -1.6; p-value 0.5). The magnitude of both the placebo effect and the drug effect were comparable to that seen in several other acute antidepressant trials incorporating inpatient overnight stays. The efficacy of the 60 mg dose was greater when considering only US sites at the 24-hour time point, though the placebo effect was similar to that observed in the full sample set (-19.2 MADRS mean change from baseline on 60mg PCN-101 vs. -14.4 on placebo; p-value 0.32). However, it should be noted that the number of patients in the US-only subset was small (9 on PCN-101 and 8 on placebo). The single 60 mg dose of PCN-101 showed an efficacy signal at each timepoint over the 2-week timeframe of the study, potentially indicating a sustained duration of effect. The results did reach statistical significance (p-value 0.04) at the 15-day endpoint in the US-only subset in an exploratory analysis. PCN-101 was generally well-tolerated with rates of sedation and dissociation comparable to placebo.

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Kures: KUR-101(deuterated mitragynine) for OUD

Competition

The pharmaceutical industry is highly competitive, with new approaches and technologies regularly emerging. We face competition across our current programs and expect to face competition with any future programs we may seek to develop and/or commercialize from major pharmaceutical, biotechnology, specialty pharmaceutical and generic pharmaceutical companies, among others. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations that conduct research, seek patent protection and establish collaborative arrangements for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization. In addition, programs that we currently believe to be complementary may eventually become competitors.

Many of the companies with which we compete or with which we may compete in the future have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved drugs than we do and may already have established markets for their products. Accordingly, our potential competitors may succeed in obtaining FDA or other regulatory approval for alternative or superior products. Our competitors also may compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, in establishing clinical trial sites and enrolling subjects for our clinical trials and in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. In addition, competitors may have higher name recognition and more extensive collaborative relationships. Mergers and acquisitions within the industry may result in greater resources being concentrated among a small set of competitors. Smaller or emerging earlier-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly if they have collaborations with larger, established companies. We are aware that a number of companies are increasing their efforts in discovery of non-traditional alternative compounds including psychedelics.

The commercial opportunity for our potential products could reduce or be eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient or are less expensive than any products that we may develop. Furthermore, we may also face competition from 501(c)(3) non-profit medical research organizations, including the Usona Institute and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Such non-profit organizations may be willing to provide products at cost or for free which could significantly disrupt the potential market for our products. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products faster than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a market position before we are able to enter the market. The key competitive factors affecting the success of all our product candidates, if approved, are likely to be their efficacy, safety, convenience and price, as well as the level of biosimilar or generic competition and the availability of reimbursement from government and other third-party payors.

Depression

Multiple therapies for depression exist, including common pharmacological treatments such as anti-depressants and psychosocial interventions such as cognitive based therapy. There are also non-pharmacological, somatic treatments for depression such as electroconvulsive therapy and transcranial magnetic stimulation, among others. However, these current therapies are ineffective or inadequately effective for a significant portion of patients. This treatment-resistant subset of depression is our initial therapeutic focus for several of our compounds. For TRD there are currently only two pharmacological treatments approved in the United States: (i) SPRAVATO (S-ketamine) nasal spray, an NMDA receptor antagonist, approved by the FDA in March 2019 and marketed by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, and (ii) a fixed dose combination of olanzapine and fluoxetine hydrochloride, which are individually available generically. These treatments are typically used alongside antidepressants and other treatments used in earlier lines of therapy for depression. In addition, there have been recent developments in the treatment of MDD, including AUVELITY, a therapeutic marketed by Axsome Therapeutics, which was recently approved by the FDA in August 2022 and which is also being studied in TRD.

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Psychosocial interventions and non-pharmacological, somatic treatments may also be used for patients. We are aware of several biopharmaceutical companies with therapies in development for TRD and MDD including Sage Therapeutics, Relmada Therapeutics, Novartis, GH Research, as well as COMPASS, in which we hold an equity stake.

Cognitive Impairment Associated with Schizophrenia

We are not aware of any pharmacological treatments approved for CIAS. While antipsychotics are most commonly used to treat psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia, these medications fail to address the cognitive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and are often associated with severe dose limiting effects. Furthermore, over 50 assets in development for CIAS have been discontinued or are inactive, indicating the complexity of successfully developing a therapy for this condition. We are aware of biopharmaceutical companies with therapies in development for CIAS including Boehringer Ingelheim and Takeda Pharmaceuticals (in partnership with Neurocrine Biosciences). Other companies with therapies in development in schizophrenia not focused on CIAS that we are aware of include Karuna Therapeutics, Sunovion, Newron Pharmaceuticals, Reviva Pharmaceuticals and Acadia Pharmaceuticals.

Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are generally treated with medication, psychotherapy or both. Treatment often involves the use of antidepressants. However, these typically have a slow onset of action and a number of side effects, such as sexual dysfunction, drowsiness and weight gain. Benzodiazepines are also used to treat anxiety and can offer rapid reduction of symptoms, but their long-term use is associated with the development of tolerance, respiratory depression, drug dependence and sedative side effects.

We are aware of several biopharmaceutical companies with therapies in development for anxiety disorders including VistaGen Therapeutics, Mindmed, Bionomics, as well as the non-profit medical research organization MAPS.

Intellectual Property

Overview of our Intellectual Property

Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain protection of intellectual property, particularly patents, in the United States and other countries with respect to product candidates and technology that are important to our business. In addition to patent protection, we also rely on trade secrets to protect aspects of our business for which we do not consider patent protection appropriate. The intellectual property covering the technologies and product candidates related to our programs are handled directly by the applicable platform companies, and we are not actively involved in the management of such intellectual property. For information regarding risks related to our intellectual property, see the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property.”

As of the date of this Form 10-K, our intellectual property portfolio includes 32 issued U.S. patents, 273 issued non-U.S. patents, 37 pending U.S. patent applications, 65 pending non-U.S. patent applications, 26 pending U.S. provisional applications, and 27 PCT applications. Our intellectual property portfolio for each of the programs in our pipeline are summarized in the table below and described further for certain programs. In addition, we have, and may continue to, enter into collaboration and licensing arrangements for research

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and development, manufacturing, and commercialization activities with counterparties for the development and commercialization of its product candidates.

A description of our patents as of the date of this Form 10-K follows below:

Perception Neuroscience (PCN-101)

Perception Neuroscience in-licenses three issued U.S. patents, three foreign issued patents in Japan and 2 foreign issued patents in Europe and Canada, four U.S. pending patent applications and 15 foreign pending patent applications in Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, and Japan covering the composition of and methods of using R-ketamine (PCN-101) for the treatment of depressive symptoms in mental disorders, neurological disorders and substance abuse. Perception Neuroscience also in-licenses one U.S. pending patent application and one foreign issued patent in Australia and seven foreign pending patent applications in Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Israel and Japan covering the composition of matter of S-Norketamine for the treatment of depressive symptoms. Perception Neuroscience also owns one issued U.S. patent, one U.S. pending patent application and seven foreign pending patent applications in Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan and Mexico covering the method of using R-ketamine (PCN-101) for the treatment of depressive symptoms in mental disorders and substance abuse, as well as two pending PCT application directed to R-Ketamine salts and pharmaceutical compositions and one U.S. provisional patent application directed to methods of administering R-Ketamine. Perception Neuroscience’s owned and in-licensed issued patents and any patents issuing from the owned or in-licensed pending patent applications, if granted, are expected to expire between 2034 and 2043, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity.

Recognify (RL-007)

Recognify in-licenses ten issued U.S. patents and 39 foreign issued patents in Europe, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Israel, South Africa, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Russia, covering RL-007, including the pharmaceutical

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composition of and methods of using RL-007. The patents licensed to Recognify are expected to expire between 2026 and 2034, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity.

DemeRx IB (DMX-1002)

DemeRx IB owns five issued U.S. patents and two foreign issued patents in Europe and Australia, four U.S. pending patent applications, and four foreign pending patent applications in Australia, Europe, Hong Kong and Canada covering methods of treatment using ibogaine (DMX-1002). DemeRx IB’s issued patents and any patents issuing from the pending applications, if granted, are expected to expire in 2035, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity. Atai Life Sciences AG owns one pending U.S. patent application and one pending PCT patent application, covering methods of improving the therapeutic effectiveness and safety profile of ibogaine. Any patents issuing from these pending patent applications, if granted, are expected to expire in 2042, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity.

GABA Therapeutics (GRX-917)

GABA Therapeutics owns two issued U.S. patents, one U.S. pending patent application, eleven issued foreign patents in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Mexico, Israel, Japan, Republic of Korea and Mexico and three foreign pending patent applications in India and Japan, covering the pharmaceutical composition and corresponding methods of use of the deuterated analogs of etifoxine (GRX-917). GABA Therapeutics owns one U.S. provisional patent application, covering methods of administering GRX-917. GABA Therapeutics’ issued patents and any patents issuing from the pending patent applications, if granted, are expected to expire between 2036 and 2044, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity.

Viridia Life Sciences (VLS-01)

Atai Life Sciences AG owns one issued U.S. patent, three U.S. pending patent applications and two PCT patent applications, covering (i) DMT compositions exhibiting unique PK profiles following administration and (ii) new DMT salts and polymorphic forms, including DMT succinate (VLS-01). Any patents issuing from these pending patent applications, if granted, are expected to expire in 2042, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity. Atai Life Sciences AG owns four U.S. pending patent applications, three PCT patent applications and two U.S. provisional patent applications, covering novel analogues, products and conjugates of dimethyltryptamine, methods and pharmaceutical compositions thereof. Any patents issuing from these pending patent applications, if granted, are expected to expire between 2042 and 2043, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity. Atai Life Sciences AG owns one U.S. provisional patent application, covering polymorphic forms of DMT. Any patents issuing from this pending patent application, if granted, are expected to expire in 2043, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity.

EmpathBio (EMP-01)

Atai Life Sciences AG owns six U.S. pending patent applications, five PCT patent applications and two U.S. provisional patent applications, covering MDMA enantiomers and processes for the preparation of MDMA, its enantiomers and derivatives thereof. Any patents issuing from these pending patent applications, if granted, are expected to expire between 2042 and 2044, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity. Atai Life Sciences AG owns one U.S. provisional patent application, covering salts of R-MDMA and polymorphic forms. Any patents issuing from this pending patent application, if granted, are expected to expire in 2043, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity. Atai Life Sciences AG owns three U.S. provisional patent applications, covering salts of R-MDMA, the synthesis of R-MDMA and S-MDMA, and uses of MDMA for treating stress related disorders. Any patents issuing from these pending patent applications, if granted, are expected to expire in 2043, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity.

Patents

Individual patents have terms for varying periods depending on the date of filing of the patent application or the date of patent issuance and the legal term of patents in the countries in which they are obtained. Generally, utility patents issued for applications filed in the United States are granted a term of 20 years from the earliest effective filing date of a non-provisional patent application. The duration of foreign patents varies in accordance with provisions of applicable local law, but typically is also 20 years from the earliest effective filing date. With regard to our U.S. provisional patent applications, if we do not file any corresponding non-provisional patent applications within 12 months of the provisional patent application filing date, we may lose our priority date with respect to our provisional patent applications and any patent protection on the inventions disclosed in our provisional patent applications. All taxes, annuities or maintenance fees for a patent, as required by the USPTO and certain foreign jurisdictions, must be timely paid in order for the patent to remain in force during this period of time.

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The actual protection afforded by a patent may vary on a product by product basis, from country to country and can depend upon many factors, including the type of patent, the scope of its coverage, the availability of regulatory-related extensions and the availability of legal remedies in a particular country and the validity and enforceability of the patent. Our patents and patent applications may be subject to procedural or legal challenges by others. We may be unable to obtain, maintain and protect the intellectual property rights necessary to conduct our business, and we may be subject to claims that we infringe or otherwise violate the intellectual property rights of others, which could materially harm our business. For more information, see the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property.”

