Sahil Kirpekar

Chief Business Officer, atai Life Sciences, Angel Investor, Startup Mentor, Board Director

Sahil Kirpekar, MD is the Chief Business Officer at atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ: ATAI), a company that was created with the vision of leveraging innovation in mental health, including psychedelics to bring novel treatments to patients in neuropsychiatry. In this role, Dr. Kirpekar leads portfolio strategy, capital allocation, internal and external investments, as well as the early commercial development of atai’s pipeline. Beyond his work at atai, he is also an active angel investor, startup mentor, and board director, contributing his expertise to the broader entrepreneurial and healthcare ecosystem. Dr. Kirpekar joined atai in 2022, following over eight years at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., where he held the position of Head of Business Development and Co-Chair of the Global Business Development Committee. He orchestrated several high-profile deals valuing over $2.7 billion and played a pivotal role in launching two major drugs—Abilify Maintena (Aripiprazole) and Jinarc (Tolvaptan)—while shaping early pipeline strategies and advancing digital health tools. Additionally, he founded a company that developed a novel drug delivery device to address adherence challenges, and he has collaborated with the World Health Organization. Dr. Kirpekar is a trained physician and holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge (where he is subsequently an honorary lecturer).