Awakn Life Sciences has filed a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application for the treatment of behavioural addictions with ketamine and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.
The successful completion of Awakn’s behavioural addictions study was announced last week and the data provided from the study was used in the patent filing.
The pilot study investigated ketamine as a potential new treatment approach for Gambling Disorder, Internet Gaming Disorder, Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder and Binge Eating Disorder.
The PCT covers all behavioural addictions or any recognised disorder or condition with similar compulsive symptoms to those in the study. If granted, the patent claims would give Awakn exclusive rights to use ketamine and ketamine-assisted therapy for the treatment of behavioural addictions.
Awakn CEO, Anthony Tennyson, commented: “Today’s news demonstrates our focus on researching, developing and commercialising therapeutics to treat addiction.
“A core part of our efforts is to continually strengthen our IP portfolio as we work to bring effective therapies to chronic addiction sufferers in desperate need.
“To be forging a path to find an effective treatment for such a vast unmet medical need is critical and an effort we are very proud to be a part of.”
With no effective pharmacological treatments available globally at present for behavioural addictions, the study results and the patent filing position Awakn at the forefront of the industry at a time when rates of behavioural addictions are increasing at an alarming pace and sufferers have few treatment options which deliver poor outcomes.
The promising results from the pilot study showed a reduction of symptoms for some participants, with some participants no longer meeting the criteria for a diagnosis. Some individuals also showed a reduction of the symptoms of a comorbid psychiatric condition, such as depression or anxiety. The treatment was also well tolerated with no safety concerns.
Gambling Disorder, Internet Gaming Disorder, and Binge Eating Order are all recognised in the DSM-5, which is a diagnostic tool that serves as the principal authority for psychiatric diagnoses in the US, and affect up to 450 million, 235 million and 100 million people respectively. While Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder, which is included in the ICD-11, affects up to 350 million[4] people.
The ICD-11 was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is the global standard for recording health information and causes of death. Current standard of care for all of these conditions is poor.
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