This was the world’s first published study assessing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for addiction
TORONTO, September 23, 2021 – Awakn Life Sciences Corp. (Awakn), (NEO: AWKN) (OTCQB: AWKNF) (FSE: 954) 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%.
About Awakn Life Sciences Corp.
Awakn Life Sciences is a biotechnology company with clinical operations, developing and delivering psychedelic therapeutics (drugs and therapies to be used in combination) to better treat addiction. Awakn’s team consists of world leading chemists, scientists, psychiatrists, and psychologists who are developing and advancing the next generation of psychedelic drugs, therapies, and enabling technologies to treat addiction. Awakn will also deliver evidence backed psychedelic therapies for addiction in clinics in the U.K. and Europe and through licensing partnerships globally.
www.awaknlifesciences.com | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook
About Imperial College London
Imperial College London is one of the world's leading universities. The College's 20,000 students and 8,000 staff are working to solve to the biggest challenges in science, medicine, engineering, and business.
Imperial is the world's fifth most international university, according to Times Higher Education, with academic ties to more than 150 countries. Reuters named the College as the UK's most innovative university because of its exceptional entrepreneurial culture and ties to industry.
Imperial staff, students and alumni are working round-the-clock to combat COVID-19. Imperial has nearly two thousand key workers, and is at the forefront of coronavirus epidemiology, virology, vaccine development and diagnostics. More than one thousand Imperial staff and students are volunteering to support the NHS.
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/
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