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OUR NEW PROFILE IS: 🇺🇸 AWKNF 🇨🇦 NEO: AWKN
Ground Floor Play Revolutionizing Addiction in a Projected $31 Billion Substance Abuse Industry
Awakn Life Sciences Bristol Clinic Receives Care Quality Commission Approval to Begin Treatments in the UK’s First Medical Psychedelic Clinic
Awakn Life SciencesAcquires Exclusive Rights to MDMA Research from Imperial College London
Awakn Life Sciences Announces Closing of Acquisition of Leading Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Clinic in Norway
CHECK OUT THE CORPORATE PRESENTATION HERE
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Hello Everyone,
We are doing something a little different today.
We are releasing profile tonight because the company is involved in a smoking hot sector with a lot of eyes on it and we wanted to give everyone ample time to get their research done. This company has a lot going on and we feel like the sky is the limit. Think about those savvy investors who foresaw the MJ or Crypto boom before it skyrocketed and became mainstream. Psychedelic medicine is literally sitting on the ground floor right now as word spreads.
Ever since Compass Pathways became the first psy-che-delic stock to go public when it IPO’d on the NASDAQ, more and more companies in the space have gone public and gone scorched earth on the market.
Most notably, we saw MindMed go on a 240% rampage in just a year from .66 to $2.25.
Want to know why investors are going so crazy over psych-e-delics stocks and why we could be overdue for yet another broad rally?
It’s simple. The Mental Health Crisis has become a pandemic and continues to deteriorate.
Especially addiction.
Addiction is currently a poorly treated, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. Individuals with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences.
We are at a crisis point in the field of mental health provision and addiction treatment.
Addiction of all kinds is regarded within the medical community as one of the world’s most severe unmet medical needs. It probably affects way more of the world’s adult population than you realize too.
Let’s look at how bad it’s gotten with substance addiction specifically, an industry worth $17 billion in 2019 that’s projected to increase to $31 billion by 2027.
- More than 20% of the global population suffers from substance addiction alone, that’s more than 1.3 billion people.
- North America accounts for 40% of this market, Europe 30%, and the rest of the World 30%
- Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) alone affects 5% of the global population.
- Behavioral addictions also affect a significant minority of the population, most of which are without any pharmacological treatments.
Nothing seems to be working. For example, when it comes to AUD, with only 16% of people seeking treatment and even with the best-in-class treatments available, relapse rates are very high. 75% of people have relapsed within 12 months.
Unlike other medical disciplines, psychiatry focuses on maintenance rather than cure, and symptom suppression rather than addressing the root causes of these illnesses.
That’s where psy-che-delics and psy-che-delic-assisted psychotherapy can play a potentially revolutionary role. Simply put, it could radically change addiction treatment with significantly better patient outcomes in unprecedented ways.
This is precisely why a biotech innovator like Awakn Life Sciences (NEO: AWKN) (OTCQB: AWKNF) could become the leading face of transforming in this underserved market. All via clinical operations, R&D, and delivering psy-che-delic medicine.
This is bar-none, a significant current, and future market opportunity.
CURRENT PIPELINE
Clinic Revenue
- Licensing Partnership Revenue– Anticipated to start in 2022 (Outside of U.K. and Europe)
- Therapeutic Commercialization– Anticipated by 2025+.
- Drug Discovery Revenue- Anticipated in 2028+.
AWKNF is on the move as of late. We are seeing this one just start to trade as it moves north on interest.
RECENT NEWS
Awakn Life Sciences Bristol Clinic Receives Care Quality Commission Approval to Begin Treatments in the UK’s First Medical Psychedelic Clinic
Toronto, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – October 20, 2021) – Awakn Life Sciences Corp. (NEO: AWKN) (OTCQB: AWKNF) (FSE: 954) (‘Awakn’), a biotechnology company developing and delivering psychedelic therapeutics (medicines and therapies) to treat addiction, announced today that Awakn Clinics Bristol has received Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) formal approval to begin treatments.
“This is a very exciting moment for Awakn Life Sciences, but more importantly for anyone suffering from addiction or other mental health issues in the U.K.,” said Dr. Ben Sessa, Chief Medical Officer of Awakn Life Sciences. “The recognition from the CQC is a step forward in having psychedelic therapies become a part of mainstream treatments. With the Bristol clinic recognized, Awakn remains committed to having clinical operations open to the public, to help those people who need it the most.”
Awakn Clinics Bristol is the second of three Awakn clinics to be operational this year: Bristol and London in the U.K. and Oslo in Norway which was the first. Treatments at the clinic will be led by on-site psychiatrists and will treat a number of mental health disorders and addictions.
The ketamine treatments remain subject to receipt of a final schedule 2 license from the Home Office, which the Company expects to receive in the near future.
