NEW YORK, April 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AtaiBeckley Inc. (NASDAQ: ATAI) (“AtaiBeckley” or “Company”), a clinical-stage biotechnology company on a mission to transform patient outcomes by developing rapid-acting, durable and convenient mental health treatments, today announced it has received the Silver Award in OVID Health’s 2026 Patient Participant Index (PPI), in collaboration with the Psychedelic Participant Advocacy Network (PsyPAN), in recognition of their joint efforts to strengthen participant partnership in psychedelic clinical research. The recognition highlights AtaiBeckley’s multiyear collaboration with PsyPAN to integrate the lived experiences of clinical trial participants into the responsible development of novel mental health therapies and amplify these learnings across the sector.
In 2023, Beckley Psytech Limited (now part of AtaiBeckley) and PsyPAN co-designed a series of qualitative workshops exploring the participant experience before, during, and after clinical trial participation. Insights from these workshops were synthesized into the publicly available white paper, “The Participants in Their Own Words,” and co-presented at the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research (ICPR) in 2024. In recognition of the learnings, Beckley Psytech Limited then provided PsyPAN with an unrestricted grant enabling a 12-month independent peer-support pilot program in 2025. The program was open to UK participants from any psychedelic clinical trial, regardless of sponsor.
Since its inception, the partnership has expanded to include international patient advocacy organizations and academic collaborators at King’s College London and the University of Exeter. Commenting on the partnership, the Psychedelic Participant Advocacy Network said: “PsyPAN’s partnership with AtaiBeckley demonstrates the value of meaningful collaboration among patient communities, researchers, and organizations working in psychedelic science. Former trial participants bring essential lived experience expertise that helps ensure research and treatment development remain ethical, safe, and responsive to those most affected. By piloting peer support, and embedding transparency and participant voice into this partnership, AtaiBeckley has enabled us to make a genuine, lasting impact in the field. We look forward to continuing this work together as psychedelic medicine evolves.”
Kevin Craig, Chief Medical Officer at AtaiBeckley, also said: “As novel mental health interventions move through clinical development, understanding participant insight is critical to ensuring they can be responsibly translated into practice. Our collaboration with PsyPAN demonstrates how participant voice can strengthen both the science and participant’s experience of clinical research. We are proud to see this approach recognized as part of the 2026 Patient Participant Index, which includes global biopharmaceutical organizations and highlights the increasing importance of patient partnership standards across healthcare innovation. We also thank PsyPAN for their continued partnership.”
About AtaiBeckley Inc.
AtaiBeckley is a clinical-stage biotechnology company on a mission to transform patient outcomes by developing rapid-acting, durable, and convenient mental health treatments. AtaiBeckley’s pipeline of novel therapies includes BPL-003 (mebufotenin benzoate nasal spray) for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), VLS-01 (DMT buccal film) for TRD and EMP-01 ((R)-MDMA HCI) for social anxiety disorder. BPL-003 is in Phase 3 planning, VLS-01 and EMP-01 are in Phase 2 clinical development. The Company is also advancing a drug discovery program to identify novel, non-hallucinogenic 5-HT2AR agonists for opioid use disorder and TRD. These programs aim to create breakthroughs in mental health through transformative interventional psychiatry therapies that can integrate seamlessly into healthcare systems.
For the latest updates and to learn more about the AtaiBeckley mission, visit www.ataibeckley.com or follow the Company on LinkedIn and on X.
Contact Information:
Investors:
Jason Awe, PhD
VP, Investor Relations
[email protected]
Media:
Charlotte Chorley
Associate Director, Communications
[email protected]