“Many biotech stocks are cheap atm. IMO @atai_life stands out for 2 reasons: size of market (unfortunately) & fact that compounds historically selected by atai have prior human or anecdotal evidence. Hence I increased my stake via capped call of 1m shares as filing today”
This was the tweet yesterday from atai Life Science founder and chairman Christian Angermayer. It’s an eye-catching headline, but also one with some significance behind it.
With the psychedelic medicine market in a seemingly perpetual funk, it’s easy for pessimism to build and for the lack of big announcements to be mistaken for lack of progress.
Psychedelic medicine has always been a long-term play, something not very conducive for short-term investors and social media news feeds. Which is why news that the founder of the industry’s biggest player is doubling down to the tune of (approx) $5 million dollars of his own money is indeed noteworthy.
Insiders investing in their own firms is an important behind-the-scenes insight into the health and potential of a company; and in this case it also doubles as a more macro reminder — to be patient and remember that just because the markets are down doesn’t mean the validity of the industry’s investment proposition has changed.
Again, this is a long-term play and Christian Angermayer has just given us a multi-million dollar reminder.
1/2 Many biotech stocks are cheap atm. IMO @atai_life stands out for 2 reasons: size of market (unfortunately) & fact that compounds historically selected by atai have prior human or anecdotal evidence. Hence I increased my stake via capped call of 1m shares as filing today $ATAI
— Christian Angermayer (@C_Angermayer) April 7, 2022
For some more context on the confidence levels of atai’s leadership, a few months ago the company’s executives and early investors entered into a voluntary lock-up, extending restrictions on them being able to trade their atai shares (extended by 12-to-24 months). This shows that the people most intimately involved with — and most deeply invested in — the company are in it for the long run.
See below from atai’s December press release and here for some personal comments from Angermayer.
“… decided to voluntarily extend its lock-up for all of its pre-IPO common shares for another 24 months, subject to limited exceptions. These shares represent approximately 17.4% of atai’s outstanding common shares.
In addition, other of atai’s largest pre-IPO investors have similarly signed voluntary agreements, extending their respective lock-up restrictions for an additional 12 months, subject to limited exceptions.
In the aggregate, these renewed lock-up agreements represent over 30% of atai’s outstanding common shares and illustrate the confidence of atai’s key shareholders in atai’s platform and its potential to address the growing mental health crisis.
So thanks for the reminder. One that leads us to close with both the standard “this is not investment advice…” and the meme-like “Buy The Dip”?
Have a good weekend.