Trade Secrets and Proprietary Information

In addition to patents, we rely upon unpatented trade secrets and know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. However, trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect. We seek to protect our proprietary information, in part, by executing confidentiality agreements with our collaborators and scientific advisors, and non-competition, non-solicitation, confidentiality, and invention assignment agreements with our employees, consultants, and independent contractors. We have also executed agreements requiring assignment of inventions with selected scientific advisors and collaborators. The confidentiality agreements we enter into are designed to protect our proprietary information, and the agreements or clauses requiring assignment of inventions to us are designed to grant us ownership of technologies that are developed through our relationship with the respective counterparty. We cannot guarantee, however, that we have executed such agreements with all applicable counterparties, such agreements will not be breached, or that these agreements will afford us adequate protection of our intellectual property and proprietary rights. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to our Intellectual Property.”

Government Regulation and Product Approval

The FDA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, CMS, DEA, and comparable regulatory authorities in state and local jurisdictions and in other countries impose substantial and burdensome requirements upon companies involved in the clinical development, manufacture, marketing and distribution of drugs such as those we are developing. These agencies and other federal, state, local and foreign entities regulate, among other things, the research and development, testing, manufacture, quality control, safety, effectiveness, labeling, storage, record keeping, approval, advertising and promotion, distribution, post-approval monitoring and reporting, sampling and export and import of our product candidates. Any drug candidates that we develop must be approved by the FDA before they may be legally marketed in the United States and by the appropriate foreign regulatory agency before they may be legally marketed in those foreign countries. Generally, our activities in other countries will be subject to regulation that is similar in nature and scope as that imposed in the United States, although there can be important differences. Additionally, some significant aspects of regulation in the European Union (“EU”), are addressed in a centralized way, but country-specific regulation remains essential in many respects.

Certain of our product candidates may be subject to regulation as combination drug-device products, which means that they are composed of both a drug product and device product. If marketed individually, each component would be subject to different regulatory pathways and reviewed by different Centers within the FDA. A combination product, however, is assigned to a Center that will have primary jurisdiction over its regulation based on a determination of the combination product’s primary mode of action, which is the single mode of action that provides the most important therapeutic action. In the case of our product candidates, we believe the primary mode of action is attributable to the drug component of the product, which means that the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research would have primary jurisdiction over the premarket development, review and approval of our product candidates regulated as combination drug/devices. We do not anticipate that the FDA will require a separate medical device authorization for the device, but this could change during the course of its review of any marketing application that we may submit.

U.S. Drug Development Process

In the United States, the FDA regulates drugs under the FDCA and its implementing regulations. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and the subsequent compliance with appropriate federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.

The process required by the FDA before a drug may be marketed in the United States generally involves the following:

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Prior to beginning the first clinical trial with a product candidate in the United States, we must submit an IND to the FDA. The central focus of an IND submission is on the non-clinical studies supporting the safe conduct of proposed clinical studies, the general investigational plan and the protocol(s) for clinical studies. Some non-clinical testing may continue even after the IND is submitted. The IND also includes results of animal and in vitro studies assessing the toxicology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, and pharmacodynamic characteristics of the product; chemistry, manufacturing, and controls information; and any available human data or literature to support the use of the investigational product. An IND must become effective before human clinical trials may begin. The IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless the FDA, within the 30-day time period, raises safety concerns or questions about the proposed clinical trial. In such a case, the IND may be placed on clinical hold and the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns or questions before the clinical trial can begin. Submission of an IND therefore may or may not result in FDA allowance to begin a clinical trial.

Clinical trials involve the administration of the investigational product to human subjects under the supervision of qualified investigators in accordance with GCP requirements, which include the requirement that all research subjects provide their informed consent for their participation in any clinical study. Clinical trials are conducted under protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the study, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. A separate submission to the existing IND must be made for each successive clinical trial conducted during product development and for any subsequent protocol amendments. While the IND is active, progress reports summarizing the results of the clinical trials and nonclinical studies performed since the last progress report must be submitted at least annually to the FDA, and written IND safety reports must be submitted to the FDA and investigators for serious and unexpected suspected adverse events, findings from other studies suggesting a significant risk to humans exposed to the same or similar drugs, findings from animal or in vitro testing suggesting a significant risk to humans, and any clinically important increased incidence of a serious suspected adverse reaction compared to that listed in the protocol or investigator brochure.

Furthermore, an independent IRB for each site proposing to conduct the clinical trial must review and approve the plan for any clinical trial and its informed consent form before the clinical trial begins at that site and must monitor the study until completed. An IRB is charged with protecting the welfare and rights of trial participants and considers such items as whether the risks to individuals participating in the clinical trials are minimized and are reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits. The IRB also approves the informed consent form that must be provided to each clinical trial subject or his or her legal representative and must monitor the clinical trial until completed. Regulatory authorities, the IRB or the sponsor may suspend a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the subjects are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk or that the trial is unlikely to meet its stated objectives. Some studies also include oversight by an independent group of qualified experts organized by the clinical study sponsor, known as a data safety monitoring board, which provides authorization for whether or not a study may move forward at designated check points based on access to certain data from the study and may halt the clinical trial if it determines that there is an unacceptable safety risk for subjects or other grounds, such as no demonstration of efficacy. There are also requirements governing the reporting of ongoing clinical studies and clinical study results to public registries.

Human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases that may overlap or be combined:

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Post-approval trials, sometimes referred to as Phase 4 studies, may be conducted after initial marketing approval. These trials are used to gain additional experience from the treatment of patients in the intended therapeutic indication. In certain instances, such as with accelerated approval drugs, FDA may mandate the performance of Phase 4 trials. In certain instances, the FDA may mandate the performance of Phase 4 clinical trials as a condition of approval of an NDA.

During the development of a new drug, sponsors are given opportunities to meet with the FDA at certain points. These points may be prior to submission of an IND, at the end of Phase 2, and before an NDA is submitted. Meetings at other times may be requested. These meetings can provide an opportunity for the sponsor to share information about the data gathered to date, for the FDA to provide advice, and for the sponsor and the FDA to reach alignment on the next phase of development. Sponsors typically use the meetings at the end of the Phase 2 trial to discuss Phase 2 clinical results and present plans for the pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials that they believe will support approval of the new drug.

Concurrent with clinical trials, companies usually complete additional animal studies and must also develop additional information about the chemistry and physical characteristics of the drug and finalize a process for manufacturing the product in commercial quantities in accordance with cGMP requirements. The manufacturing process must be capable of consistently producing quality batches of the product candidate and, among other things, the manufacturer must develop methods for testing the identity, strength, quality and purity of the final drug. In addition, appropriate packaging must be selected and tested, and stability studies must be conducted to demonstrate that the product candidate does not undergo unacceptable deterioration over its shelf life.

U.S. Review and Approval Process

Assuming successful completion of all required testing in accordance with all applicable regulatory requirements, the results of product development, non-clinical studies and clinical trials, along with descriptions of the manufacturing process, analytical tests conducted on the chemistry of the drug, proposed labeling and other relevant information are submitted to the FDA as part of an NDA requesting approval to market the product. Data may come from company-sponsored clinical trials intended to test the safety and effectiveness of a use of a product, or from a number of alternative sources, including studies initiated by investigators. To support marketing approval, the data submitted must be sufficient in quality and quantity to establish the safety and effectiveness of the investigational drug product to the satisfaction of the FDA. The submission of an NDA is subject to the payment of substantial user fees; a waiver of such fees may be obtained under certain limited circumstances. Additionally, no user fees are assessed on NDAs for products designated as orphan drugs, unless the product also includes a non-orphan indication.

The FDA conducts a preliminary review of all NDAs within the first 60 days after submission, before accepting them for filing, to determine whether they are sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. The FDA may request additional information rather than accept an NDA for filing. In this event, the NDA must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application also is subject to review before the FDA accepts it for filing. Once an NDA has been accepted for filing, the FDA reviews an NDA to determine, among other things, whether a product is safe and effective for its intended use and whether its manufacturing is cGMP-compliant to assure and preserve the product’s identity, strength, quality and purity. Under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, or PDUFA, guidelines that are currently in effect, the FDA has a goal of ten months from the date of “filing” of a standard NDA for a new molecular entity to review and act on the submission. This review typically takes twelve months from the date the NDA is submitted to FDA because the FDA has approximately two months to make a “filing” decision after it the application is submitted.

The FDA may refer an NDA to an advisory committee for review before deciding on the application. An advisory committee is a panel of independent experts, including clinicians and other scientific experts, that reviews, evaluates and provides a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and under what conditions. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions.

Before approving an NDA, the FDA will typically inspect the facility or facilities where the product is manufactured. The FDA will not approve an application unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in compliance with cGMP and adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. Additionally, before approving an NDA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure compliance with GCP requirements.

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After the FDA evaluates an NDA and conducts any required inspections of the manufacturing facilities where the product candidate and/or its drug substance will be produced, the FDA will issue an approval letter or a Complete Response Letter. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the drug with prescribing information for specific indications. A Complete Response Letter indicates that the review cycle of the application is complete, and the application will not be approved in its present form. A Complete Response Letter usually describes the specific deficiencies in the NDA identified by the FDA and may require additional clinical data, such as an additional pivotal Phase 3 trial or other significant and time-consuming requirements related to clinical trials, nonclinical studies or manufacturing. If a Complete Response Letter is issued, the sponsor must resubmit the NDA, addressing all of the deficiencies identified in the letter, or withdraw the application. Even if such data and information are submitted, the FDA may ultimately decide that the NDA does not satisfy the criteria for approval.

If regulatory approval of a product is granted, such approval will be granted for particular indications and may contain limitations on the indicated uses for which such product may be marketed. For example, the FDA may approve the NDA with a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, to ensure the product is distributed and used in a manner such that benefits of the product outweigh its risks. A REMS is a safety strategy to manage a known or potential serious risk associated with a medicine and to enable patients to have continued access to such medicines by managing their safe use, and could include medication guides, physician communication plans, or elements to assure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries, and other risk minimization tools. The FDA also may condition approval on, among other things, changes to proposed labeling or the development of adequate controls and specifications. Once approved, the FDA may withdraw the product approval if compliance with pre- and post-marketing requirements is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the marketplace. The FDA may also require one or more Phase 4 post-market studies and surveillance to further assess and monitor the product’s safety and effectiveness after commercialization, and may withdraw or limit further marketing of the product based on the results of these post-marketing studies.

Expedited Development and Review Programs

The FDA has a number of programs intended to expedite the development or review of product candidates that meet certain criteria. For example, drugs are eligible for fast track designation if they are intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for the disease or condition. Fast track designation applies to the combination of the product and the specific indication for which it is being studied. The sponsor of a fast track-designated product candidate has opportunities for more frequent interactions with the review team during product development, and the FDA may consider for review sections of the NDA on a rolling basis before the complete application is submitted, if the sponsor provides a schedule for the submission of the sections of the NDA, the FDA agrees to accept sections of the NDA and determines that the schedule is acceptable, and the sponsor pays any required user fees upon submission of the first section of the NDA.

The FDA may also designate a product candidate as a “breakthrough therapy” if the product candidate is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs or biologics, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition where preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product candidate may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. The designation includes all of the fast track designation features, as well as more intensive FDA interaction and guidance.

Any product candidate submitted to the FDA for approval, including a product candidate with a fast track or breakthrough therapy designation, may also be eligible for other types of FDA programs intended to expedite development and review, such as priority review and accelerated approval. An NDA is eligible for priority review if the product candidate is designed to treat a serious condition, and if approved, would provide significant improvement in safety or efficacy compared to marketed products. The FDA will attempt to direct additional resources to the evaluation of an application for a new drug designated for priority review in an effort to facilitate the review. The FDA endeavors to review applications with priority review designations within six months of the filing date as compared to ten months for standard review of new molecular entity NDAs under its current PDUFA review goals.

