atai Life Sciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to transform the treatment of mental health disorders, announced that pharmacodynamic data on GRX-917, a deuterated version of etifoxine, was selected for poster presentation and presented at the Society for Biological Psychiatry (SOBP) Annual Meeting. The SOBP annual meeting is being held in San Diego from April 27–29. The analyses in the poster presentation are focused on the pharmacodynamic profile of GRX-917 and are based on the biomarker data from the completed Phase 1 study.

As measured by EEG, GRX-917 demonstrated a statistically significant increase in beta power, a marker of potential anxiolytic effects, and which is similar to what is seen with exogenous neurosteroids and benzodiazepines. Unlike benzodiazepines, however, GRX-917 was found to not reduce alpha power, the decrease of which is associated with potential sedative effects. In the Phase 1 study, GRX-917 was safe and well-tolerated, with sedation comparable to placebo and consistent with the EEG results on alpha power.