Awakn Life Sciences Announces Closing of Acquisition of Leading Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Clinic in Norway
Toronto, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – October 5, 2021) – Awakn Life Sciences Corp. (NEO: AWKN) (OTCQB: AWKNF) (FSE: 954) (“Awakn” or the “Company”), a biotechnology company developing and delivering psychedelic therapeutics (medicines and therapies) to treat addiction, is pleased to announce the closing of its acquisition of Axonklinikken AS (“Axon”), a leading ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinic in Norway, as previously announced on September 16, 2021. Upon the completion of the transaction, Axon will be renamed ‘Awakn Clinics Oslo AS,’ and Dr. Lowan Stewart will be appointed as Regional Director for the Nordics and Managing Director Awakn Clinics Oslo AS.
Awakn Clinics Oslo AS Clinic will serve as the Nordic hub from which Awakn plans to expand its clinical network across the region. The acquisition is part of Awakn’s larger strategy to open several addiction and mental health clinics across Europe, including two clinics in the U.K., Bristol and London, that Awakn anticipates being operational this year. Awakn Clinics Oslo AS, led by Dr. Stewart, will be focused on delivering ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for patients and eventually will incorporate ketamine in the Reduction of Alcoholic Relapse’ (KARE) psychotherapy intervention, validated in a phase II ab clinical trial led by the University of Exeter and licensed by Awakn on March 2, 2021.
“The close of our acquisition in Norway is a key strategic milestone in making psychedelic therapeutics to treat addiction a mainstream treatment – helping individuals and their families to move past their addictions and live a fuller life,” said Anthony Tennyson, Awakn’s CEO. “This acquisition will enable Awakn to demonstrate the depth of our three-pronged revenue generation strategy: clinics in the U.K. and Europe, licensing partnership beyond the U.K. and Europe, and therapeutics commercialization. We look forward to opening more clinics across the Nordic region and globally as we aim to become the leading authority in the development and delivery of psychedelic therapeutics.”
Pursuant to the terms of the transaction, Awakn has issued to the shareholders of Axon an aggregate of 200,000 common shares of Awakn at a deemed price of CAD$2.50. The initial 200,000 common shares issued are subject to a lock-up resulting in 10% having been released immediately on closing of the acquisition and 15% to be released every three months thereafter. Awakn has also agreed to pay to the shareholders of Axon the following additional consideration (the “Additional Consideration”) of up CAD$1.35m based on Axon meeting certain milestones:
- Opening a second clinic in Norway.
- Opening a first clinic in a second Nordic country.
- Opening a first clinic in a third Nordic country.
- Achieving agreed revenue and EBIDTA targets.
Awakn shall have the option to pay any amount of the Additional Consideration in cash or common shares at its option. The value to calculate the number of the common shares to be issued shall be the greater of (i) a 10-day volume weighted average price, (ii) the minimum price allowable by the NEO Exchange, and (iii) CAD$2.50.
Awakn Life SciencesAcquires Exclusive Rights to MDMA Research from Imperial College London
Toronto, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – September 23, 2021) – Awakn Life Sciences Corp., (NEO: AWKN) (OTCQB: AWKNF) (FSE: 954) (Awakn) a biotechnology company developing and delivering psychedelic therapeutics to treat addiction, announced today that it has acquired the exclusive rights to the data from the phase IIa Bristol Imperial MDMA in Alcoholism Study (BIMA) from Imperial College London, which has one of the world’s leading psychedelics research centers.
BIMA was an Open-label safety, tolerability and proof-of-concept study to investigate the role of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy in treating patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD). It was the first published study assessing MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy as a treatment for addiction. The results which were published in February 2021, indicated that MDMA has the potential to be more effective at treating AUD. With a 20% relapse rate within the first nine months, compared to 75% relapse rate with traditional treatments.
This data will assist Awakn’s progress by enabling a better design and more efficient execution of its clinical program. Awakn will now be able to accelerate its clinical research into a phase IIb randomized controlled trial (RCT) in the U.K. This is part of its strategy to secure marketing authorization for MDMA to treat AUD in both the U.K. and the European Union, a 400 million person territory.
“Drinking behavior outcomes from the BIMA phase IIa study that Awakn just acquired indicates that MDMA has the potential to be more effective at treating AUD, with only a 20% relapse rate within the first nine months. This compares very favourably with the current best available traditional treatments for patients’ post-detox with AUD,” said Dr. Ben Sessa, Chief Medical Officer of Awakn and the principal investigator of the BIMA study.
He continued, “This data acquisition is an important step along Awakn’s path to providing lifesaving MDMA treatment to the millions of people currently suffering with AUD, offering better outcomes without the exorbitant rates of relapse.”
AUD is a serious and currently poorly treated disorder, affecting 5% of the global adult population. Treatment of AUD rates are low at 16%.
