Celadon Pharmaceuticals
Celadon Pharmaceuticals’ stock has soared more than 150% this week after news that it successfully updated its current Home Office license to allow commercial sale of its high-THC product.
It comes after news earlier this year that the MHRA had granted it an EU GMP license to manufacture high THC APIs.
GW Pharma, Brains Bioceutical, Pharmaron Manufacturing and Sterling Pharma Solutions have all received EU GMP approval from the MHRA to produce CBD APIs.
However, Celadon became the only company after GW Pharma, the world’s largest exporter of medical cannabis products, to receive EU GMP approval for high-THC APIs. It is also the second after GW Pharma to have licenses to grow and manufacture APIs.
Now that the company’s license has been officially updated by head office, Celadon can begin to “seek revenue” and begin commercial supply of its GMP pharmaceutical cannabis product.
Celadon CEO James Short said: “Following our landmark GMP certification, our updated Home Office license now gives Celadon the opportunity to generate revenue through the sale of our medicines and become a partner of choice. in the pharmaceutical cannabis sector.
“It has been a great start to 2023 for Celadon and we continue to work hard to bring our products to market and, most importantly, to the patients who need our medicines the most. »
Creso Pharma
International cannabis company Creso Pharma, which operates across Europe, Canada and the United States, has been officially censored by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
The ASX said in a market announcement earlier this week that Creso was in “serious breach” of ASX Listing Rule 10.11.
The breach related to an A$5 million share offering in which ASX said Creso had issued shares to a related party, Suburban Holdings, owned by the father of the company’s former chairman, Adam Blumenthal, Alvin Blumenthal.
Suburban reportedly issued A$1 million of the total A$5 million raised in the placement in March 2022, while the lead placement manager was Everblu Capital, Adam Blumenthal’s brokerage firm.
According to the ASX listing, at “all relevant times,” Adam Blumenthal was a director of CPH and chairman and major shareholder and controller of Everblu.
“Prior to any proposed issuance of securities, it is the responsibility of the company to identify whether it will issue equity securities to a related party and, if so, to obtain the required security holder approval before the issuance is made. CHP’s letter demonstrates that CHP has not taken appropriate steps to ensure compliance with Listing Rule 10.11.”
In its response to the ASX, Creso Pharma said the company “does not consider formal censorship appropriate and has provided submissions to the ASX on this basis for several reasons, including, but not limited to, the fact that Creso Pharma provided ASX with seven examples of other publicly traded companies that violated ASX Listing Rule 10.11 in the past three years and did not result in a censure.
Despite this, Creso says it accepts the censorship and has rectified the error per ASX guidelines.
Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies
Since early March, Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies has seen its share price jump nearly 70%, reaching its highest level since March 2022.
This happened despite the company not having released any major updates since its half-year report at the end of January 2023.
The continued rise in the stock price is likely due to two reasons. First, suggestions that the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) should deliver its verdict on OCT’s phase 1 clinical trials for its lead compound.
In a recent interview with Businesscann, The company’s recently appointed CEO, Clarissa Sowemimo-Coker, said the company expects “to hear from the MHRA any minute now, and hopefully that continues”.
“I think, especially from a retail perspective, the excitement is building and we have a pretty good group of retail investors who are very supportive.”
The second is Ms. Sowemimo-Coker herself and the company’s renewed focus on public relations and investor engagement, an issue that has become a sticking point for the previous administration.
“I’ve spent most of my time, as you’d probably expect, going out and meeting with our existing shareholders or investors and then other advisers and so on, just to build those relationships and get that support where we and keep people informed of the activity.
“And it was very successful. I was fortunate to receive some very nice gestures of support and certainly from people who were perhaps not very happy with the way things were going before. So it was really good.
SEED Innovations
AIM-listed investment firm SEED Innovations announced this week that its beneficiary company Avextra AG had successfully raised around €17m (around £15m) from “existing investors, ‘full management team and additional new European investors via a convertible loan’.
This latest fundraising, which would include a previously announced €7.4m from the first close of this round in October, will have seen the German medical cannabis vertical raise a total of €21.4m. euros since SEED’s first investment in July 2021.
Although SEED did not participate in this round, its stake in the company would now stand at 6.6%, representing an assumed book value of 5 million euros.
According to Avextra, the fundraising will be used to expand sales and distribution in European markets to “accelerate clinical trials of cannabis-based drugs, advance its R&D activities as well as continue its expansion into the German market.”
Ed McDermott, CEO of SEED, commented, “Avextra is making remarkable progress through its operational advancements, vertically integrated manufacturing capabilities and amplified R&D efforts. The company is now well funded for its future growth efforts in the European medical cannabis markets. The significant funding secured positions Avextra to become one of the few R&D and IP focused players in the global cannabis market and we look forward to following and supporting their progress.
