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Latham & Watkins Advises atai Life Sciences in Strategic Combination With Beckley Psytech Limited

June 2, 2025
Cross-border team represents the biopharmaceutical company in the transaction to advance psychedelic mental health therapies.

atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ: ATAI) (atai or Company), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company on a mission to develop highly effective mental health treatments to transform patient outcomes, and Beckley Psytech Limited (Beckley), a private clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the next generation of mental health treatments, have announced a definitive agreement under which atai and Beckley plan to combine in an all-share transaction subject to pre-agreed BPL-003 (mebufotenin benzoate) Phase 2b success criteria.

Latham & Watkins LLP represents atai Life Sciences in the transaction with a corporate deal team led by New York partner Nathan Ajiashvili, London partner Robbie McLaren, and Orange County partners Scott Shean and Brian Umanoff, with UK and US associates Samantha Peacock, Richard Dodding, Tanay Mukherjee, Abby Timmons, and Christopher Siino. Advice was also provided on US securities and capital markets matters by associates Kaj Nielsen and Katie Byun; on US benefits matters by Washington, D.C. partner David Della Rocca; on UK benefits matters by London partner Sarah Gadd, with associates Venice Ma and Chris Wilkinson; on public company representation matters by New York counsel Irina Yevmenenko, with associate Catriela Cohen; on US tax matters by Chicago partner Rene de Vera, with associate Sam Yang; on UK tax matters by London partner Simon Skinner, with associate Tom O’Malley; on US antitrust matters by Washington, D.C. partner Patrick English; and on healthcare matters by London associates Oliver Mobasser and Luke Nauth.

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