Vistagen Earns Dual Honors for Mental Health Advocacy and Exceptional Workplace Culture in 2025
Vistagen (Nasdaq: VTGN), a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company revolutionizing neuroscience with its novel nose-to-brain neurocircuitry platform, has achieved significant recognition for its employee-centered workplace practices. The company, which is developing a new class of intranasal therapeutics known as pherines, announced that it has received two distinguished accolades in 2025 that reflect its unwavering dedication to employee well-being and a positive organizational culture.
For the third consecutive year, Vistagen has earned the Platinum Bell Seal for Workplace Mental Health from Mental Health America (MHA)—the highest possible rating awarded by the nation’s leading nonprofit focused on mental health advocacy. In addition, the company has once again been officially certified as a Great Place to Work®, marking its second consecutive year achieving this prominent distinction. These honors serve as powerful endorsements of Vistagen’s proactive commitment to mental health, inclusion, and employee satisfaction.
“These recognitions are an independent and meaningful reflection of our ongoing efforts to foster a workplace where our team feels supported, valued, and inspired,” said Trisha Fitzmaurice, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Vistagen. “Internally, they affirm that our people-first approach is impactful. Externally, they show our commitment to setting a high standard for prioritizing mental health and workplace culture across the industry.”
Reinforcing a Values-Driven Corporate Culture
At the heart of Vistagen’s ethos is a belief that innovation and compassion must extend beyond its pipeline and into the daily experience of its employees. The company, headquartered in South San Francisco, California, has embedded mental health as a cornerstone of its corporate culture. From leadership training and employee feedback loops to generous wellness benefits and open-door policies, Vistagen strives to create an inclusive environment where individuals feel safe, heard, and empowered.
These priorities are deeply intertwined with the company’s scientific mission. Vistagen is developing intranasal therapeutics targeting neuropsychiatric conditions such as social anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As the company innovates therapies that target the brain’s emotional pathways, it holds itself equally accountable to fostering emotional wellness internally.
Platinum Bell Seal: A Symbol of Mental Health Excellence
The Bell Seal for Workplace Mental Health is awarded by Mental Health America to employers who meet or exceed evidence-based best practices in promoting mental well-being at work. The program evaluates applicants across four key domains:
- Workplace culture
- Benefits and compensation
- Legal and ethical compliance
- Comprehensive wellness programs
Only 40% of employers assessed meet the criteria for any Bell Seal recognition, and the Platinum designation is awarded to only those scoring between 92% and 100% across all evaluation metrics. Vistagen’s third consecutive Platinum award signals not just consistency in best practices, but a leadership role in setting new benchmarks for mental health initiatives in the life sciences sector.
According to MHA, Platinum-level employers demonstrate strong mental health policies that extend far beyond compliance, integrating wellness into strategic decisions, human resources planning, and daily operations. Vistagen’s benefits package includes access to mental health resources, flexible work arrangements, educational support, and confidential peer support options.
Great Place to Work® Certification: The Employee Perspective
While the Bell Seal is based on organizational data and third-party review, the Great Place to Work® Certification™ is based directly on employee input, collected via anonymous survey and benchmarked against global standards.
The Great Place to Work® Institute reports that employees at certified workplaces are:
- 93% more likely to look forward to coming to work
- Twice as likely to feel fairly compensated
- Twice as likely to believe they receive a fair share of company profits
- Twice as likely to feel they have equitable opportunities for promotion
At Vistagen, these statistics are not just numbers—they are a reflection of an organizational culture that values transparency, trust, and collaboration. Employees cited the company’s leadership accessibility, team camaraderie, and mission-driven work as reasons for high job satisfaction.
“This certification matters because it comes from our team,” said Fitzmaurice. “Our employees’ voices are vital to shaping who we are and how we grow. Their input guides how we develop programs, where we invest, and how we measure success—not just in our science, but in how we care for one another.”
Aligning Purpose and Practice
The company’s pursuit of mental health innovation isn’t limited to the therapies it is bringing through the clinic. Vistagen believes its responsibility includes cultivating internal practices that reduce stigma, promote psychological safety, and build resilience—especially in the demanding, high-stakes environment of drug development.
Its flagship therapeutic candidates—such as PH94B (fasedienol) for social anxiety disorder and PH10 (zolunicant) for major depressive disorder—aim to offer fast-acting, non-systemic, intranasal solutions for patients with limited options. The same spirit of innovation informs its HR philosophy. Vistagen integrates science-backed strategies like mindfulness training, trauma-informed leadership coaching, and peer connection networks into its corporate ecosystem.
The company’s senior leadership, including CEO Shawn Singh, has championed policies that promote both scientific rigor and emotional intelligence in the workplace.
“Mental health is not an HR issue—it’s a leadership imperative,” Singh stated at a recent employee town hall. “If we are going to create breakthrough treatments for anxiety and depression, then we must also build a workplace where those struggling with mental health—whether today or tomorrow—can thrive without fear or stigma.”
Broader Implications for the Biopharmaceutical Industry
Vistagen’s achievements in workplace culture and mental health support stand out in the competitive, often high-pressure biopharmaceutical landscape. As companies navigate post-pandemic realities, talent retention, and evolving employee expectations, prioritizing well-being is no longer a “nice to have” but a strategic necessity.
Organizations like Mental Health America and Great Place to Work® provide data-driven frameworks for companies to measure and improve these efforts. But as Vistagen demonstrates, success depends on more than metrics—it requires genuine leadership commitment, ongoing dialogue, and the courage to challenge outdated norms about productivity and wellness.
As Vistagen continues to advance its clinical programs and commercial planning, the company’s investment in culture remains central to its sustainability and long-term success. Leadership views employee well-being as directly correlated to innovation velocity, scientific integrity, and ultimately, patient outcomes.
Future plans include expanding internal development programs focused on emotional agility, mental health literacy, and leadership mindfulness. The company also intends to enhance data transparency on internal well-being metrics, creating feedback loops that ensure continued progress.
In an industry where burnout is common and emotional labor often goes unrecognized, Vistagen is building a different kind of biopharmaceutical company—one where purpose, performance, and people are equally prioritized.
Vistagen’s dual recognition in 2025 with the Platinum Bell Seal for Workplace Mental Health and Great Place to Work® Certification offers a powerful case study in aligning corporate mission with organizational culture. It reflects not only a commitment to treating brain-based conditions through science but also a conviction that healing begins within. As the company continues to bring novel mental health treatments to patients, it is simultaneously creating a healthier, more humane workplace—one step, and one innovation, at a time.
About Vistagen
Headquartered in South San Francisco, CA, Vistagen (Nasdaq: VTGN) is a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging a deep understanding of nose-to-brain neurocircuitry to develop and commercialize a new class of intranasal product candidates called pherines. Pherines specifically and selectively bind as agonists on peripheral receptors on human nasal chemosensory neurons and are designed to rapidly activate olfactory bulb-to-brain neurocircuits believed to regulate brain areas involved in behavior and autonomic nervous system activity.
They are designed to achieve therapeutic benefits without requiring absorption into the blood or uptake into the brain, giving them the potential to be a safer alternative to other pharmacological options if successfully developed and approved.
Vistagen is passionate about developing transformative treatment options to improve the lives of individuals underserved by the current standard of care for multiple highly prevalent indications, including social anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and multiple women’s health conditions, including vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes) associated with menopause. Connect at www.Vistagen.com.