In addition, a product candidate may be eligible for accelerated approval. Drug products intended to treat serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions may be eligible for accelerated approval upon a determination that the product candidate has an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit, or on a clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than irreversible morbidity or mortality, that is reasonably likely to predict an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit, taking into account the severity, rarity, or prevalence of the condition and the availability or lack of alternative treatments. As a condition of approval, the FDA generally requires that a sponsor of a drug receiving accelerated approval perform adequate and well-controlled confirmatory clinical trials to verify and describe the clinical benefit predicted by the surrogate or intermediate endpoint. Drugs receiving accelerated approval may be subject to expedited withdrawal procedures if the sponsor fails to conduct the required confirmatory trials or if such trials fail to verify the predicted clinical benefit. In addition, the FDA currently requires pre-approval of promotional materials as a condition for accelerated approval, which could adversely impact the timing of the commercial launch of the product.

Fast track designation, breakthrough therapy designation, priority review, and accelerated approval do not change the standards for approval, but may expedite the development or approval process. Even if a product qualifies for one or more of these programs, the FDA

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may later decide that the product no longer meets the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened. We may explore some of these opportunities for our product candidates as appropriate.

Orphan drug designation

Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan designation to a drug intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States or, if it affects more than 200,000 individuals in the United States, there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making a drug product available in the United States for this type of disease or condition will be recovered from sales of the product. Orphan designation must be requested before submitting an NDA. After the FDA grants orphan designation, the identity of the therapeutic agent and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan designation does not convey any advantage in or shorten the duration of the regulatory review and approval process.

If a product that has orphan designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for the disease or condition for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to orphan product exclusivity, which means that the FDA may not approve any other applications to market the same drug for the same disease or condition for seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan exclusivity or inability to manufacture the product in sufficient quantities. The designation of such drug also entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical trial costs, tax advantages and user-fee waivers. However, competitors, may receive approval of different products for the indication for which the orphan product has exclusivity or obtain approval for the same product but for a different indication for which the orphan product has exclusivity. Orphan exclusivity also could block the approval of a competing product for seven years if a competitor obtains approval of the “same drug,” as defined by the FDA, or if a product candidate is determined to be contained within the competitor’s product for the same disease or condition. In addition, if an orphan designated product receives marketing approval for an indication broader than what is designated, it may not be entitled to orphan exclusivity.

Post-approval Requirements

Any products manufactured or distributed pursuant to FDA approvals are subject to extensive continuing regulation by the FDA, including, among other things, requirements relating to record-keeping, reporting of adverse experiences, periodic reporting, product sampling and distribution, and advertising and promotion of the product. After approval, most changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications or other labeling claims, are subject to prior FDA review and approval. There also are continuing, annual program fees for any marketed products. Drug manufacturers and their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies, and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and certain state agencies for compliance with cGMP, which impose certain procedural and documentation requirements upon us and our third-party manufacturers. Changes to the manufacturing process are strictly regulated, and, depending on the significance of the change, may require prior FDA approval before being implemented. FDA regulations also require investigation and correction of any deviations from cGMP and impose reporting requirements upon us and any third-party manufacturers that we may decide to use.

The FDA may withdraw approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information; imposition of post-market studies or clinical studies to assess new safety risks; or imposition of distribution restrictions or other restrictions under a REMS program. Other potential consequences include, among other things:

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The FDA closely regulates the marketing, labeling, advertising and promotion of drug products. A company can make only those claims relating to safety and efficacy that are approved by the FDA and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses. Failure to comply with these requirements can result in, among other things, adverse publicity, warning letters, corrective advertising and potential civil and criminal penalties. Physicians may prescribe, in their independent professional medical judgment, legally available products for uses that are not described in the product’s labeling and that differ from those tested by us and approved by the FDA. Physicians may believe that such off-label uses are the best treatment for many patients in varied circumstances. The FDA does not regulate the behavior of physicians in their choice of treatments. The FDA does, however, restrict manufacturer’s communications on the subject of off-label use of their products. The federal government has levied large civil and criminal fines against companies for alleged improper promotion of off-label use and has enjoined companies from engaging in off-label promotion. The FDA and other regulatory agencies have also required that companies enter into consent decrees or permanent injunctions under which specified promotional conduct is changed or curtailed. However, companies may share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with a product’s FDA-approved labeling.

In addition, the distribution of prescription pharmaceutical products is subject to the Prescription Drug Marketing Act, or PDMA, which regulates the distribution of drugs and drug samples at the federal level, and sets minimum standards for the registration and regulation of drug distributors by the states. Both the PDMA and state laws limit the distribution of prescription pharmaceutical product samples and impose requirements to ensure accountability in distribution.

Marketing Exclusivity

Market exclusivity provisions authorized under the FDCA can delay the submission or the approval of certain marketing applications. The FDCA provides a five-year period of non-patent data exclusivity within the United States to the first applicant to obtain approval of an NDA for a new chemical entity. A drug is a new chemical entity if the FDA has not previously approved any other new drug containing the same active moiety, which is the molecule or ion responsible for the action of the drug substance. During the exclusivity period, the FDA may not accept for review an ANDA or an NDA submitted under Section 505(b)(2), or 505(b)(2) NDA, submitted by another company for another drug based on the same active moiety, regardless of whether the drug is intended for the same indication as the original innovative drug or for another indication, where the applicant does not own or have a legal right of reference to all the data required for approval. However, an application may be submitted after four years if it contains a certification of patent invalidity or non-infringement to one of the patents listed with the FDA by the innovator NDA holder.

The FDCA alternatively provides three years of marketing exclusivity for an NDA, or supplement to an existing NDA if new clinical investigations, other than bioavailability studies, that were conducted or sponsored by the applicant are deemed by the FDA to be essential to the approval of the application, for example new indications, dosages or strengths of an existing drug. This three-year exclusivity covers only the modification for which the drug received approval on the basis of the new clinical investigations and does not prohibit the FDA from approving ANDAs or 505(b)(2) NDAs for drugs containing the active agent for the original indication or condition of use. Five-year and three-year exclusivity will not delay the submission or approval of a full NDA. However, an applicant submitting a full NDA would be required to conduct or obtain a right of reference to any preclinical studies and adequate and well-controlled clinical trials necessary to demonstrate safety and effectiveness.

DEA Regulation

The CSA establishes registration, security, recordkeeping, reporting, storage, distribution and other requirements administered by the DEA. The DEA is concerned with the control and handling and distribution of controlled substances, and with the equipment and raw materials used in their manufacture and packaging, in order to prevent loss and diversion into illicit channels of commerce.

The DEA regulates controlled substances as Schedule I, II, III, IV or V substances. Schedule I substances by definition have no established medicinal use, and may not be marketed or sold in the United States. They may be distributed for research uses under strict controls and approval by the DEA. A pharmaceutical product may be listed as Schedule II, III, IV or V, with Schedule II substances considered to present the highest risk of abuse and Schedule V substances the lowest relative risk of abuse among such substances.

Annual registration is required for any facility that manufactures, distributes, dispenses, imports or exports any controlled substance. The registration is specific to the particular location, activity and controlled substance schedule. For example, separate registrations are needed for import and manufacturing, and each registration will specify which schedules of controlled substances are authorized.

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The DEA typically inspects a facility to review its security measures prior to issuing a registration. Security requirements vary by controlled substance schedule, with the most stringent requirements applying to Schedule I and Schedule II substances. Required security measures include background checks on employees and physical control of inventory through measures such as security cages, surveillance cameras and inventory reconciliations. Records must be maintained for the handling of all controlled substances, and periodic reports made to the DEA, for example distribution reports for Schedule I and II controlled substances, Schedule III substances that are narcotics, and other designated substances. Reports must also be made for thefts or losses of any controlled substance, and to obtain authorization to destroy any controlled substance. In addition, special authorization and notification requirements apply to imports and exports.

In addition, a DEA quota system controls and limits the availability and production of controlled substances in Schedule I or II. Distributions of any Schedule I or II controlled substance must also be accompanied by special order forms, with copies provided to the DEA. The DEA may adjust aggregate production quotas and individual production and procurement quotas from time to time during the year, although the DEA has substantial discretion in whether or not to make such adjustments. To meet its responsibilities, the DEA conducts periodic inspections of registered establishments that handle controlled substances. Individual states also regulate controlled substances.

Foreign Government Regulation

Our product candidates are subject to similar laws and regulations imposed by jurisdictions outside of the United States, and, in particular, the EU, governing, among other things, clinical trials, marketing authorization, applicable post-marketing requirements, including safety surveillance, anti-fraud and abuse laws and implementation of corporate compliance programs and reporting of payments or other transfers of value to healthcare professionals.

Whether or not we obtain FDA approval for a product candidate, we must obtain the requisite approvals from regulatory authorities in foreign countries prior to the commencement of clinical trials or marketing of the product candidates in those countries. The requirements and process governing the conduct of clinical trials, product licensing, pricing and reimbursement vary from country to country. Failure to comply with applicable foreign regulatory requirements, may be subject to, among other things, fines, suspension or withdrawal of regulatory approvals, product recalls, seizure of products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecution.

Non-clinical studies and clinical trials

Similarly to the United States, the various phases of nonclinical and clinical research in the EU are subject to significant regulatory controls.

Non-clinical studies are performed to demonstrate the health or environmental safety of new chemical or biological substances. Non-clinical (pharmaco-toxicological) studies must be conducted in compliance with the principles of good laboratory practice, or GLP, as set forth in EU Directive 2004/10/EC (unless otherwise justified for certain particular medicinal products – e.g., radio-pharmaceutical precursors for radio-labelling purposes). In particular, nonclinical studies, both in vitro and in vivo, must be planned, performed, monitored, recorded, reported and archived in accordance with the GLP principles, which define a set of rules and criteria for a quality system for the organizational process and the conditions for non-clinical studies. These GLP standards reflect the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development requirements.

Clinical trials of medicinal products in the EU must be conducted in accordance with EU and national regulations and the International Conference on Harmonization, or ICH, guidelines on Good Clinical Practices, or GCP, as well as the applicable regulatory requirements and the ethical principles that have their origin in the Declaration of Helsinki. If the sponsor of the clinical trial is not established within the EU, it must appoint an EU entity to act as its legal representative. The sponsor must take out a clinical trial insurance policy, and in most EU member states, the sponsor is liable to provide ‘no fault’ compensation to any study subject injured in the clinical trial.

The regulatory landscape related to clinical trials in the EU has been subject to recent changes. The EU Clinical Trials Regulation, or CTR, which was adopted in April 2014 and repeals the EU Clinical Trials Directive, became applicable on January 31, 2022. Unlike directives, the CTR is directly applicable in all EU member states without the need for member states to further implement it into national law. The CTR notably harmonizes the assessment and supervision processes for clinical trials throughout the EU via a Clinical Trials Information System (“CTIS”), which contains a centralized EU portal and database.

While the Clinical Trials Directive required a separate clinical trial application, or CTA, to be submitted in each member state in which the clinical trial takes place, to both the competent national health authority and an independent ethics committee, much like the FDA and IRB respectively, the CTR introduces a centralized process and only requires the submission of a single application for multi-center trials. The CTR allows sponsors to make a single submission to both the competent authority and an ethics committee in each member state, leading to a single decision per member state. The CTA must include, among other things, a copy of the trial protocol, and an investigational medicinal product dossier containing information about the manufacture and quality of the medicinal product under investigation. The assessment procedure of the CTA has been harmonized as well, including a joint assessment by all member states concerned, and a separate

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assessment by each member state with respect to specific requirements related to its own territory, including ethics rules. Each member state’s decision is communicated to the sponsor via the centralized EU portal. Once the CTA is approved, clinical study development may proceed.

