Awakn: democratising access to psychedelic treatments

Awakn CEO, Anthony Tennyson, spoke to Psychedelic Health about the company’s plans to make ketamine therapy accessible to US patients.

Awakn Life Sciences is focused on researching, developing and commercialising psychedelic therapeutics to treat addiction, with a near-term focus on alcohol use disorder (AUD). 

To date, the company has opened a number of clinics – including in London and Bristol, UK and in Oslo, Norway – which will be delivering ketamine therapy for alcohol addiction. 

The company recently announced that it has entered into a licensing partnership agreement with Revitalist Lifestyle and Wellness, one of the largest publicly listed US-based ketamine wellness-clinic chains. 

Under the agreement, Revitalist will be able to treat US patients with Awakn’s proprietary ketamine-assisted therapy for the treatment of AUD.

Current access to ketamine treatment in the US is limited for patients due to its high cost, but Awakn says its treatment can be delivered in a more cost-effective manner – ultimately leading to increased access to this life-saving treatment.

Tennyson commented: “We’re focused on addiction because, unfortunately, there’s a significant and growing demand for more effective treatments for addiction. 

“In fact, there are certainly very few people who have not been directly, or by one degree of separation, affected by addiction and the current standard of care is inadequate.”

Demand for addiction treatments

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 14.5 million people in the US were living with AUD in 2019. The condition accounts for nearly three million deaths annually across the globe, having a significant negative impact on economies and healthcare systems. In the US, it costs USD$249bn (~£220.38bn) a year, and costs between €125bn (~£108.78bn) a year in the EU.

There are currently more than 14,000 addiction treatment clinics in the US, however, there are still significantly high relapse rates for alcohol addiction, showing a need for new and effective treatments.

“Despite the magnitude of the problem that alcohol use disorder causes, the current standard of care is pretty poor,” commented Tennyson. “On average, there is a 25 per cent abstinence ratio and a 75 per cent relapse rate within the current standard of care within the first 12 months post-treatment.

“So the result is that, on average, only 10 per cent of people who have alcohol use disorder seek treatment and of those 10 per cent are on a revolving door of repeated treatments. This means that there’s ongoing suffering of individuals, families and communities because current treatments don’t work.”

Awakn’s ketamine treatment was developed and validated in a Phase 2 a/b trial, which was funded 100 per cent by the UK state. Results from the trial demonstrated 86 per cent abstinence six-month post-treatment versus 2 per cent pre-trial. 

“That compares against 25 per cent in the current standard of care,” said Tennyson. “If you think about what that means, the impact that would have on liver function on other diseases, the disease burden that goes with alcohol use disorder, it is a significant improvement potentially against the current standard of care. 

“So, I think what that provides is hope for individuals, families and communities for whom the current treatments are not effective.”

Democratising access to ketamine therapy

There is currently a limited supply of experienced therapists that are able to deliver ketamine therapies, meaning it can be an expensive treatment option for patients. To tackle this challenge, through its agreement with Revitalist, Awakn will be training staff in delivering its therapy.

“We are empowering other people to deliver more effective treatments for alcohol addiction in their clinics,” said Tennyson.

“We believe we can take someone who’s got an advanced degree in psychotherapy or therapy, and one year of experience in cognitive behavioural therapy, and train them up typically in 60 to 70 hours to then be ready to start delivering this therapy,” Tennyson said.

“So, we think we’re able to solve the problem of having a limited supply of experienced therapists – we can enable clinic operators to deliver a service at a lower price point, or a higher margin, than they currently do.

“In our clinics, we already provide the services at a lower price point than our peers in other private clinics, and we are aiming for a reasonably affordable price point in our licensing business in the US.”

Awakn’s ketamine therapy, in combination with a treatment programme, is also designed to be delivered in an outpatient context, as opposed to inpatient, further reducing costs. The programme utilises manualised psychotherapy which, Tennyson says, can be delivered by relatively inexperienced therapists. 

However, despite working on lower price points and increasing clinicians that can deliver the therapy, there still remains a major challenge to fully democratise access to the treatment, Tennyson says.

“One challenge is the current regulatory status,” Tennyson commented. “That has prevented people really being able to conduct research and development. Because of the regulatory status of psychedelics – they are currently not available. Ketamine is off-label, and other compounds that are currently being used are being done on the grey markets. 

“This means it has to be paid for other people’s disposable income. Once that gets addressed, then these medicines will be on-label and the insurance markets and the public healthcare systems can start to get behind them. 

“That will enable companies like us to make these kinds of new services available to the vast majority of people for whom they’re currently not available. They are only available for the top 5 per cent of the population that have the money to pay for it – which isn’t optimal – and this is what drives us every day.”

As well as its agreement with Reviltalist, Awakn has teamed up with a second partner in Canada, Wellbeings Pain, which will enable the clinic to treat its patients with Awakn’s therapy for AUD as a co-morbidity for pain, to help increase access to the treatment for Canadian patients. 

Awakn CEO Anthony Tennyson