Chop­ping the pipeline and dis­con­tin­u­ing fund­ing for cer­tain pro­grams were not enough to keep atai Life Sci­ences’ fi­nances in check af­ter all.

More than half a year af­ter an­nounc­ing those changes, the com­pa­ny has tak­en an­oth­er long look at its pipeline of drugs for men­tal health dis­or­ders and laid off 30% of its staffers. The lay­offs will main­ly im­pact those in gen­er­al and ad­min­is­tra­tion and non-clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment roles, atai added.

A spokesper­son told End­points News that “be­cause the de­ci­sion was geared to en­sure we are equipped with the right team to hit our clin­i­cal pro­gram mile­stones (some ac­cel­er­at­ed) and gen­er­ate mean­ing­ful da­ta, the 30% of em­ploy­ees who were af­fect­ed came pri­mar­i­ly from gen­er­al and ad­min­is­tra­tive ar­eas rather than clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment.

Flo­ri­an Brand

CEO and co-founder Flo­ri­an Brand called the de­ci­sion part of an ef­fort to “fur­ther fo­cus our cap­i­tal al­lo­ca­tion to­wards gen­er­at­ing mean­ing­ful clin­i­cal read­outs in the near-term” and op­er­ate more ef­fi­cient­ly.

Many biotechs have cit­ed sim­i­lar rea­sons in shrink­ing their work­force in re­cent months, as pub­lic and pri­vate com­pa­nies alike find them­selves hav­ing to go longer with less mon­ey — un­til they hit good enough da­ta to en­tice in­vestors.

Atai re­vealed in Au­gust that it’s im­ple­ment­ing a “com­pa­ny-wide cost op­ti­miza­tion” to save mon­ey, with fund­ing dis­con­tin­ued for cer­tain dis­cov­ery pro­grams be­ing de­vel­oped at its sub­sidiaries and oth­ers de­pri­or­i­tized. But its shares $ATAI kept go­ing down and are now trad­ing at $1.58.

It is now bank­ing on sev­er­al key pro­grams, in­clud­ing RL-007, with which it’s re­cent­ly dosed the first pa­tient in a Phase IIb study in cog­ni­tive im­pair­ment as­so­ci­at­ed with schiz­o­phre­nia; and GRX-917, for which a Phase II study in anx­i­ety dis­or­der is planned.

Then there are the two can­di­dates for treat­ment-re­sis­tant de­pres­sion. PCN-101, an iso­mer of ke­t­a­mine, re­cent­ly flopped in a Phase IIa tri­al but atai is still con­sid­er­ing next steps; COMP360 is a psilo­cy­bin ther­a­py that is now in Phase III, and the com­pa­ny is speed­ing up the tri­al so that topline da­ta are now ex­pect­ed in the sum­mer of 2024.

The com­pa­ny now ex­tends its cash on hand to fund op­er­a­tions in­to the first half of 2026.

Ed­i­tor’s note: This sto­ry has been cor­rect­ed to clar­i­fy that atai did not drop out of part­ner­ships, but rather stopped fund­ing pro­grams it was de­vel­op­ing in part­ner­ship with sub­sidiaries.

Paul McKenzie took over as CEO of Australian pharma giant CSL this month, following in the footsteps of long-time CSL vet Paul Perreault.

With an eye on mRNA, and quickly commercializing its new, $3.5 million-per-shot gene therapy for hemophilia B, McKenzie and chief medical officer Bill Mezzanotte answered some questions from Endpoints News this afternoon about where McKenzie is going to take the company and what advances may be coming to market from CSL’s pipeline. Below is a lightly edited transcript.

Boehringer Ingelheim reported human pharma sales of €18.5 billion on Wednesday, led by type 2 diabetes and heart failure drug Jardiance and pulmonary fibrosis med Ofev. Jardiance sales reached €5.8 billion, growing 39% year over year, while Ofev took in €3.2 billion, notching its own 20.6% annual jump.

However, Boehringer is also looking ahead with its pipeline, estimating “In the next seven years the company expects about 20 regulatory approvals in human pharma.”

Two small gene therapy makers and a biotech working on an investigational migraine drug have let employees go. The moves add to a broader year-long wave of layoffs that have sidelined thousands of workers in the industry.

Satsuma Pharmaceuticals said after Tuesday’s market close that it will lay off 36% of its workers, effective this Friday. The South San Francisco and Durham, NC biotech submitted its approval request to the FDA this month for a migraine drug, but Satsuma won’t be building a commercial team as it seeks an “established pharmaceutical company” to deliver STS101 to patients, should it get the green light. The company had 25 employees at the end of 2022.

The FDA today approved Emergent BioSolutions’ Narcan brand naloxone nasal spray for over-the-counter sales. The nod was expected and comes on the heels of a unanimous 19-0 advisory committee vote in favor of approval last month.

The move to OTC means the opioid overdose reversal agent will now be available on grocery, convenience and gas stations shelves, as well as potentially for purchase online.