The CTR foresees a three-year transition period. The extent to which ongoing and new clinical trials will be governed by the CTR varies. Clinical trials for which an application was submitted (i) prior to January 31, 2022 under the Clinical Trials Directive, or (ii) between January 31, 2022 and January 31, 2023 and for which the sponsor has opted for the application of the EU Clinical Trials Directive remain governed by said Directive until January 31, 2025. After this date, all clinical trials (including those which are ongoing) will become subject to the provisions of the CTR.

Medicines used in clinical trials must be manufactured in accordance with Good Manufacturing Practice, or GMP. Other national and EU-wide regulatory requirements may also apply.

Marketing Authorization

In order to market our future product candidates in the EU and many other foreign jurisdictions, we must obtain separate regulatory approvals. More concretely, in the EU, medicinal product candidates can only be commercialized after obtaining a marketing authorization, or MA. To obtain regulatory approval of a product candidate under EU regulatory systems, we must submit a MA application, or MAA. The process for doing this depends, among other things, on the nature of the medicinal product. There are two types of MAs:

Under the above described procedures, before granting the MA, the competent authorities make an assessment of the risk-benefit balance of the product on the basis of scientific criteria concerning its quality, safety and efficacy. MAs have an initial duration of five years. After these five years, the authorization may be renewed on the basis of a reevaluation of the risk-benefit balance.

Under the centralized procedure the maximum timeframe for the evaluation of a MAA by the EMA is 210 days, excluding clock stops. In exceptional cases, the CHMP might perform an accelerated review of a MAA in no more than 150 days (not including clock stops). Innovative products that target an unmet medical need and are expected to be of major public health interest may be eligible for a number of expedited development and review programs, such as the Priority Medicines, or PRIME, scheme, which provides incentives similar to the breakthrough therapy designation in the U.S. In March 2016, the EMA launched an initiative, the PRIME scheme, a voluntary scheme aimed at enhancing the EMA’s support for the development of medicines that target unmet medical needs. It is based on increased interaction and early dialogue with companies developing promising medicines, to optimize their product development plans and speed up their evaluation to help them reach patients earlier. Product developers that benefit from PRIME designation can expect to be eligible for accelerated assessment but this is not guaranteed. Many benefits accrue to sponsors of product candidates with PRIME designation, including but not limited to, early and proactive regulatory dialogue with the EMA, frequent discussions on clinical trial designs and other development program elements, and accelerated MAA assessment once a dossier has been submitted. Importantly, a dedicated contact and rapporteur from the CHMP is appointed early in the PRIME scheme facilitating increased understanding of the product at EMA’s committee level. An initial meeting initiates these relationships and includes a team of multidisciplinary experts at the EMA to provide guidance on the overall development and regulatory strategies.

Moreover, in the EU, a “conditional” MA may be granted in cases where all the required safety and efficacy data are not yet available. The conditional MA is subject to conditions to be fulfilled for generating the missing data or ensuring increased safety measures. It is valid for

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one year and has to be renewed annually until fulfillment of all the conditions. Once the pending studies are provided, it can become a “standard” MA. However, if the conditions are not fulfilled within the timeframe set by the EMA, the MA ceases to be renewed. Furthermore, MA may also be granted “under exceptional circumstances” when the applicant can show that it is unable to provide comprehensive data on the efficacy and safety under normal conditions of use even after the product has been authorized and subject to specific procedures being introduced. This may arise in particular when the intended indications are very rare and, in the present state of scientific knowledge, it is not possible to provide comprehensive information, or when generating data may be contrary to generally accepted ethical principles. This MA is close to the conditional MA as it is reserved to medicinal products to be approved for severe diseases or unmet medical needs and the applicant does not hold the complete data set legally required for the grant of a MA. However, unlike the conditional MA, the applicant does not have to provide the missing data and will never have to. Although the MA “under exceptional circumstances” is granted definitively, the risk-benefit balance of the medicinal product is reviewed annually and the MA is withdrawn in case the risk-benefit ratio is no longer favorable.

Data and marketing exclusivity

In the EU, new product candidates authorized for marketing, or reference products generally receive eight years of data exclusivity and an additional two years of market exclusivity upon MA. If granted, the data exclusivity period prevents generic or biosimilar applicants from relying on the preclinical and clinical trial data contained in the dossier of the reference product when applying for a generic or biosimilar MA in the EU during a period of eight years from the date on which the reference product was first authorized in the EU. The market exclusivity period prevents a successful generic or biosimilar applicant from commercializing its product in the EU until ten years have elapsed from the initial authorization of the reference product in the EU. The overall ten-year market exclusivity period can be extended to a maximum of eleven years if, during the first eight years of those ten years, the MA holder obtains an authorization for one or more new therapeutic indications which, during the scientific evaluation prior to their authorization, are held to bring a significant clinical benefit in comparison with existing therapies. However, there is no guarantee that a product will be considered by the EU’s regulatory authorities to be a new chemical entity, and products may not qualify for data exclusivity.

Orphan medicinal products

The criteria for designating an “orphan medicinal product” in the EU are similar in principle to those in the United States. In the EU a medicinal product can be designated as an orphan if its sponsor can establish that: (1) the product is intended for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of a life-threatening or chronically debilitating; (2) either (a) condition such condition affects no more than five in 10,000 persons in the EU when the application is made, or (b) the product, without the benefits derived from orphan status, would not generate sufficient return in the EU to justify investment; and (3) there exists no satisfactory method of diagnosis, prevention or treatment of the condition in question that has been authorized for marketing in the EU or, if such method exists, the product will be of significant benefit to those affected by that condition.

Orphan designation must be requested before submitting an MAA. An EU orphan designation entitles a party to incentives such as reduction of fees or fee waivers, protocol assistance and access to the centralized procedure. Upon grant of a MA, orphan medicinal products are entitled to ten years of market exclusivity for the approved indication which means that the competent authorities cannot accept another MAA or grant a MA, or accept an application to extend a MA for a similar medicinal product for the same indication for a period of ten years. The period of market exclusivity is extended by two years for orphan medicinal products that have also complied with an agreed pediatric investigation plan, or PIP. No extension to any supplementary protection certificate can be granted on the basis of pediatric studies for orphan indications. Orphan designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process.

The orphan exclusivity may be reduced to six years if, at the end of the fifth year, it is established that the product no longer meets the criteria for which it received orphan designation, including where the prevalence of the condition has increased above the threshold or it is shown that the product is sufficiently profitable not to justify maintenance of market exclusivity. Additionally, MA may be granted to a similar product for the same indication at any time if (1) the second applicant can establish that its product, although similar, is safer, more effective or otherwise clinically superior; (2) the applicant consents to a second orphan medicinal product application; or (3) the applicant cannot supply enough orphan medicinal product. A company may voluntarily remove a product from the orphan register.

Controlled Substances

Controlled substances are not regulated at EU level and the EU legislation does not establish different classes of narcotic or psychotropic substances. However, the United Nations, or UN, Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 and the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, or the UN Conventions, codify internationally applicable control measures to ensure the availability of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes. The individual EU member states are all signatories to these UN Conventions. All signatories have a dual obligation to ensure that these substances are available for medical purposes and to protect populations against abuse and dependence.

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The UN Conventions regulate narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances as Schedule I, II, III, IV substances with Schedule II substances presenting the lowest relative risk of abuse among such substances and Schedule I and IV substances considered to present the highest risk of abuse.

The UN Conventions require signatories to require all persons manufacturing, trading (including exporting and importing) or distributing controlled substances to obtain a license from the relevant authority. Each individual export or import of a controlled substance must also be subject to an authorization. Before the relevant authority can issue an export authorization for a particular shipment, the exporter must provide the authority with a copy of the import authorization issued by the relevant authority of the importing country. Implementation of the obligations provided in the UN Conventions and additional requirements are regulated at national level and requirements may vary from one member state to another.

Post-Approval Requirements

Similar to the United States, both MA holders and manufacturers of medicinal products are subject to comprehensive regulatory oversight by the EMA, the European Commission and/or the competent regulatory authorities of the member states. The holder of a MA must establish and maintain a pharmacovigilance system and appoint an individual qualified person for pharmacovigilance (“QPPV”) who is responsible for the establishment and maintenance of that system, and oversees the safety profiles of medicinal products and any emerging safety concerns. Key obligations include expedited reporting of suspected serious adverse reactions and submission of periodic safety update reports, or PSURs.

All new MAA must include a risk management plan, or RMP, describing the risk management system that the company will put in place and documenting measures to prevent or minimize the risks associated with the product. The regulatory authorities may also impose specific obligations as a condition of the MA. Such risk-minimization measures or post-authorization obligations may include additional safety monitoring, more frequent submission of PSURs, or the conduct of additional clinical trials or post-authorization safety studies.

The advertising and promotion of medicinal products is also subject to laws concerning promotion of medicinal products, interactions with physicians, misleading and comparative advertising and unfair commercial practices. All advertising and promotional activities for the product must be consistent with the approved summary of product characteristics, and therefore all off-label promotion is prohibited. Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines is also prohibited in the EU. Although general requirements for advertising and promotion of medicinal products are established under EU directives, the details are governed by regulations in each member state and can differ from one country to another.

The aforementioned EU rules are generally applicable in the European Economic Area, or EEA, which consists of the 27 EU member states plus Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland.

Failure by us or by any of our third-party partners, including suppliers, manufacturers and distributors to comply with EU and member state laws that apply to the conduct of clinical trials, manufacturing approval, MA of medicinal products and marketing of such products, both before and after grant of the MA, manufacturing of medicinal products, statutory health insurance, bribery and anti-corruption or with other applicable regulatory requirements may result in administrative, civil or criminal penalties. These penalties could include delays or refusal to authorize the conduct of clinical trials or to grant MA, product withdrawals and recalls, product seizures, suspension, withdrawal or variation of the MA, total or partial suspension of production, distribution, manufacturing or clinical trials, operating restrictions, injunctions, suspension of licenses, fines and criminal penalties.

Regulation of combination products in the EU

The EU regulates medical devices and medicinal products separately, through different legislative instruments, and the applicable requirements will vary depending on the type of drug-device combination product. EU guidance has been published to help manufacturers select the right regulatory framework.

Drug-delivery products intended to administer a medicinal product where the medicinal product and the device form a single integral product are regulated as medicinal products in the EU. The EMA is responsible for evaluating the quality, safety and efficacy of MAAs submitted through the centralized procedure, including the safety and performance of the medical device in relation to its use with the medicinal product. The EMA or the EU member state national competent authority will assess the product in accordance with the rules for medicinal products described above but the device part must comply with the Medical Devices Regulation (including the general safety and performance requirements provided in Annex I). MAA must include – where available – the results of the assessment of the conformity of the device part with the Medical Devices Regulation contained in the manufacturer’s EU declaration of conformity of the device or the relevant certificate issued by a notified body. If the MAA does not include the results of the conformity assessment and where for the conformity assessment of the device, if used separately, the involvement of a notified body is required, the competent authority must require the applicant to provide a notified body opinion on the conformity of the device.

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By contrast, in case of drug-delivery products intended to administer a medicinal product where the device and the medicinal product do not form a single integral product (but are co-packaged, for example), the medicinal product is regulated in accordance with the rules for medicinal products described above while the device part is regulated as a medical device and will have to comply with all the requirements set forth by the Medical Devices Regulation.

The characteristics of non-integral devices used for the administration of medicinal products may impact the quality, safety and efficacy profile of the medicinal products. To the extent that administration devices are co-packaged with the medicinal product or, in exceptional cases, where the use of a specific type of administration device is specifically provided for in the product information of the medicinal product, additional information may need to be provided in the MAA for the medicinal product on the characteristics of the medical device(s) that may impact on the quality, safety and/or efficacy of the medicinal product.

