In its April 20 release , Helus Pharma, the commercial operating name of Cybin Inc., said Michael Cola is stepping down as chief executive effective immediately at the request of the board and that co-founder and executive chairman Eric So will again serve as interim CEO. For a psychedelic biotech heading toward a major Phase 3 readout, that is real news. But the sharper fact is timing. Helus appointed Cola on February 10 and sold him as the leader for its next phase of scale and execution. Sixty-nine days later, he was out.
What the company actually said
The new company release is narrow. It does not describe a strategy dispute, performance issue, health matter, or broader restructuring. It says only that Cola is stepping down at the board's request and that So will provide continuity while the company searches for a permanent successor. Helus also goes out of its way to keep investor attention on the same milestone it was already pointing toward: topline data from the Phase 3 APPROACH trial of HLP003, still expected in the fourth quarter.
What changed between February and April
The contrast with Helus's February 10 announcement is hard to miss. That release introduced Cola as a veteran CNS and specialty-pharma operator who could lead regulatory scale-up, commercialization planning, and capital formation. Helus framed the hire as a deliberate move from early clinical development into later-stage execution. The April 20 release unwinds that story without saying why. Publicly, the company moved from 'next phase of scale and execution' to 'continuity during this transition' in just under ten weeks.
How secondary coverage, and Psychedelic Alpha, are reading it
Immediate secondary coverage is still thin and still mostly market-facing. Investing.com , MarketScreener , and The Fly via TipRanks all frame the change as a board-requested exit followed by continuity into the HLP003 catalyst calendar. Investing.com adds some stock and pipeline context, but none of these pieces supplies a reason the board reversed course so abruptly. That absence is useful in itself: even the stronger secondaries are largely reiterating the company's transition language rather than independently explaining the leadership break.
Psychedelic Alpha adds a fuller before-and-after frame. On February 10 it ran Taking the Helm at Helus , a brief interview with Cola focused on execution, regulatory rigour, and scaling serotonergic CNS medicines. On March 11, its Pα+ Bulletin #221 led with the line 'Helus Reports Murky Phase 2a Results.' And on April 20, Alpha flagged the CEO change directly on X , writing: 'Breaking: Helus Pharma CEO, Mike Cola, Steps Down 2 Months Into Job.' That sequence does not explain the April 20 ouster, but it does show specialist coverage moving from optimism about an execution hire toward skepticism about how Helus was framing recent data and then quickly recognizing the leadership break when it happened.