Psychedelics For Alcohol Use Disorder: Awakn Opens European Clinic, FSD Launches R&D Program

Awakn Opens Fourth European Clinic, Norway Takes Center Stage

Awakn Life Sciences Corp. AWKNF, a psychedelics biotech company with a near-term focus on Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), has opened a new clinic providing its proprietary ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) in the center of Trondheim, constituting the second of the company’s facilities in Norway and the fourth in Europe overall.

See also: Can Ketamine Treat Alcohol Addiction? The Awakn Approach

The new center will be led by Norwegian psychiatrist Ingrid Castberg, and is part of the second stage of Awakn's Nordic expansion plans together with the upcoming moving of its Oslo clinic to larger premises. 

Awakn’s expansion is being led by the company’s regional director Lowan Stewart, a renowned figure in the Nordic medical community and the person responsible for the adoption of ketamine therapy into the public healthcare system in the country.

"Our goal as a company is to provide our breakthrough therapeutics to the vast number of people who are in desperate need of a new and more effective treatment option,” said CEO Anthony Tennyson. “Our new clinic in Trondheim does exactly this and allows us to provide these treatments to a whole new cohort of people in central Norway."

FSD Pharma’s New Program

Biopharma company FSD Pharma Inc. HUGE is launching a new research and development program focused on unmet needs for patients arriving to hospital emergency rooms with high blood alcohol levels. 

Psychiatrist and member of the company’s expert advisory committee Dr. Albert Wong says that alcohol intoxication is a common presentation in many patients who visit hospital emergency rooms and that he sees this situation repeatedly in his workplace at the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)’s emergency room. 

As these presentations “can require substantial time and effort to manage,” Wong believes “anything that could accelerate recovery from alcohol intoxication would free up valuable health care resources and provide additional treatment options for alcohol use disorders.”

Lakshmi Kotra, CEO of FSD Pharma’s subsidiary Lucid Psycheceuticals, believes the company’s existing pipelines and research priorities in brain and inflammatory disorders provide “a natural extension” towards studying the effects of alcohol on the brain. 

“Our clinical and product development teams are exploring how to limit and potentially reverse the negative effects of alcohol on brain function,” he said. “There is a significant amount of research in this area already conducted by pioneers in the field, and we are bringing together our knowledge in pharmacology, regulatory strategy and product development in our search for solutions to address the effects of alcohol consumption.”

Following the new R&D plans, FSD Pharma has invited Ashwin Dhanda and Anh Lê to its scientific and clinical expert committee and will issue common share purchase warrants for 800,000 total shares. The warrants will have a 13-month term with an exercise price ranging from $1.50 to $4.50.

Photo: Benzinga edit with photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels and Jü on Wikimedia Commons.