The requirements regarding quality documentation for medicinal products when used with a medical device, including single integral products, co-packaged and referenced products, are outlined in the EMA guideline of July 22, 2021, which became applicable as of January 1, 2022.

Other Healthcare Laws

Pharmaceutical companies are subject to additional healthcare regulation and enforcement by the federal government and by authorities in the states and foreign jurisdictions in which they conduct their business. Such laws include, without limitation, state, federal and foreign anti-kickback, fraud and abuse, false claims and transparency laws and regulations regarding drug pricing and payments or other transfers of value made to physicians and other healthcare professionals. If their operations are found to be in violation of any of such laws or any other governmental regulations that apply, they may be subject to penalties, including, without limitation, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, the curtailment or restructuring of operations, exclusion from participation in federal and state healthcare programs and/or individual imprisonment.

Coverage and Reimbursement

Sales of any product depend, in part, on the extent to which such product will be covered by third-party payors, such as federal, state, and foreign government healthcare programs, commercial insurance and managed healthcare organizations, and the level of reimbursement for such product by third-party payors. Decisions regarding the extent of coverage and amount of reimbursement to be provided are made on a plan-by-plan basis. These third-party payors are increasingly reducing reimbursements for medical products, drugs and services. For products administered under the supervision of a physician, obtaining coverage and adequate reimbursement may be particularly difficult because of the higher prices often associated with such drugs.

In addition, the U.S. government, state legislatures and foreign governments have continued implementing cost-containment programs, including price controls, restrictions on coverage and reimbursement and requirements for substitution of generic products. Adoption of price controls and cost-containment measures, and adoption of more restrictive policies in jurisdictions with existing controls and measures, could further limit sales of any product. Decreases in third-party reimbursement for any product or a decision by a third-party payor not to cover a product could reduce physician usage and patient demand for the product and also have a material adverse effect on sales.

Healthcare Reform

In March 2010, Congress enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, each as amended, collectively known as the ACA, which substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers, and significantly affected the pharmaceutical industry. The ACA contains a number of provisions, including those governing enrollment in federal healthcare programs, reimbursement adjustments and fraud and abuse changes. Additionally, the ACA increased the minimum level of Medicaid rebates payable by manufacturers of brand name drugs from 15.1% to 23.1%; required collection of rebates for drugs paid by Medicaid managed care organizations; required manufacturers to participate in a coverage gap discount program, under which they must agree to offer 70 percent point-of-sale discounts off negotiated prices of applicable brand drugs to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for the manufacturer’s outpatient drugs to be covered under Medicare Part D; and imposed a non-deductible annual fee on pharmaceutical manufacturers or importers who sell “branded prescription drugs” to specified federal government programs.

Since its enactment, there have been judicial, executive and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA. On June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the most recent judicial challenge to the ACA brought by several states without specifically ruling on the constitutionality of the ACA. Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the ACA was enacted, including aggregate reductions of Medicare payments to providers, which was temporarily suspended from May 1, 2020 through March 31, 2022, unless additional Congressional action is taken. Moreover, there has recently been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several Congressional inquiries, proposed and enacted legislation intended to bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. In March 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law, which eliminates the statutory Medicaid drug rebate cap, currently set at 100% of a drug’s average

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manufacturer price, for single source and innovator multiple source drugs, beginning January 1, 2024. In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or IRA, was signed into law. Among other things, the IRA requires manufacturers of certain drugs to engage in price negotiations with Medicare (beginning in 2026), with prices that can be negotiated subject to a cap; imposes rebates under Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D to penalize price increases that outpace inflation (first due in 2023); and replaces the Part D coverage gap discount program with a new discounting program (beginning in 2025). The IRA permits the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to implement many of these provisions through guidance, as opposed to regulation, for the initial years. For that and other reasons, it is currently unclear how the IRA will be effectuated, or the impact of the IRA on our business.

Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly active in implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing.

We expect that additional state, federal and foreign healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for our products once approved or additional pricing pressures. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability or commercialize our product candidates.

On December 13, 2021, Regulation No 2021/2282 on Health Technology Assessment, or HTA, amending Directive 2011/24/EU, was adopted. While the regulation entered into force in January 2022, it will only begin to apply from January 2025 onwards, with preparatory and implementation-related steps to take place in the interim. Once the regulation becomes applicable, it will have a phased implementation depending on the concerned products. This regulation intends to boost cooperation among EU member states in assessing health technologies, including new medicinal products as well as certain high-risk medical devices, and providing the basis for cooperation at the EU level for joint clinical assessments in these areas. The Regulation will permit EU member states to use common HTA tools, methodologies, and procedures across the EU, working together in four main areas, including joint clinical assessment of the innovative health technologies with the most potential impact for patients, joint scientific consultations.

Environmental, Health and Safety

We are also subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures, the generation, handling, use, storage, treatment, release and disposal of, and exposure to, hazardous materials and wastes and worker health and safety. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological materials, and produce hazardous waste products and the risk of injury, contamination or non-compliance with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations cannot be eliminated. Environmental, health and safety laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent, and we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with such current or future laws and regulations.

Data Privacy and Security Laws

Numerous state, federal and foreign laws, including consumer protection laws and regulations, govern the collection, dissemination, use, access to, confidentiality and security of personal information, including health-related information. In the United States, federal and state laws and regulations, including data breach notification laws, health information privacy laws, and federal and state consumer protection laws and regulations (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, or the FTC Act), that govern the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of health-related and other personal information could apply to our operations or the operations of our partners. In addition, certain foreign laws govern the privacy and security of personal data, including health-related data. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, imposes strict requirements for processing the personal data of individuals within the European Economic Area. Companies that must comply with the GDPR face increased compliance obligations and risk, including more robust regulatory enforcement of data protection requirements and potential fines for noncompliance of up to €20 million or 4% of the annual global revenues of the noncompliant company, whichever is greater. Further, from January 1, 2021, companies have had to comply with the GDPR and also the UK GDPR, which, together with the amended UK Data Protection Act 2018, retains the GDPR in UK national law. The UK GDPR mirrors the fines under the GDPR, i.e., fines up to the greater of €20 million (£17.5 million) or 4% of global turnover. The European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision in favor of the United Kingdom, enabling data transfers from EU member states to the United Kingdom without additional safeguards. However, the United Kingdom adequacy decision will automatically expire in June 2025 unless the European Commission re-assesses and renews/ extends that decision, and remains under review by the Commission during this period. In September 2021, the United Kingdom government launched a consultation on its proposals for wide-ranging reform of United Kingdom data protection laws following Brexit. There is a risk that any material changes which are made to the United Kingdom data protection regime could result in the Commission reviewing the United Kingdom adequacy decision, and the United Kingdom losing its adequacy decision if the Commission deems the United Kingdom to no longer provide adequate protection for personal data. Privacy and security laws, regulations, and other obligations are constantly evolving, may conflict with each other to complicate compliance efforts, and can result in investigations, proceedings, or actions that lead to significant civil and/or criminal penalties and restrictions on data processing. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Commercialization—Actual or perceived failure to comply with health and data protection

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laws and regulations could lead to government enforcement actions (which could include civil or criminal penalties), private litigation, and/or adverse publicity and could negatively affect our operating results and business.”

Human Capital Management

As a company focused on the treatment of mental health concerns, we’re dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health. Our team is the key to our success, and we believe it is essential to invest in building an engaged, diverse, supported, and incentivized workforce who can help us achieve our vision of a healing mental health disorders so that everyone, everywhere can live a more fulfilled life.

As of December 31, 2022, we had 119 full-time employees and 23 contractors or consultants doing regular work for the company. Our subsidiary companies had 14 additional full-time employees. Of our full-time employees, 64 focus on driving forward research and development programs (including Digital Therapeutics), either directly or through our subsidiaries. Others provide strategic business development, finance, and executive leadership expertise, as well as operational, communications, legal and administrative services. Approximately half of our employees are located in the U.S.; the remainder are split between the UK and Germany, with one employee in the Netherlands.

In February 2023, we implemented a realignment initiative resulting in a reduction in force of approximately 30% of our global workforce in order to more effectively allocate our research and development and other resources supporting the revised business and program priorities and to reduce operational costs. As of March 15, 2023, we had 91 full-time employees and 14 additional full-time employees employed by our subsidiary companies. Of these full-time employees, 53 focus on research and development either directly or through one of our subsidiaries. Additionally, we had 18 contractors or consultants doing regular work for the company.

Our four core atai values are: Conscious Care; Bold Entrepreneurship; Collaborative Innovation; and Radical Responsibility. Our human capital philosophy is deeply rooted in these values, which form the core of everything from performance management cycle to hiring decisions. See “—Professional Development and Performance Management” and “—Core Values and Ethics” below, for more information.

We have no collective bargaining agreements with our employees and we have not experienced any significant work stoppages.

Recruiting

We have an in-house talent acquisition capability to support atai and its subsidiaries in hiring the right talent at the right time. This team of experienced recruiters works closely with hiring managers to understand the required skills and capabilities for an open role, and then supports the interview process and evaluation of candidates. We strive to hire top talent, and therefore need a high-quality recruiting process and candidate experience. We are consistently looking at new opportunities and avenues to recruit talented individuals.

We are committed to attracting and retaining top performing team members. We focus on creating a dynamic, vibrant, values-based culture that allow for autonomy, growth and impact while also offering a competitive total rewards package.

Professional Development and Performance Management

We have a bi-annual performance management cycle whereby employees are rated on both “what” they delivered (measured against agreed objectives and goals) and “how” they delivered (measured against the four core atai values and related behaviors). These reviews include self-evaluation, peer and manager feedback. The feedback focuses on strengths and opportunities for improvement to enable the professional development of all team members. At the end of each cycle, all employees are given a performance rating, which informs decisions regarding promotions, salary adjustments, and annual equity grants.

Core Values and Ethics

We have also developed a set of indicators of behavior to help staff and managers understand how to best live our values day to day. The core values are as follows:

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All of our managing directors, supervisory directors, officers and employees are responsible for upholding these values as set forth in our Code of Conduct, which forms the foundation of our policies and practices. The Code of Conduct is available on our website at https://ir.atai.life/corporate-governance/governance-overview.

Total Rewards and Employee Engagement

To attract and retain top talent, we offer a competitive total rewards package. We target pay between the 50th and 75th percentile of market, based on Aon Radford data, and employee stock option grants at the 50th percentile or above. We link a portion of every employee’s compensation to performance through a performance bonus program. We also incentivize subsidiary-level employees to achieve specific milestones at core value-inflection points, such as IND or NDA approval.

We invest in the professional development of our employees. All of our employees are strongly encouraged to develop personal development plans with their manager semi-annually in order to define their career goals, and we encourage regular peer and manager feedback. We also offer targeted learning and development opportunities, including team and 1-1 coaching; access to continual growth through online learning platforms; external training where appropriate; and in-house live training, among other opportunities. In addition, to further employee enrichment and engagement, we periodically survey our employees regarding their engagement levels. We use these survey results to determine how we can continue to create work environments that enable and motivate our employees and to develop a positive working culture. We also provide opportunities for our employees to take two working days each year to give back to their communities through volunteerism. In addition, we hold regular company-wide team meetings aimed to connect with each other, foster a culture of transparency, receive updates from our management team and to discuss various other initiatives around the Company. We believe these initiatives foster a positive working environment.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We believe that a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture is critical to atai’s success. We are proud to promote unique voices within and outside our organization, and are eager to learn from others’ experiences, as we know that a diverse and inclusive workforce is a business imperative and key to our long-term success.

As part of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts, we have launched a 1-1 coaching offering for diverse employees. We have also formed a “women of atai” network and intend to roll out additional initiatives in 2023.

