BRIEF—Beckley Psytech buys Eleusis and changes strategy

British psychedelic medicines specialist Beckley Psytech is to acquire clinical-stage life science company, Eleusis Therapeutics, for an undisclosed sum.

Beckley, a privately-held firm working on neurological and psychiatric disorders, has opted to drop development of its lead candidate, an oral psilocybin-based therapy, and will now divert resources to the development of its newly-acquired asset, ELE-101.

ELE-101 is a short-duration intravenous psychedelic, which Beckley plans to put into Phase I testing before the end of the year, with a Phase IIa study in depression following soon after.

The firm will also now gain access to a library of novel psychedelic compounds to add to its pipeline, for use in psychiatry and beyond.

Meanwhile, Beckley has selected from its own pipeline BPL-003, an intranasal benzoate formulation of 5-MeO-DMT, as its new lead candidate, with Phase II studies on the way.

Eleusis chief executive Shlomi Raz will be appointed chief business officer of Beckley Psytech.