Greg Bates

Dr. Greg Bates, a veterinarian by training, joined atai Life Sciences as Regulatory Affairs Lead in June 2019. He is a pharmaceutical executive with more than 30 years of international industry experience in regulatory affairs encompassing the regulation of veterinary and human pharmaceuticals, biologics, and live biotherapeutic products (LBP), as well as devices and dietary supplements.

Prior to joining atai, Greg served as Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Axial Biotherapeutics, Inc., a neurology based therapeutic development company focused on the gut-brain axis. Prior to joining Axial, Greg served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Depomed, Inc. where he focused on the support and development of marketed and investigational pain medications, including atypical opioids such as tapentadol (Nucynta) and the investigational compound cebranopadol (a mixed/NOP agonist). Prior to Depomed, Greg served on the senior management team of Xenoport, Inc. as Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance and, prior to that, as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. During his tenure at XenoPort, he successfully led the company’s NDA and sNDA filings and approvals for its Restless Leg Syndrome and Postherpetic Neuralgia drug, Horizant (gabapentin enacarbil), and helped transform the company from a development stage to a commercial stage company. Prior to XenoPort, Greg served as the Senior Director and Director of Regulatory Affairs at Pharmacyclics, Inc., where he directed regulatory affairs and coordinated communications with global regulatory agencies. In his early career, he served in regulatory affairs positions at Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc., Genentech, Inc., and Syntex (USA), Inc. He began his pharmaceutical career at Syntex where he worked as a researcher in cardiovascular pharmacology, a laboratory animal veterinarian, the Chairman of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and the Director of Animal Health Regulatory Affairs. Greg has an undergraduate degree in human physiology and neuroanatomy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of California, Davis.

Greg’s passion is science-based drug development and regulation, where he can apply his scientific and medical training to the development of novel therapeutics. He has worked in diverse therapeutic areas such as cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, dermatology, oncology, neurology, addiction and pain. He has experience that ranges from the support of compounds in discovery through the development, approval and marketing of drug products, including the regulation and management of advertising and promotion.