Hybrid office culture

As of December 31, 2022, we had offices in Berlin, London, New York, and San Diego. We aim to foster a hybrid culture where most employees are in the office two or three days per week, but with the option to work in office more. We do this because we believe the office offers meaningful benefits in terms of employee mental health and social connection; serendipitous conversations leading to greater creativity and cross-functional collaboration; and important opportunities for more junior staff to learn via exposure and osmosis.

atai Impact

In October 2021, we announced the launch of our philanthropic program, atai Impact, to harness the power of innovative mental health approaches for positive social change. atai Impact is committed to advancing education, expanding access, and supporting the wider ecosystem of mental health care, with an initial focus on psychedelics. The establishment of atai Impact is based on our position that harmonization across commercial and non-profit entities represents the best path forward to address all aspects of the escalating global mental crisis.

Since its inception, atai Impact has announced multiple initiatives, such as the establishment of the atai Fellowship Fund in Psychedelic Neuroscience (the “atai Fellowship Fund”) in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics. The $2 million atai Fellowship Fund will facilitate further research into the potential of psychedelics to address unmet patient needs in mental health and support promising graduate students in furthering their professional careers in this emerging field.

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COVID-19 Business Update

The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to present global public health and economic challenges. Although some research and development timelines have been impacted by delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company has not experienced material financial impacts on its business and operations as a result. The full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to directly or indirectly impact our results of operations and financial condition, will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain, including as a result of new information that may emerge concerning COVID-19 and the actions taken to contain or treat it, the success or failure of ongoing vaccination programs worldwide, the emergence and spread of additional variants of COVID-19, as well as the overall impact on local, regional, national and international markets and the global economy. For a discussion of the risks related to COVID-19 and impact to the Company’s business and operations, including its research and development programs and related clinical trials, refer to the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A.

Corporate Information

The statutory seat of ATAI Life Sciences N.V. is in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Our office address and our principal executive office is located at Wallstraße 16, 10179, Berlin, Germany, and our telephone number is +49 89 2153 9035. Our website address is www.atai.life. All reports we file with the SEC are available for download free of charge via the Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR) System on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. We also make electronic copies of our reports available for download, free of charge, through our investor relations website at ir.atai.life as soon as reasonably practicable after filing such material with the SEC. The information contained on, or that can be accessed from, our website does not form part of this document. References to our website address do not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained on the website, and the information contained on the website is not part of this document or any other document that we file with or furnish to the SEC.

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Item lA. Risk Factors

Our business involves significant risks, some of which are described below. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Form 10-K. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risk and uncertainties that we are unaware of or that we deem immaterial may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. The realization of any of these risks and uncertainties could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations, growth and future prospects as well as our ability to accomplish our strategic objectives. In that event, the market price of our common shares could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to our Financial Position, Need for Additional Capital and Growth Strategy

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company and have incurred significant losses since our inception. We expect to incur losses for the foreseeable future and may never be profitable.

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history. We anticipate that we will incur significant losses for the foreseeable future and have incurred losses in each year since our inception. Our net loss attributable to ATAI Life Sciences N.V. stockholders for the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021 was $152.4 million and $167.8 million, respectively. We have no products that are approved for commercial sale and have not generated any commercial product revenue. We have financed operations solely through the sale of equity securities and convertible debt financings. We continue to incur significant research and development and other expenses related to ongoing operations and building our business infrastructure and expect to incur losses for the foreseeable future.

To become and remain profitable, we must succeed in developing and eventually commercializing products that generate significant revenue. Revenue from the sale of any product candidate for which regulatory approval is obtained will be dependent, in part, upon the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval, the accepted price for the product, the acceptance of the product by physicians and patients, the ability to obtain reimbursement at any price and whether we own the commercial rights for that territory. Our growth strategy depends on our ability to generate revenue. In addition, if the number of addressable patients is not as anticipated, the indication or intended use approved by regulatory authorities is narrower than expected, or the reasonably accepted population for treatment is narrowed by competition, physician choice or treatment guidelines, we may not generate significant revenue from sales of such products, even if approved. Even if we are able to generate revenue from the sale of any approved products, we may not become profitable and may need to obtain additional funding to continue operations. Even if we achieve profitability in the future, we may not be able to sustain profitability in subsequent periods.

Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with the development of drugs and medical devices, we are unable to predict the timing or amount of our expenses, or when we will be able to generate any meaningful revenue or achieve or maintain profitability, if ever. In addition, our expenses could increase beyond our current expectations if we are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, the European Medicines Agency, or the EMA, or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities to perform preclinical studies or clinical trials in addition to those that we currently anticipate, or if there are any delays in any of our or our future collaborators’ clinical trials or the development of our existing product candidates and any other product candidates that we may identify. Even if our existing product candidates or any future product candidates that we may identify are approved for commercial sale, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with commercializing any approved product and ongoing compliance efforts.

Our failure to achieve sustained profitability would depress the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, diversify our research and development pipeline, market our product candidates, if approved, and pursue or continue our operations. Our prior losses, combined with expected future losses, have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our shareholders’ equity and working capital.

Our limited operating history may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business and to assess our future viability.

We were founded in 2018 by Christian Angermayer, Florian Brand, Srinivas Rao and Lars Christian Wilde. To date, we have invested most of our resources in developing technology, establishing our platform, building our intellectual property portfolio, developing our supply chain, conducting business planning, raising capital, building our management team and providing general and administrative support for these operations. We have not yet demonstrated an ability to conduct later-stage clinical trials, obtain regulatory approvals, manufacture a commercial-scale product, conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful product commercialization or obtain reimbursement in the countries of sale.

In addition, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known or unknown factors in achieving our business objectives. We will eventually need to transition from a company with a development focus to a company capable of

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supporting commercial activities and may not be successful in such a transition. We also expect our financial condition and operating results to continue to fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Accordingly, you should not rely upon the results of any quarterly or annual periods as indications of future operating performance.

If we are unable to obtain funding when needed and on acceptable terms, we could be forced to delay, limit or discontinue our product development efforts.

Developing biopharmaceutical products is expensive and time consuming, and we expect to require substantial additional capital to conduct research, preclinical studies and clinical trials for our current and future programs, establish pilot scale and commercial scale manufacturing processes and facilities, seek regulatory approvals for our product candidates and launch and commercialize any products for which we receive regulatory approval, including building our own commercial sales, marketing and distribution organization. We regularly assess the ongoing development of our programs and may, from time to time, delay, limit or otherwise discontinue a program in order to allocate resources towards more developed programs or new investments. In addition, in connection with collaboration agreements relating to our programs, we may also be responsible for the payments to third parties of expenses that may, in certain instances, include milestone payments, license maintenance fees and royalties, including in the case of certain of our agreements with academic institutions or other companies from whom intellectual property rights underlying their respective programs have been in-licensed or acquired. Because the outcome of any preclinical or clinical development and regulatory approval process is highly uncertain, we cannot reasonably estimate the actual amounts necessary to successfully complete the development, regulatory approval process and potential commercialization of our product candidates and any future product candidates we may identify.

We expect that our existing cash and cash equivalents and short-term investment securities as of December 31, 2022, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months from the date the consolidated financial statements are issued. However, our operating plan may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned, through public or private equity or debt financings, sales of assets or programs, other sources, such as strategic collaborations or license and development agreements, or a combination of these approaches. We also may opportunistically seek additional capital if market conditions are favorable or if we have specific strategic considerations. Any such additional fundraising efforts for us may divert our management from their day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize product candidates that we may identify and pursue. Moreover, such financing may result in dilution to shareholders, imposition of debt covenants and repayment obligations, or other restrictions that may affect our business. Changing circumstances, some of which may be beyond our control, could cause us to consume capital significantly faster than we currently anticipate, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned.

Our future funding requirements, both short-term and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

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We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. For example, market volatility resulting from, among other factors, the COVID-19 pandemic and the related U.S. and global economic impact or other unknown factors could also adversely impact our ability to access funds as and when needed. If adequate funds are not available to us on a timely basis, we may be required to delay, limit or discontinue one or more research or development programs or the potential commercialization of any approved products or be unable to expand operations or otherwise capitalize on business opportunities, as desired, which could materially affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our shareholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to current product candidates or to any future product candidates on unfavorable terms.

Unless and until we can generate a substantial amount of revenue from our product candidates, we expect our expenses to increase in connection with our planned operations. In order to accomplish our business objectives and develop our product pipeline, we expect to finance our future cash needs through a combination of public and private equity or debt financings, strategic partnerships, sales of assets and alliances and licensing arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, shareholder ownership interests will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our shareholders. In addition, the possibility of such issuance may cause the market price of our common shares to decline. The incurrence of additional indebtedness would result in increased fixed payment obligations and could involve additional restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations and liens on our assets, limitations on our ability to acquire, sell or license intellectual property rights, and other operating and financing restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. Additionally, any future collaborations we enter into with third parties may provide capital in the near term, but limit our potential cash flow and revenue in the future. If we raise additional funds through strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or product candidates, or grant licenses or other rights on unfavorable terms.

If we obtain a controlling interest in certain of our existing companies or additional companies in the future, it could adversely affect our operating results and the value of our common shares, thereby disrupting our business.

As part of our strategy, we have and intend to continue to invest in companies that further our strategy and help accomplish our business objectives, which we assess on an ongoing basis. We and our atai companies have also acquired and in-licensed certain of our technologies from third parties, and we may in the future acquire, in-license or invest in additional technology that we believe would be beneficial to our business. Investments in our existing and any future subsidiaries and other companies and the acquisition, in-license or investments in technology involve numerous risks, including, but not necessarily limited to:

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If we fail to properly evaluate potential acquisitions, in-licenses, investments or other transactions associated with the creation of new research and development programs or the maintenance of existing ones, we might not achieve the anticipated benefits of any such acquisition, investment or transaction, we might incur costs in excess of what we anticipate, we might delay, limit or otherwise discontinue a program based on our ongoing assessment of our programs, and management resources and attention might be diverted from other necessary or valuable activities.

Under certain of our investment arrangements, if we fail to make a milestone payment when due, our ownership percentage may fall below 50% of that entity.

Under our investment arrangements with DemeRx IB, Recognify Life Sciences, PsyProtix, Psyber, InnarisBio and TryptageniX, if we fail to make a milestone payment when due, we could lose our majority interest in DemeRx IB, Recognify Life Sciences, PsyProtix, Psyber, InnarisBio or TryptageniX. In order to maintain our equity ownership in these companies, we will need to make $15.2 million in remaining aggregate milestone payments upon the achievement of certain development milestones.

In December 2019, we executed a promissory note payable to DemeRx IB whereby we agreed, under a contribution agreement and a Series A Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, to make aggregate payments to DemeRx IB of up to $17.0 million upon the achievement of specified clinical and regulatory milestones. In connection with this promissory note, we pledged and assigned to DemeRx IB a portion of the Series A Preferred Stock of DemeRx IB as security under the promissory note. In the event of default, a pro rata portion of these pledged shares will automatically be surrendered and be deemed forfeited and canceled and could result in us losing control of DemeRx IB’s board of directors and our controlling financial interest in DemeRx IB. To date, we have made aggregate payments of $17.0 million in connection with the promissory note.

In November 2020, we acquired Series A preferred stock of Recognify Life Sciences pursuant to a Series A Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, and, as amended, we agreed to make aggregate payments to Recognify Life Sciences of up to $20.0 million upon the achievement of specified clinical and regulatory milestones to complete the purchase of the shares and provide additional funding. In connection with this agreement to provide additional funding, Recognify Life Sciences issued the Series A preferred shares to us but held the shares in an escrow account, with the shares to be released upon receipt of our milestone payments. In the event of default, a pro rata portion of the shares held in escrow will automatically be surrendered and be deemed forfeited and canceled, and could result in us losing control of Recognify Life Sciences’ board of directors and our controlling financial interest in Recognify Life Sciences. To date, we have made aggregate payments of $14.5 million.

