Psychedelic medicines start up raises £58m
An Oxford based company which uses psychedelic medicines to treat neurological disorders has completed an oversubscribed £58m funding round.
Beckley Psytech today announced that their Series B financing round had to be upsized from $50m (£36m) to $80m on account of investor demand.
The funding will be used to complete an ongoing trial which uses low-dose psilocybin, the magic ingredient found in psychedelic mushrooms, to treat patients suffering from a rare and debilitating headache condition which affects an estimated 45,000 people in the US and Europe.
According to a statement released by Beckley Psytech funding will also be used to “support the expansion of the company’s pipeline” with a variety of additional psychedelic compounds which will be used to treat neurological disorders including depression.
Cosmo Feilding Mellen, CEO of Beckley Psytech, said: “My life’s passion has been to unlock the therapeutic potential of psychedelics as I believe these compounds could help millions of people around the world.
“The progress Beckley Psytech has made in attracting exceptional talent to the team and advancing our ambitious clinical development programmes over the past two years has been tremendously exciting,” Mellen added.
Mellen founded the company alongside Lady Amanda Fielding, the Countess of Wemyss and March, who set up the Beckley Foundation in 1998.
Lady Fielding has co-authorered over 50 scientific publications on psychedelic science and according to The Telegraph has previously experimented with “self-trepanation,” a practice which involves drilling a hole in one’s own head.
The financing round was led by the firm Integrated, a healthcare focussed venture capital firm. Jay Newmark, a partner of Integrated, said the team “eagerly anticipate” psychedelic medicines becoming more accessible with the help of Psytech.
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