If you know someone battling depression or Alzheimer’s, Dr. Herriot Tabuteau might just become your new hero. For years, millions of patients suffering from these devastating conditions have struggled with limited treatment options and slow-moving progress in the pharmaceutical industry. But thanks to a little-known doctor-turned-biotech-CEO, that tide is beginning to shift. Tabuteau is the founder and CEO of Axsome Therapeutics, a company that’s rapidly emerging as a powerhouse in neuroscience medicine. His innovative treatments are changing lives—and so is his incredible personal story.
Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, Dr. Tabuteau’s path to success didn’t follow the typical billionaire playbook. He started as a promising young medical student who could have easily pursued a prestigious career in surgery. Instead, he made a sharp—and surprising—turn into finance, combining his deep medical knowledge with business savvy. That decision would eventually help him build a multibillion-dollar company focused on treating disorders of the brain and nervous system, from major depression to Alzheimer’s-related agitation.
Today, Axsome Therapeutics is worth roughly $5 billion and climbing. Its lead drug, Auvelity, is a first-of-its-kind antidepressant already helping patients who previously had no options. Another drug, Symbravo, just received FDA approval in early 2025 to treat migraines. And more breakthroughs are coming. As for Dr. Tabuteau? Quietly and relentlessly, he’s built one of the most impactful biotech success stories of the decade, all while keeping an incredibly low public profile.
(Photo by Owen Hoffmann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Early Life: From Haiti to the Ivy League and Wall Street
Herriot Tabuteau’s story began in Haiti, where he was born before immigrating to the U.S. at the age of nine. Settling in New York City, the young Tabuteau quickly showed an academic spark. He attended Xavier High School He went on to Wesleyan University, graduating in 1989 with a degree in molecular biology and biochemistry. Not stopping there, Tabuteau earned his M.D. from Yale School of Medicine in 1994, where his honors thesis focused on neurobiology (studying drug-resistant epilepsy).
Rather than taking the typical route of patient care or surgery (his mentors thought he’d be a neurosurgeon), Tabuteau made a surprising pivot – he jumped into finance. Armed with his medical expertise, he became a healthcare analyst at Goldman Sachs and later joined a healthcare-focused hedge fund. This unusual blend of medical and Wall Street experience set the stage for his next big move.
Founding Axsome: A Mission to Tackle CNS Disorders
In 2012, Dr. Tabuteau founded Axsome Therapeutics with a clear mission: to find better treatments for debilitating central nervous system (CNS) disorders. He saw huge unmet needs in conditions like depression, chronic pain, and Alzheimer’s disease, especially the agitation that affects many Alzheimer’s patients.
In 2015, Tabuteau took Axsome public, raising funds to fuel its research. Early investors had to buckle up for a wild ride. The company had no approved drugs initially, but Tabuteau promised revolutionary approaches for CNS illnesses. Over the next few years, Axsome’s stock saw explosive growth – by 2021, the stock had skyrocketed over 500% since its IPO, giving Axsome a market cap of about $2.2 billion. That early success was driven by optimism around Axsome’s pipeline, particularly one drug that would become the company’s superstar: AXS-05.
Breakthrough Drug AXS-05: From Alzheimer’s Agitation to Depression Relief
One of Axsome’s first big innovations was AXS-05, a novel combination pill aimed at two tough problems: Alzheimer’s disease agitation and depression. Alzheimer’s agitation is a serious symptom – patients may become extremely distressed, aggressive, or hard to care for, and no FDA-approved treatment existed for this condition. Dr. Tabuteau set out to change that. AXS-05 showed such promise in early studies that the FDA granted it Breakthrough Therapy status for Alzheimer’s agitation, speeding its development. By late 2020, Axsome had launched the final trials needed for approval, aiming to bring this medication to market for Alzheimer’s patients by 2023.
But AXS-05 had another surprise up its sleeve: it turned out to be a game-changer for depression as well. In clinical trials, AXS-05 (which combines the active ingredients dextromethorphan and bupropion) delivered rapid relief for people with major depressive disorder. This was no ordinary antidepressant – it works through a novel mechanism modulating NMDA receptors, unlike traditional SSRIs. In fact, AXS-05 (branded Auvelity for depression) became the first new oral antidepressant of its kind approved in over 60 years. Psychiatrists hailed Auvelity’s 2022 FDA approval as a major milestone, noting its rapid-acting benefits (often easing depressive symptoms within one week) and innovative chemistry.
Axsome launched Auvelity in late 2022, finally giving millions of depression sufferers a fresh treatment option. It was a banner moment for Tabuteau’s company – their first internally developed drug to hit the market and a validation of his years of effort. And they weren’t stopping there.
Building a Portfolio: More Therapies on the Horizon
With Auvelity approved, Axsome quickly evolved from an R&D outfit into a commercial-stage company. Dr. Tabuteau strategically expanded Axsome’s portfolio by acquiring an existing drug called Sunosi in 2022. Sunosi (solriamfetol) is a treatment for excessive daytime sleepiness in narcolepsy or sleep apnea, and Axsome bought it from Jazz Pharmaceuticals to gain an immediate market presence. This move instantly gave Axsome a revenue-generating product and a foothold in sleep medicine.
In January 2025, Axsome won FDA approval for another key drug, Symbravo (formerly AXS-07), to treat migraines. Meanwhile, AXS-12 for narcolepsy and AXS-14 for fibromyalgia are both showing strong results in trials and could soon be approved as well. And AXS-05 is expected to make headlines again—this time as the first-ever approved treatment for Alzheimer’s-related agitation.
Skyrocketing Stock and a $1.1 Billion Fortune
Axsome went public in 2015 at $9 per share, giving it a valuation of $180 million. As I type this article, Axseom’s stock is trading at around $103 per share, giving the company a valuation of $5 billion.
Dr. Tabuteau owns 7,351,729 shares, approximately 15% of the total outstanding shares. As I type this article, his shares are worth around $760 million.
However. Just a few weeks ago, on February 21, 2025, the stock price hit $137. At that point, his shares were worth $1,007,186,873, briefly giving him billionaire status. Tabuteau is one of the very few Haitian-born (and Black) self-made billionaires in the United States.
Remarkably, despite his newfound wealth and success, Tabuteau remains as press-shy as ever. He hasn’t given a media interview since 1998, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a recent photo of him. There are exactly THREE photos of him available in Getty Images. The most recent (the one we used in this article) is from May 2019. Clearly, he prefers to let Axsome’s work speak for itself—and it’s speaking volumes.
Improving Lives and Looking Ahead
Dr. Herriot Tabuteau’s rise from immigrant student to billionaire CEO is a testament to the impact one determined innovator can have. He saw patients suffering with no solutions and vowed to change that, leveraging his rare mix of medical and financial savvy. Today, Axsome Therapeutics is delivering hope: a faster-acting antidepressant giving relief to those who didn’t respond to older meds, a new migraine pill for people who can’t afford to lose a day to pain, and the potential first-ever remedy for the devastating agitation of Alzheimer’s.
It’s not often you hear about a billionaire who earned their fortune by helping people – but that’s exactly what’s happening here. And Dr. Tabuteau isn’t done yet. With several more drugs in the pipeline and new indications on the horizon, Axsome’s story (and Tabuteau’s net worth) could climb even higher in the coming years. For now, this once under-the-radar doctor has proven that doing good can go hand-in-hand with doing well. As Axsome improves countless lives, its founder’s incredible journey shows no signs of slowing down – and we’ll be cheering him on every step of the way!
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