In February 2021, we acquired Series A preferred stock of PsyProtix pursuant to a Series A Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, and we agreed to make aggregate payments to PsyProtix of up to $4.9 million upon the achievement of specified clinical milestones to complete the purchase of the shares and provide additional funding. In connection with this agreement to provide additional funding, PsyProtix issued the Series A preferred shares to us but held the shares in an escrow account, with the shares to be released upon receipt of our milestone payments. In the event of default, a pro rata portion of the shares held in escrow will automatically be surrendered and be deemed forfeited and canceled, and could result in us losing control of PsyProtix’s board of directors and our controlling financial interest in PsyProtix. To date, we have made aggregate payments of $0.6 million.

In February 2021, we acquired Series A preferred stock of Psyber pursuant to a Series A Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, and we agreed to make aggregate payments to Psyber of up to $1.8 million upon the achievement of specified clinical milestones to complete the purchase of the shares and provide additional funding. In connection with this agreement to provide additional funding, Psyber issued the Series A preferred shares to us but held the shares in an escrow account, with the shares to be released upon receipt of our milestone payments. In the event of default, a pro rata portion of the shares held in escrow will automatically be surrendered and be deemed forfeited and canceled, and could result in us losing control of Psyber’s board of directors and our controlling financial interest in Psyber. To date, we have made aggregate payments of $1.4 million.

In March 2021, we acquired Series A preferred stock of InnarisBio pursuant to a Series A Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, and we agreed to make aggregate payments to InnarisBio of up to $4.0 million upon the achievement of specified clinical milestones to complete the purchase of the shares and provide additional funding. In connection with this agreement to provide additional funding, InnarisBio issued the Series A preferred shares to us but held the shares in an escrow account, with the shares to be released upon receipt of our milestone payments. In the event of default, a pro rata portion of the shares held in escrow will automatically be surrendered and be deemed forfeited and canceled, and could result in us losing control of InnarisBio’s board of directors and our controlling financial interest in InnarisBio. To date, we have made aggregate payments of $1.9 million.

In December 2021, we acquired Series A preferred stock of TryptageniX pursuant to a Series A Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, and we agreed to make aggregate payments to TryptageniX of up to $5.0 million upon the achievement of development milestones to complete the purchase of the shares and provide additional funding. In connection with this agreement to provide additional funding, TryptageniX issued the Series A preferred shares to us but held the shares in an escrow account, with the shares to be released upon receipt of our

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milestone payments. In the event of default, a pro rata portion of the shares held in escrow will automatically be surrendered and be deemed forfeited and canceled, and could result in us losing control of TryptageniX’s board of directors and our controlling financial interest in TryptageniX. To date, we have made aggregate payments of $2.2 million.

As a result of covenants related to our Loan Agreement with Hercules, our operating activities may be restricted and we may be required to repay the outstanding indebtedness in the event of a breach by us, or an event of default thereunder, which could have a materially adverse effect on our business.

In August 2022, we entered into a Loan and Security Agreement, or the Loan Agreement, with Hercules Capital, Inc., or Hercules, pursuant to which we have total borrowing capacity under several tranches of up to $175.0 million aggregate principal, or the 2022 Term Loan Facility. The 2022 Term Loan Facility is secured by a lien on substantially all of our assets, including intellectual property, with certain limited exceptions set forth in the Loan Agreement. The Loan Agreement contains various covenants that may restrict our ability, among other things, to sell, transfer, lease or dispose of certain assets; make material changes to our business; incur indebtedness; encumber or permit liens on certain assets; make certain investments and acquisitions; make certain restricted payments, including paying dividends on, or repurchasing or making distributions with respect to, our common shares; and enter into certain transactions. Our business may be adversely affected by these restrictions on our ability to operate our business.

In addition, we are required under the Loan Agreement to comply with various covenants and default clauses that may restrict our ability to finance our operations, engage in business activities or expand or fully pursue our business strategies. A breach of any of these covenants or clauses could result in a default under the Lan Agreement, which could cause all of the outstanding indebtedness under the facility to become immediately due and payable.

We intend to satisfy our current and future debt service obligations with our existing cash, cash equivalents and available for sale securities, potential future product revenues and funds from external sources. However, we may not have sufficient funds or may be unable to arrange for additional financing on acceptable terms, or at all, to pay the amounts due under the 2022 Term Loan Facility.

Any breach by us, or any event of default under, our Loan Agreement could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

Our cash and cash equivalents could be adversely affected if the financial institutions at which we hold our cash and cash equivalents fail.
 

Market conditions impacting financial institutions could impact our ability to access some or all of our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and we may be unable to obtain alternative funding when and as needed and on acceptable terms, if at all. The performance of the capital markets affects the values of funds that are held in short-term investments. These assets are subject to market fluctuations and various developments, including, without limitation, rating agency downgrades that may impair their value. Further, a bankruptcy of one of the banks in which or through which we hold or invest our cash reserves, might prevent us from accessing all or a portion of that cash for an uncertain period of time if at all. For example, we maintain cash balances at various third-party financial institutions in excess of the $250,000 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") insurance limit. Widespread demands for customer withdrawals or other needs of financial institutions for immediate liquidity may exceed the capacity of the FDIC insurance program. There is no guarantee that the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. Treasury Department and the FDIC will provide access to uninsured funds in the future in the event of the closure of any banks or financial institutions in a timely fashion or at all.
 

If we do not effectively diversify our bank deposits and investment portfolio, the value and liquidity of our investments may fluctuate substantially which could affect our access to capital and results of operations in a material way. Furthermore, our access to our cash and cash equivalents in amounts adequate to finance our operations could be significantly impaired if the financial institutions with which we have arrangements directly face liquidity constraints or failures. Investor concerns regarding the U.S. or international financial systems could result in less favorable commercial financing terms, including higher interest rates or costs and tighter financial and operating covenants, or systemic limitations on access to credit and liquidity sources, thereby making it more difficult for us to acquire financing on acceptable terms or at all. Any material decline in available funding or our ability to access our cash and cash equivalents could adversely impact our results of operations and liquidity.

Our overall value may be dominated by a single or limited number of our atai companies or clinical programs.

A large proportion of our overall value may at any time reside in a small proportion of our atai companies or clinical programs. Accordingly, there is a risk that if one or more of the intellectual property or commercial rights relevant to a valuable business were impaired, this would have a material adverse impact on our overall value. Furthermore, a large proportion of our overall revenue may at any

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time be the subject of one, or a small number of, licensed technologies. Should the relevant licenses be terminated or expire this would be likely to have a material adverse effect on the revenue received by us.

In addition, although we do not have a majority interest in COMPASS, a large proportion of our overall value may at any time reside in our ownership interest of COMPASS. Our interest in COMPASS may also be reduced to the extent COMPASS raises capital from third-party investors. Accordingly, any material adverse impact on the value of the business of a subsidiary or a clinical program, and on the value of COMPASS, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, trading performance and/or prospects.

Our programs are difficult to value given they are in the development stage.

Investments in early-stage companies are inherently difficult to value since sales, cash flow and tangible asset values are very limited, which makes the valuation highly dependent on expectations of future development, and any future significant revenues, if they arise, would only arise in the medium to longer terms and are uncertain. Similarly, investments in companies that are in the development stage are also difficult to value since sales, cash flow and tangible assets are limited, and valuations are still dependent on expectations of future development. For example, we utilize the equity method to account for certain of our atai Non-Controlled Entities, and we evaluate each of these investments at the end of each reporting period. We present income/losses from equity investments and any impairment related to equity method investments as losses from investments in equity method investees on our consolidated statement of operations, and these evaluations could result in a material impact on our financial statements and results of operations. There can be no guarantee that our valuations of our programs will be considered to be correct in light of the early stage of development for many of these entities and their future performance. As a result, we may not realize the full value of our ownership in such subsidiaries which could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Our product candidates represent novel and innovative potential therapeutic areas, and negative perception of any product candidate that we develop could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business, obtain regulatory approvals or identify alternate regulatory pathways to market for such product candidate.

Our product candidates are considered relatively new and novel, including substances that might be controversial, overlooked or underused. Our success will depend upon physicians who specialize in the treatment of mental health disorders, including depression, substance use disorder, anxiety disorder and other neurological indications targeted by our product candidates, prescribing potential treatments that involve the use of our product candidates, if approved, in lieu of, or in addition to, existing treatments with which they are more familiar and for which greater clinical data may be available. Our product candidates may not be successful in gaining physician acceptance, and this would adversely impact our ability to commercialize our product candidates, even if approved. Access will also depend on consumer acceptance and adoption of products that are commercialized.

The active ingredients used in some of our product candidates have been associated with risks that may lead to our product candidates not being approved, and even if approved, may lead to insufficient physician or consumer acceptance given the severity of the risks. For example, DemeRx is developing ibogaine as DMX-1002 for the potential treatment of opioid use disorder. There have been fatalities associated with the use of ibogaine including in third-party clinical trials potentially due in part to the inappropriate management of cardiovascular risk, inadequate cardiac monitoring and drug product of unknown purity and concentration. The considerations involved in the administration of ibogaine are complex and depend on the medical profile of individual patients, and we may not be successful in demonstrating an acceptable approach to manage the severity of the risks. In addition, Kures is developing KUR-101, a derivative of mitragynine, for the treatment of substance use disorder. Although mitragynine, the primary alkaloid in kratom and the one thought to drive its effects, is believed to have a lower risk of both inducing respiratory depression and abuse than typical opioids, both phenomena have been associated with kratom use in scientific literature.

In addition, responses by the United States, state or foreign governments to negative public perception or ethical concerns may result in new legislation or regulations that could limit our ability to develop or commercialize any product candidates, obtain or maintain regulatory approval, identify alternate regulatory pathways to market or otherwise achieve profitability. More restrictive statutory regimes, government regulations or negative public opinion would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects and may delay or impair the development and commercialization of our product candidates or demand for any products we may develop.

Because we have multiple programs and product candidates in our development pipeline, in addition to our continued business development activities, we may, and have in the past decided to, expend our limited resources and allocation of capital to pursue a particular product candidate over other product candidates that may ultimately be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success, which may adversely affect our future revenues.

Because we have limited financial resources and access to funding, we have to make challenging decisions regarding the allocation of capital and resources across our businesses. For example, in November 2022 we made a decision to deconsolidate Neuronasal to further

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focus our capital allocation towards generating meaningful clinical readouts in the near-term and to optimize our operational efficiency. In addition, in March 2023, we announced that in conjunction with the Phase 2a study results of PCN-101 we would further evaluate the data and work with our subsidiary, Perception Neuroscience, to determine next steps for the program, including consideration of potential strategic partnership options. We face certain risks associated with these decisions. For example, we may forego or delay pursuit of certain product candidates or business opportunities that later prove to have greater commercial potential than our current or future development programs and product candidates. In addition, our decisions concerning the allocation of research, collaboration, management and financial resources toward particular programs or product candidates may not lead to the development of viable commercial product candidates, and may divert resources, including personnel, away from more advantageous opportunities or from our other current programs. Similarly, our decisions to delay, terminate or collaborate with third parties in respect of certain product candidates and development programs could also prove not to be optimal and could cause us to miss valuable opportunities with no resulting benefit. If our assessment of the market potential of our product candidates or trends in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industries proves to be inaccurate, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
 

Exchange rate fluctuations may materially affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Due to the international scope of our operations, our assets and cash flows are and will continue to be influenced by movements in exchange rates of several currencies, particularly the U.S. dollar and the euro. Our reporting currency and our functional currency is primarily the U.S. dollar, but many of our operating expenses are paid in euro. We also regularly acquire services, consumables and materials in euro, and potential future revenue may be derived from Europe. As a result, our business and the price of our common shares may be affected by fluctuations in foreign exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and the euro, which may also have a significant impact on our results of operations and cash flows from period to period. Currently, we do not have any exchange rate hedging arrangements in place.

