News Summary

Antonio Gracias, a close associate of Elon Musk, has assumed control of Lykos Therapeutics, a leading MDMA therapy company in the US. The transition follows a pivotal meeting with Rick Doblin, founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), at the Burning Man festival. Despite a recent FDA rejection of Lykos’s application for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy due to inadequate trial data, Gracias and British hedge fund billionaire Christopher Hohn led a $50 million Series B funding round to recapitalize the company. The takeover by Gracias, who had been engaged with Doge, a controversial government efficiency department, raises ethical concerns about the crossover between public service and private enterprise. Lykos’s future now depends on navigating the regulatory landscape under the Trump administration, which is pushing for accelerated approval of psychedelic therapies.