Awakn clinics: A new hope for addiction
Awakn’s clinics which will open in late 2021, will be CQC licenced and will deliver bespoke psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, to help clients overcome addiction, depression, PTSD and a number of other indications.
Our first treatment will be ketamine-assisted therapy – which will use dosing and therapy regimes developed through our KARE clinical trial.
This treatment is different to many existing ketamine treatments, which use ketamine as a short-acting antidepressant to supress symptoms, and view the dissociative responses as unwanted side-effects. Instead, Awakn clinicians carefully harness these experiences to develop a shared understanding of the client’s difficulties, and deliver a therapeutic treatment plan to address underlying traumas.
Our treatments are bespoke to each client, and may include a lower dose with self-reflection or a higher dose in which the client has a more intense, powerful, internal experience. Most courses will include 10-12 therapy sessions with 3-4 dosing sessions.
CEO INTERVIEW
BIG MOVES AND STRONG PARTNERSHIPS
On Sep 15, 2021, Awakn announced that it closed the July 31 ‘21 Q well capitalized with approximately $8.8M of cash on hand.
In addition, it also proudly reported several impressive business highlights, including
- Filed provisional patent applications in the U.S. for two next-generation novel MD-MA-derived new chemical entities, AWKN001 and AWKN002, further strengthening the company’s intellectual property portfolio and pipeline for the treatment of a broad range of addictions, including, but not limited to alcohol, opioid and behavioral, such as gambling.
- Initiated a new chemical entity (NCE) dr-ug discovery program to strengthen Awakn’s pipeline to treat a broad range of substance and behavioral addictions. The program is led by Prof David Nutt. The first project in the program is a two-stage ten-month Hit to Lead (HtL) dr-ug discovery program, with results from the first stage due in early Q4 2021.
- Initiated a Keta-mine research program designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of keta-mine-assisted psychotherapy against multiple addictions, initially focusing on treating AUD and gambling addiction.
- Signed a 10-year lease to open Awakn Clinics London, a psy-che-delic-focused therapy center to treat addiction and other mental health conditions. Awakn Clinics London will be approximately 4,419 square feet and will host eight treatment rooms.
- Established preclinical and clinical expert advisory boards by separating its current advisory board while adding Prof. Stephen Husbands (University of Bath), Prof. Harriet de Wit (University of Chicago), and Prof Kevin Fone (University of Nottingham). Each of the two boards is to be chaired by Professor David Nutt, Chief Research Officer.
Yet, the company has not rested on its laurels. Since that announcement, it has accomplished the following:
- Sep 16, 2021: Acquired a leading keta-mine-assisted psychotherapy clinic in Norway. It acquired a 100% interest in Axonklinikken AS (“Axon”), which will be renamed ‘Awakn Oslo AS. This acquisition intends to help Awakn accelerate its clinic rollout program. Awakn will now parallel path its regional expansion plans in the Nordics (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland) and the U.K. & Ireland, territories with a combined 100m population and US$5trn GDP.
This clinic plans to serve as Awakn’s regional hub for expansion across the Nordics. This should significantly support the two other clinics Awakn plans to have operational this fiscal year (Bristol and London). All of these facilities are expected to begin generating revenue in the near term.
“This is a key element of our goal for Awakn to become the leading authority in the development and delivery of psy-che-delic therapeutics to treat addiction,” said Anthony Tennyson, Awakn’s CEO.
On Oct 5, 2021, the Axonklinikken AS acquisition officially closed.
- Sep 23, 2021: Acquired exclusive rights to MD-MA Research from Imperial College London, one of the world’s leading psy-che-delics research centers. From the phase IIa Bristol Imperial MDMA in Alcoholism Study (BIMA), this research was the world’s first published study assessing MD-MA-assisted psychotherapy as an addiction treatment.
The results from this study, published in February 2021, indicated that MD-MA can be more effective at treating AUD. MD-MA treatments showed a 20% relapse rate within the first nine months, compared to a 75% relapse rate with traditional therapies treatments.
This data is valuable because it can assist Awakn’s progress by enabling a better design and more efficient execution of its clinical program. The company can now accelerate its clinical research into a phase IIb randomized controlled trial (RCT) in the U.K. This is part of its strategy to secure marketing authorization for MDMA to treat AUD in both the U.K. and the European Union, a 400 million person territory.
These moves may only be the start of Awakn’s worldwide conquest. By Q4 2021 and H1 2022, it anticipates even more expansion with the following moves:
- In vitro data due from Awakn’s HtL dr-ug discovery program – early Q4 2021.
- In vivo data due from Awakn’s HtL dr-ug discovery program – Q1 2022.
- Publication of the results of our acquired Phase II ab for ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for AUD in Q4 2021.
- Completion of Gambling addiction study – H1 2022.
- Ethics and regulatory approval for world’s only phase IIb trial for MDMA to treat AUD.
