Overview

• AbbVie agreed to acquire bretisilocin (GM-2505) from Gilgamesh in an asset deal valued at up to $1.2 billion, combining an upfront payment with development milestones.
• Bretisilocin, a 5-HT2A agonist and 5-HT releaser, produced a statistically significant MADRS improvement at Day 14 for the 10 mg dose versus a low-dose comparator (−21.6 vs −12.1; p = 0.003) with no serious adverse events reported.
• The existing option-to-license between the companies will transfer into a newly created spinoff, Gilgamesh Pharma Inc., which will retain Gilgamesh’s employees and remaining research programs.
• Programs moving to the spinoff include the oral NMDA antagonist blixeprodil (GM-1020), a cardio-safe ibogaine analog, an M1/M4 agonist effort, and the ongoing collaboration with AbbVie.
• AbbVie said the acquisition reflects its commitment to expanding psychiatric care and that it plans to advance bretisilocin into late-stage clinical development, a step analysts view as a notable big-pharma entry into psychedelics.