Is Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies aiming for unicorn status?
“…We have the potential to turn Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies into the next GW Pharmaceuticals in terms of patients we help and the lives that we save, and in terms of the valuation that can be achieved…”
The stock market’s latest cannabinoid-related IPO of 2021 has ambitions of a billion pound market capitalisation and entry into a biopharma ‘celebrity’ hall of fame for pain relief and the antidote to the global opioid overprescription crisis.
Created just four years ago, Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies already has recognition within the industry and the world of rap music. In terms of hip hop, Snoop Dogg is involved by virtue of an investment made by Snoop’s Casa Verde Capital investment fund.
FTSE 100 Imperial Brands is represented on the board by Bishrut Mukherjee after the blue chip’s investment in the company that hopes to have its first product signed off by regulators and launched by 2027.
Co-founder and executive chairman Neil Mahapatra is confident this will be achieved and proudly continues to name drop the stellar network he’s assembled. Next on the roll call is #OCTP’s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Valentino Parravicini who is overseeing all of the ongoing drug discovery and development studies, including pre-clinical development of OCT461201, believed to be a potentially effective treatment for irritable bowel syndrome and other diseases.
It is hugely unfair not to give column inches to the other board members, but they all belong to a team that Mahapatra believes will remain in place for at least a decade. They are all in alignment with shareholders and incentivised with options that have a strike price which is at a 30% premium to the IPO price of 5p.
Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies is going down the clinical route to ensure standardisation across the entire spectrum of the business from board to product to ensure excellence, and hopefully a valuation along the lines of GW Pharmaceuticals bought by Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $7.2 billion.
Listen to Neil talk to Sarah Lowther about the purpose of the company, the pathway to product launch and the exciting journey for investors to come.
Watch Neil talk to ProactiveUK’s Katie Pilbeam about the four drug development programmes the company wants to progress.
Read the company’s prospectus here
Follow the company on twitter @OxCanTech
The author was remunerated but does not hold shares in the company