- Awakn’s clinical rollout plan helping the company become the leading authority in the development and delivery of psy-che-delic-assisted psychotherapy clinics in the U.K. and across Europe
- Clinics to open in 2021: Oslo, Bristol & London.
- Clinics to open in 2022: Manchester, London 2, Birmingham, Dublin, Nordics 2, UK x 1 more.
- Clinics to open in 2023+: Nordics x3, DACH, Benelux, France, Iberia, Eastern Europe.
NEWS
MANAGEMENT
Anthony Tennyson
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Anthony is an experienced financial services industry executive with 10 years in international strategy, commercial leadership roles with Aon plc, and 5 years with Merrill Lynch and Bank of Ireland.
Anthony holds an MBA in Strategy and Finance and an MSc in Technology both from UCD, Ireland’s top ranked business school.
Jonathan Held
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Jonathan is a chartered professional accountant, with CFO level experience for private / public companies.
Jonathan has worked in a number of sectors including technology, biotech and natural resources, both domestic and international, and has been involved in numerous successful public market transactions including Initial Public Offerings, Reverse Takeovers and financings.
James Collins
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
James is a senior business leader and mental health champion with 17 years of experience with Accenture Strategy, 7 years as MD, designing and delivering corporate, digital and operating model strategies.
James holds a BSc and MPhil in Psychology from University College London (UCL).
Prof. David Nutt
CHIEF RESEARCH OFFICER
David is a psychiatrist and the Edmund J. Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology in the Division of Brain Science, Dept of Medicine, Imperial College London. Here he uses a range of brain imaging techniques to explore the causes of addiction and other psychiatric disorders and to search for new treatments. He has published over 400 original research papers, a similar number of reviews and books chapters, eight government reports on drugs and 28 books, including one for the general public, Drugs: Without The Hot Air, that won the Transmission Prize in 2014.
He is currently the President of the European Brain Council and Founding Chair of Drug Science. Previously he has been president of the British Association of Psychopharmacology, the British Neuroscience Association, and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He broadcasts widely to the general public both on radio and television. In 2010 The Times Eureka science magazine voted him one of the 100 most important figures in British Science, and the only psychiatrist in the list. In 2013 he was awarded the John Maddox Prize from Nature/Sense about Science for standing up for science.
Doriann Bailey
QUALITY, SAFETY AND RISK LEAD AND NOMINATED INDIVIDUAL
Doriann is passionate about the provision of high quality, safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led healthcare services. She is a seasoned and highly effective strategic and operational senior professional. Doriann has over 30 years of clinical and managerial experience in various NHS and Independent organisations.
As well as being a Specialist Advisor (Governance) for The Care Quality Commission (CQC), Doriann is a qualified nurse and midwife. Doriann currently occupies the roles of Quality, Safety and Risk Lead and Nominated Individual for all UK Awakn Clinics.
Prof. Celia Morgan
HEAD OF KETAMINE ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR ADDICTION
Celia is a Professor of Psychopharmacology at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.
Prof. Morgan completed her undergraduate degree and Ph.D at University College London (UCL) and completed a scholarship programme at Yale University. After competing her Ph.D Prof. Morgan worked at University of Melbourne as a visiting research fellow, returning to UCL for a fellowship and then Lectureship. She joined University of Exeter as a Senior Lecturer in 2013 and was given a Chair in Psychopharmacology in 2015.
Prof. Morgan also holds an Honorary Readership at University College London. Prof. Morgan is academic lead for both Exeter Translational Addiction Partnership (ETAP) and Ketamine for Reduction of Alcoholic Relapse (KARE).
Dr. Ben Sessa
CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER
Ben has specialist training as a child and adolescent psychiatrist and is interested in the developmental trajectory from child maltreatment to adult mental health disorders, including adult addictions. Dr Sessa’s joint interests in psychotherapy, pharmacology and trauma have led him towards researching the subject of drug-assisted psychotherapy using psychedelic adjuncts. In the last 15 years he has been part of scientific and clinical studies administering LSD, psilocybin, ketamine, MDMA and DMT to patients and volunteers.
He is the author of psychedelic medical exploration books; The Psychedelic Renaissance (2012 and 2017) and To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic (2015). He has recently completed research with Imperial College London exploring the world’s first MDMA-assisted therapy trial for the treatment of Alcohol Dependence Syndrome.
Alongside Prof. David Nutt, Ben has also been a long term advocate of drug policy reform in the UK; believing that current laws hamper research and increase, rather than reduce, the burden of problematic drug use on individuals and society.
Dr. Shaun McNulty
CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER
Shaun holds a D.Phil. in CNS cell signalling from the University of York and researched neurotransmitter-regulated pathways controlling circadian function and behaviour at the University of Cambridge, UK.