The company also said it raised more than $100 million in Series A financing.
MAPS Public Benefit Corp. (PBC), which recently submitted a new-drug application to the FDA for its investigational MDMA-assisted therapy, said the company is rebranding and changing its name to Lykos Therapeutics.
The change is effective immediately.
“To reflect our company evolution, we selected a new name, Lykos, which means ‘wolf’ in Greek, to represent the qualities – bravery, courage, loyalty and intelligence – that resonate with our company,” said Amy Emerson, chief executive officer of the rebranded company.
Founded in 2014, Lykos is a for-profit public-benefit corporation that is a subsidiary of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Lykos also announced an “oversubscribed” Series A financing. The company said it raised more than $100 million, including conversion of previously issued convertible notes.
Helena, which describes itself as a “global problem-solving” investment organization, led the financing, with support from other “mission-aligned and institutional investors,” according to Lykos.
“We are incredibly grateful for Helena’s tremendous support and leadership as well as the contributions from other mission-aligned investors, which comes at this critical time as we are transitioning from a development-stage company to one focused on commercialization of the potential first psychedelic-assisted therapy,” Emerson said in a news release.
The completion of the financing ushers in some changes to the Lykos board of directors.
The new eight-member board now is comprised of six MAPS appointees, four of whom are independent directors; Emerson; and Suprotik (Protik) Basu, managing partner at Helena.
“We are inspired by the mission and work of Lykos and honored to be chosen as their trusted partner,” Basu said. “This strong funding round, combined with the Phase 3 results and recent new-drug application submission to the FDA, position Lykos to continue its journey to help transform mental health, and to help address the large unmet need for the estimated 13 million Americans who suffer from PTSD, should this investigational drug used in combination with therapy be approved by the FDA.”