Risks Related to the Clinical Development, Regulatory Review and Approval of our Product Candidates.

Our product candidates are in preclinical or clinical development, which is a lengthy and expensive process with uncertain outcomes. We cannot give any assurance that any of our product candidates will be successfully developed and/or receive regulatory approval, which is necessary before they can be commercialized.

Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of our product candidates, we must conduct extensive preclinical and clinical testing to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the product candidates in humans. Such testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the development process. To date, we have focused substantially all of our efforts and financial resources on identifying, acquiring, and developing product candidates, including conducting lead optimization, nonclinical studies, preclinical studies and clinical trials and providing general and administrative support for these operations. Some of our product candidates are in the preclinical stage, and their risk of failure is high. Before we can commence clinical trials for a product candidate, we must complete extensive preclinical testing and studies that support the planned Investigational New Drug Applications, or INDs, in the United States or similar applications in other jurisdictions. We cannot be certain of the timely completion or outcome of our preclinical testing and studies and cannot predict if the FDA or other regulatory authorities will accept the proposed clinical programs or if the outcome of preclinical studies will ultimately support the further development of the programs. As a result, we cannot be sure that we will be able to submit INDs or similar applications for our clinical programs on the timelines we expect, if at all, and we cannot be sure that submission of INDs or similar applications will result in the FDA or other regulatory authorities allowing clinical trials to begin.

Moreover, the results of preclinical studies may not be predictive of the results of clinical trials, and the results of any early-stage clinical trials we commence may not be predictive of the results of the later-stage clinical trials. The results of preclinical studies and clinical trials in one set of patients or disorder indications, or from preclinical studies or clinical trials that we did not lead, may not be predictive of those obtained in another. In some instances, there can be significant variability in safety or efficacy results between different clinical trials of the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including changes in trial procedures set forth in protocols, differences in the size and type of the patient populations, changes in and adherence to the dosing regimen and other clinical trial protocol details and the rate of dropout among clinical trial participants. In addition, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to various interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in clinical development even after achieving promising results in earlier studies, and any such setbacks in our clinical development could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results. Even if early-stage clinical trials are successful, we may need to conduct additional clinical trials of our product candidates in additional patient populations or under different treatment conditions before we are able to seek approvals from the FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities to market and sell these product candidates. Most product candidates that begin clinical trials are never approved by regulatory authorities for

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commercialization. We have limited experience in designing clinical trials and may be unable to design and execute a clinical trial to support marketing approval.

In addition, clinical trial design for some of our product candidates can be complex given their characteristics. For example, we will need to design clinical trials for certain product candidates to evaluate efficacy across a range of doses. Additionally, we may utilize an “open-label” trial design for some of our future clinical trials. An open-label trial is one where both the patient and investigator know whether the patient is receiving the test article or either an existing approved drug or placebo. Open-label trials are subject to various limitations that may exaggerate any therapeutic effect as patients in open-label studies are aware that they are receiving treatment. Open-label trials may be subject to a “patient bias” where patients perceive their symptoms to have improved merely due to their awareness of receiving an experimental treatment. Patients selected for early clinical studies often include the most severe sufferers, and their symptoms may have been bound to improve notwithstanding the new treatment. In addition, open-label trials may be subject to an “investigator bias” where those assessing and reviewing the physiological outcomes of the clinical trials are aware of which patients have received treatment and may interpret the information of the treated group more favorably given this knowledge. The opportunity for bias in clinical trials as a result of open-label design may not be adequately handled and may cause any of our trials that utilize such design to fail or to be considered inadequate and additional trials may be necessary to support future marketing applications. Moreover, results acceptable to support approval in one jurisdiction may be deemed inadequate by another regulatory authority to support regulatory approval in that other jurisdiction. To the extent that the results of the trials are not satisfactory to the FDA, the EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for support of a marketing application, we may be required to expend significant resources, which may not be available to us, to conduct additional trials in support of potential approval of our product candidates.

We cannot be certain that any of our product candidates will be successful in clinical trials. Our inability to successfully complete preclinical and clinical development could result in additional costs to us and negatively impact our ability to obtain approval and to generate revenue. Our future success is dependent on our ability to successfully develop, obtain regulatory approval for, and then successfully commercialize product candidates. We currently have no products approved for sale and have not generated any revenue, and we may never be able to develop or successfully commercialize any of our product candidates. In addition, even if such clinical trials are successfully completed, we cannot guarantee that the FDA, the EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities will interpret the results as we do, and more trials could be required before we submit our product candidates for approval.

All of our product candidates require additional development, management of preclinical, clinical and manufacturing activities and regulatory approval. In addition, we will need to obtain adequate manufacturing supply, build a commercial organization, commence marketing efforts and obtain reimbursement before they generate any significant revenue from commercial product sales, if ever. In addition, while our new program selection criteria include prior evidence in humans and we believe the product candidates we have selected have the potential for a favorable safety profile based on third-party trials and studies, many of our product candidates are in early-stage research phases of development, and the risk of failure for these programs is high. In addition, some of the product candidates we are developing are derivatives of compounds that have undergone clinical trials that failed to meet their primary endpoints. For example, we are developing RL-007 for the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia, or CIAS, but the same compound was tested in a Phase 2 trial as an analgesic to treat pain associated with diabetic polyneuropathy, and no efficacy was demonstrated. We cannot be certain that any of our product candidates will be successful in clinical trials or receive regulatory approval. Further, our product candidates may not receive regulatory approval even if they are successful in clinical trials. If we do not receive regulatory approvals for our product candidates, we may not be able to continue operations, which may result in dissolution, out-licensing the technology or pursuing an alternative strategy.

In addition, the FDA’s and other regulatory authorities’ policies with respect to clinical trials may change and additional government regulations may be enacted. For instance, the regulatory landscape related to clinical trials in the European Union, or EU, recently evolved. The EU Clinical Trials Regulation, or CTR, which was adopted in April 2014 and repeals the EU Clinical Trials Directive, became applicable on January 31, 2022. While the Clinical Trials Directive required a separate clinical trial application, or CTA, to be submitted in each member state, to both the competent national health authority and an independent ethics committee, the CTR introduces a centralized process and only requires the submission of a single application to all member states concerned. The CTR allows sponsors to make a single submission to both the competent authority and an ethics committee in each member state, leading to a single decision per member state. The assessment procedure of the CTA has been harmonized as well, including a joint assessment by all member states concerned, and a separate assessment by each member state with respect to specific requirements related to its own territory, including ethics rules. Each member state’s decision is communicated to the sponsor via the centralized EU portal. Once the CTA is approved, clinical study development may proceed. The CTR foresees a three-year transition period. The extent to which ongoing and new clinical trials will be governed by the CTR varies. Clinical trials for which an application was submitted (i) prior to January 31, 2022 under the Clinical Trials Directive, or (ii) between January 31, 2022 and January 31, 2023 and for which the sponsor has opted for the application of the Clinical Trials Directive remain governed by said Directive until January 31, 2025. After this date, all clinical trials (including those which are ongoing) will become subject to the provisions of the CTR. Compliance with the CTR requirements by us and our third-party service providers, such as CROs, may impact our developments plans.

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If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies governing clinical trials, our development plans may be impacted.

Clinical trials of our product candidates may be delayed, and certain programs may never advance in the clinic or may be more costly to conduct than we anticipate, any of which can affect our ability to fund our operations and would have a material adverse impact on our platform or our business.

Clinical testing is expensive, time consuming and subject to uncertainty. We cannot guarantee that any of our planned clinical trials will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, if at all. Moreover, even if these trials are initiated or conducted on a timely basis, issues may arise that could result in the suspension or termination of such clinical trials. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing, and our clinical trials may not be successful. Events that may prevent successful or timely initiation or completion of clinical trials include:

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Any inability to successfully initiate or complete clinical trials could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenue. In addition, if we make manufacturing or formulation changes to our product candidates, we may be required to, or we may elect to, conduct additional preclinical studies or clinical trials to bridge data obtained from the modified product candidates to data obtained from preclinical and clinical research conducted using earlier versions. Clinical trial delays could also shorten any periods during which our products have patent protection and may allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize product candidates and may harm our business and results of operations.

In addition, disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may increase the likelihood that we encounter such difficulties or delays in initiating, enrolling, conducting or completing our planned and ongoing clinical trials. We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, by the data safety monitoring board, or DSMB, or by the FDA, or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities, or if the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted suspend or terminate the participation of their clinical investigators and sites subject to their review. Such authorities may suspend or terminate a clinical trial due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA, or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product candidate, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial.

Delays in the initiation, conduct or completion of any clinical trial of our product candidates will increase our costs, slow down the product candidate development and approval process and delay or potentially jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenue. In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates. In the event we identify any additional product candidates to pursue, we cannot be sure that submission of an IDE, IND, CTA or equivalent application, as applicable, will result in the FDA, or comparable foreign regulatory authority allowing clinical trials to begin in a timely manner, if at all. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Our current product candidates and future product candidates may be subject to controlled substance laws and regulations in the territories where the product will be marketed, such as the United States and Europe, and failure to comply with these laws and regulations, or the cost of compliance with these laws and regulations, may adversely affect the results of our business operations, both during clinical development and post approval, and our financial condition.

Some of our product candidates are regulated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, as “Controlled Substances” or scheduled substances, under the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, also known as the Controlled Substances Act, or the CSA. The DEA regulates compounds as Schedule I, II, III, IV or V substances. Schedule I substances by definition have a high potential for abuse, have no currently “accepted medical use” in the United States, lack accepted safety for use under medical supervision and may not be prescribed, marketed or sold in the United States. Pharmaceutical products approved for use in the United States may be listed as Schedule II, III, IV or V, with Schedule II substances considered to present the highest potential for abuse or dependence and Schedule V substances the lowest relative risk of abuse among such substances. Schedule I and II drugs are subject to the strictest controls under the CSA, including manufacturing and procurement quotas, security requirements and criteria for importation. In addition, dispensing of Schedule II drugs is further restricted. Commercial marketing in the United States will also require scheduling-related legislative or administrative action.

Scheduling determinations by the DEA are dependent on FDA approval of a substance or a specific formulation of a substance. This scheduling determination will be dependent on FDA approval and the FDA’s recommendation as to the appropriate schedule. During the review process, and prior to approval, the FDA may determine that it requires additional data, either from non-clinical or clinical studies, including with respect to whether, or to what extent, the substance has abuse potential. This may introduce a delay into the approval and any potential rescheduling process. That delay would be dependent on the quantity of additional data required by the FDA. This scheduling determination will require the DEA to conduct notice and comment rule making, including issuing an interim final rule. Such action will be subject to public comment and requests for hearing, which could affect the scheduling of these substances. There can be no assurance that the DEA will make a favorable scheduling decision. Even assuming categorization as a Schedule II or lower controlled substance (i.e., Schedule III, IV or V), at the federal level, such substances would also require scheduling determinations under state laws and regulations.

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If approved by the FDA, and if any of our product candidates is listed by the DEA as a Schedule II, III, IV or V controlled substance, their manufacture, importation, exportation, domestic distribution, storage, sale and legitimate use will continue to be subject to a significant degree of regulation by the DEA. In addition, the scheduling process may take significantly longer than the 90-day deadline set forth in the CSA, thereby delaying the launch of our product candidates in the United States. Furthermore, the FDA, DEA or any foreign regulatory authority could require us to generate more clinical or other data than we currently anticipate to establish whether or to what extent the substance has an abuse potential, which could increase the cost and/or delay the launch of our product candidates and any future therapeutic candidates containing controlled substances. In addition, therapeutic candidates containing controlled substances are subject to DEA regulations relating to manufacturing, storage, distribution and physician prescription procedures, including: