How Gilgamesh Landed a $1.2B AbbVie Deal in Psychedelics

Welcome back to Business Trip by PsyMed Ventures, a podcast exploring the future of mental and brain health & the startups building it! 🧠

Today’s episode dives deep into the science and business of next-generation psychedelic medicines — and what it actually takes to build a pharma-grade company in this space. Greg Kubin and Matias Serebrinsky speak with Jonathan Sporn, CEO and co-founder of Gilgamesh Pharma. Jonathan spent over 15 years at Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and the NIH before co-founding Gilgamesh with a clear thesis: develop psychedelic drugs the way large pharma would. Last year, that bet paid off — Gilgamesh sold its lead asset, a short-acting psychedelic compound, to AbbVie in a deal worth up to $1.2 billion. This is the first long-form interview where they talk about it.

In this episode, we discuss:
• Why Gilgamesh is building psychedelic medicines the way large pharma would
• The thesis behind short-acting psychedelics and why long-duration trips are impractical for real-world psychiatry
• How Gilgamesh designs molecules backwards from clinical needs
• Effective approaches to the challenges of trial designs for psychedelics
• What AbbVie’s deal and Spravato’s trajectory mean for psychedelics
• How psychedelic medicines could reshape mental health

Listen to the episode here, on Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts.

Once you’ve finished the episode, we’d love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us at @psymedventures or email us at hi@psymed.ventures to share your views.

P.S. Do you know someone who would enjoy the Business Trip by PsyMed Ventures podcast? Feel free to share this newsletter by clicking the link below and hitting the ❤️ button on this post to help us reach more people on Substack 🙏