Co-Founder and Advisor, Transcend Therapeutics
Blake Mandell co-founded Transcend Therapeutics and served as its CEO, leading the company from its founding through years of growth and clinical development. In 2026, Transcend was acquired by Otsuka Pharmaceutical for $700 million upfront and up to $1.225 billion in total consideration. Transcend is a neuroscience company developing rapid-acting treatments for neuropsychiatric disease, with an initial focus on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Its lead candidate, TSND-201 (methylone), a neuroplastogen, produced statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in PTSD symptoms in a Phase 2 trial, with effects that were both rapid and durable. The FDA granted TSND-201 Breakthrough Therapy designation for PTSD. The program also earned Transcend a Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher.
Under Mr. Mandell’s leadership, Transcend raised more than $100 million and advanced TSND-201 from preclinical work into Phase 3 trials. Before co-founding Transcend in 2021, Mandell led the frontier technology practice at AlleyCorp, where he identified and incubated early-stage companies, and was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. He was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and has lectured at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania.
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