PharmAla Biotech Holdings has been named the exclusive supplier of both GMP and engineering MDMA to Awakn LS Europe Holdings Limited.
PharmAla is the first publicly traded company to manufacture GMP MDMA, and is the first company to make available to researchers two clinical-grade Psychedelic APIs.
Awakn is currently conducting an ongoing clinical research programme on ketamine and MDMA-assisted therapies, as well as creating and trialling a pipeline of novel patentable drugs with improved properties for treating addiction.
CEO of PharmAla, Nick Kadysh, commented: “We’ve been working with the Awakn team for several months now, to ensure they have all the material needed for their development efforts.
“Awakn and PharmAla share a bit of founding history – Professor David Nutt, who was a founding board member of PharmAla, left our board in order to take on the role of Chief Research Officer of Awakn. We think it’s completely fitting that we are able to supply Awakn with both engineering-grade and GMP LaNeo MDMA, which will grow their development programme.
“I look forward to continued collaboration with Anthony and the Awakn team.”
CEO of Awakn, Anthony Tennyson, added: “We are pleased to have selected PharmAla as the exclusive GLP and GMP MDMA supplier for our MDMA research and development programme.
“We are currently running a feasibility study to assess and potentially develop a market-ready proprietary formulation and optimised delivery route for MDMA, with the goal of reducing the treatment time for MDMA-assisted therapy.
“Having a trusted partner like PharmAla as our API supplier will reduce risk and potentially increase probability of success for this programme.”
In January 2022, Awakn signed an agreement to explore a partnership for MDMA-assisted therapy for treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder in Europe with the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) – a organisation that has pioneered MDMA-assisted psycho therapy research.
Earlier, in 2021, Awakn acquired the exclusive rights to the data from the phase IIa Bristol Imperial MDMA in Alcoholism Study (BIMA) from Imperial College London.
On 8 March, PharmAla will be hosting a webinar for researchers and clinicians on the recent changes announced by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Agency for the use of its products in upcoming clinical trials.
