About us

Impact

What is a PBC?

A public benefit corporation (PBC) is a for-profit company that is intended to produce public benefit and to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner.1

Our focus on impact

At Lykos Therapeutics, we stand at the nexus of advocacy and science. As a public benefit corporation (PBC), our focus is on the impact we deliver for the people we strive to support every day. Our strong desire to do good for our communities and society comes from our non-profit roots. We want to succeed not just for patients, but also to pave the way for others in the psychedelic ecosystem and the mental healthcare space.

For nearly 40 years, since the inception of our founding company, MAPS, we’ve been relentlessly exploring, reimagining and advocating for novel approaches to address unmet needs in the mental healthcare space. Through our evidence-based research, we aim to develop investigational psychedelic treatments to catalyze therapeutic approaches delivered by qualified healthcare providers to address mental health conditions.

a graphic that reads "what is a pbs? a public benefit corporation is a for-profit company that is intended to produce public benefit and to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner."

People, Governance, Innovation

As one of the only PBCs in the pharmaceutical space, we have an opportunity to show what this looks like. We are pioneering a paradigm shift in mental healthcare while building a sustainable business that balances business needs with a positive impact on our people, communities and society.

We think about public benefit with every decision we make. We look to make an impact across all facets of our business. We have a public benefit focus on people, including our colleagues and patients, the governance that guides our business and the innovation we use to try to address unmet mental healthcare needs. Below we have outlined our areas of focus with categories where we will measure our impact. We will publish policies that support this work over time.

a graphic that shows lykos's three areas of focus: people, governance, and innovation
Impact

Area of focus

People

We consider all our actions through the lens of providing benefits to our multiple stakeholders, including those in need of new therapies, our employees, healthcare providers and the psychedelic ecosystem.

  • Access and affordability
  • Workforce well-being
  • Public health and engagement

Governance

We aspire to be honorable corporate citizens and operate with ethics and integrity at the core of how we conduct our day-to-day business.

  • Transparency
  • Diversity, equity and inclusion
  • Business ethics
  • Environmental and supply chain sustainability

Innovation

We are committed to addressing unmet need by leveraging our research capabilities and our collaborative spirit to develop novel approaches and in turn help advance the entire psychedelic ecosystem.

  • Research innovation
  • Open science
  • Quality and safety
Tenets

Our tenets of public benefit

01
  • We intend to research and develop new options to address the global burden of mental health.
  • We are committed to maintaining quality development programs.
  • We are seeking to obtain regulatory approval and, if successful, introduce new prescription products into the healthcare system.
02
  • We seek to be an industry leader, investing significant resources in patient access programs to cover drug cost, therapy, and/or out-of-pocket expenses.
  • If our investigational products are approved, we will seek to support a range of healthcare settings from hospitals to private practices.
  • We intend to support and not interfere with non-profit organizations in the psychedelic space advancing research, education and policy work in line with our mission.
03
  • We are committed to seeking financially sustainable operations.
  • We will continue to foster inclusion within our organization and enable equitable engagement with healthcare providers and patients.
  • We will embody good environmental stewardship throughout our operations.
04
  • We plan to support novel scientific research across the industry.
  • We aim to have a transparent open-science approach to how we conduct drug development, research and commercialization.
  • We will consider seeking patents around our innovative inventions and will enforce patents judiciously and in alignment with our commitment to patient access.

1. Delaware Public Benefit Corporations—Recent Developments (harvard.edu)