Mr. Anthony Tennyson reports

AWAKN LIFE SCIENCES TO FOCUS SOLELY ON RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THERAPEUTICS TARGETING ADDICTION

Awakn Life Sciences Corp. intends to exit health care services to focus solely on research and development (R&D) of therapeutics to treat addiction and licensing of its intellectual property.

As part of this process, Awakn:

• Has signed a non-binding term sheet to exclusively license selected elements of its health care services intellectual property (IP), within the United Kingdom, and to a non-exclusive licence for Awakn Kare, also within the U.K., with a consortium consisting of a private U.K. investment company and a large U.K. third-sector addiction and mental health treatment provider, for an upfront fee and a revenue share.
• Has initiated a strategic review of its Norwegian health care clinics business unit, Awakn Oslo AS, which consists of two clinics, one in Oslo and one in Trondheim. Awakn Oslo AS generated its highest monthly revenue to date during May, 2023, driven by the opening of its Trondheim clinic in March, 2023, and its new Oslo clinic in May, 2023. As part of the strategic review, Awakn is seeking potential purchasers of Awakn Oslo AS.
• Is initiating a restructuring of its U.K. health care clinics business unit, in which Awakn's U.K. entities are expected to enter into administration or liquidation.

Awakn is undertaking these steps to focus capital currently available and to be received from the closing of future tranches of its private placement financing announced on April 26, 2023, solely on its R&D programs and its IP licensing activities.

Awakn will continue to execute its R&D strategy. Awakn's focus will be on efficiently progressing forward its clinical- and preclinical-stage pipelines, including AWKN-P001, its phase 3 lead clinical development program, targeting severe alcohol use disorder, which is majority funded by the U.K. Department of Health and is expected to start in the second half of 2023. AWKN-P001 has received 66-per-cent government funding for the cost of the trial and the backing of the U.K. National Health Service, which will be running the trial across 10 of its locations, resulting in Awakn's cost of the study being approximately 800,000 pounds sterling.

The scientific and research team at Awakn, which includes world-renowned professor David Nutt, chief research officer, professor Celia Morgan, head of ketamine-assisted therapy, and Shaun McNulty, chief scientific officer, are among some of the most experienced industry leaders and will continue to spearhead the progression of Awakn's research pipeline.

Anthony Tennyson, Awakn chief executive officer, commented: "Streamlining our operations and increasing our focus on the advancement of our pipeline, both from a resource and financial perspective, is something that is necessary, and we believe will have a positive impact for Awakn and our shareholders, to try to maximize the long-term value of each business. At the same time, the actions taken in the U.K. are deeply regrettable and not the route we had hoped for, however, critically, they provide the best outcome for continuity of care for existing clients and continuity of employment for a majority of the Awakn Clinics U.K. team."

Awakn has also agreed to issue 2.7 million share purchase warrants to a consultant of the company. The warrants shall be exercisable at 63 cents, for a period of five years from the date of issuance. The issuance of these warrants have been approved by the exchange.

About Awakn Life Sciences Corp.

Awakn Life Sciences is a biotechnology company developing therapeutics targeting addiction. Awakn has a near-term focus on alcohol use disorder (AUD), a condition affecting 285 million people globally, for which the current standard of care is inadequate. The company's goal is to provide breakthrough therapeutics to addiction sufferers in desperate need, and its strategy is focused on commercializing its R&D pipeline across multiple channels.

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