John Bencich, CEO of Achieve Life Sciences, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss a new plant-based compound that's being used to fight nicotine addiction.

Cheddar Innovates

A New Plant-Based Way to Quit Smoking

Welcome back to Cheddar innovates brought to you by curiosity stream. Well the number of smokers in the U. S. Has gone up for the first time in 20 years. And the vaping and e. Cigarette epidemic is showing no signs of slowing down either. So our next guest is turning into a natural way of fighting nicotine addiction. And it's plant based. Joining us now is john been sick ceo of achieve life sciences. Thank you so much for being here john you gotta tell us about this awesome product and it's plant based but you know tell us how it works for example and what it can do to fight nicotine addiction. Yeah thanks for having me. So the product itself that it is naturally derived and it targets the nicotine receptors in the brain. Uh and it helps with reducing the pleasure and satisfaction that you get when you are smoking. But then it also helps with the cravings and withdrawal symptoms as you're looking to wean yourself off of cigarettes. So how was it delivered? Is it like gum? Is it a food or? Yeah so it's an oral tablet taken three times a day. So fairly simple in terms of the administration. Okay that's cool. And you just wrapped up a phase three of the studies. So what were the results? Yeah so we're pretty excited late april we had results from the first of two. Phase three trials. This was in 810 smokers here in the U. S. Smokers that were interested in quitting. And what we found was that patients on our drug were 6 to 8 times more likely to quit than those on placebo. It's a really remarkable results given what's available today, wow that's huge. And you know does it differ from other nicotine addiction treatments on the market? Now I know we've heard of the gum the patch the you know other things that people have tried. How does it differ? Yes we've got some some key differences. First and foremost it's really tolerable. Um There's been a history with the products on the market today that have had high rates of nausea, headache, abnormal dreams and nightmares. Everything we've seen on that front has been very low. And then we also have a shorter course of treatment that is half the duration of the existing products that are on the market. Okay so how long are we talking? Six weeks. So most therapies are three months or longer and so we think that shorter course is really advantageous to smokers looking to quit. Okay and this is the first time that it's been used. I mean the compound was approved in Europe 20 years ago. So what kind of results have they seen abroad? Yeah so we've seen similar results. This is a drug that's treated over 20 million patients in Europe and it's been studied extensively but never available in the US and so our focus really is to bring this drug effectively out of obscurity Uh and and to the US 1st. And then ultimately to the rest of the world. Well that would be huge if people actually want to take it because some people have no intention on quitting. But you know a lot of people have switched to E. Cigarettes and vaping is becoming epidemic almost with young people especially. So can this same product work for people who like vaping. Yeah so this drug should work in any form of nicotine addiction whether it's cigarette smoking vaping, even chewing tobacco. We actually just received a grant from the NIH for $2.5 million last week to run a proof of concept trial in nicotine E cigarette users to see if we can help them quit as well. Okay now I gotta ask this because some people a little leery about taking you know tablets. What does it taste like? Does it have a flavor? You know you know what it's like nasty or what or is it yummy. No it is coated so there's no no nasty flavors or anything like that when you take it. Okay and do we have any expected cost that this could and would be covered by insurance. Yeah no expected time frame on on cost. But what the beauty of smoking cessation products is that the affordable care act mandates that all FDA approved medications are covered. Um and the majority of them with no copay. So this should be widely accessible when it is available here in the US. So literally people have no excuse if they want to stop smoking. There are healthy plant based options out there for them. But that isn't that interesting that people would complain that something's not plant based when they're literally putting cigarettes and some would say poison in their body. It's like what you're worrying about plant based but it's a good alternative though. How soon do you think that this will be available? Yeah. So our second trial in another 750 smokers is up and running right now. We should have data on that first half of next year and then be in a position to file a new drug application with the FDA uh next year. So within the next two years this should be on the market. So then what's next for achieve life scientists? Yeah, I think once we get this on the market here in the us, you know, we're gonna be looking at taking this to the rest of the world. You know, there's still a billion smokers around the globe. Over 31 million here in the us. So there's a lot of work to be done to bring this medication out to the masses. Okay, well we hope it gets there soon because we know we need it. Thank you so much, John Benson Ceo of achieve life scientists