PRESENTING COMPANIES
Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies (LSE:OCTP)
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OCT is a pharmaceutical company focused on the development of cannabinoid-based prescription medicines to target indications in the £42.5bn pain market, with regulatory marketing approval from agencies including the FDA, EMA and MHRA.
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OCT aims to become a global leader in developing prescription medicines that target the endocannabinoid system and address significant unmet medical needs.
This includes an umbrella research collaboration agreement that was signed with the University of Oxford when OCT launched, and is continually evolving, with new partners engaged across the value chain to drive further research and development activities.
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To achieve our aim, we use a drug development strategy that includes three inputs, in order to create a drug portfolio that balances risk, value and time to market, whilst ensuring market exclusivity around all of its key activities:
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Unmodified natural compounds derived from cannabis (pCBs) and other cannabis-based compounds, targeting orphan indications.
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Cannabinoid derivatives, which are pCBs that have been chemically modified through medicinal chemistry to improve physicochemical properties and drug-like characteristics.
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Synthetic cannabinoids, or cannabinoid memetics, which are compounds that target cannabinoid receptors but are structurally distinct from pCBs.
Neil Mahapatra - Chairman​
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Neil Mahapatra is a Co-founder of OCT and serves as Executive Chairman of the Company. He has nearly two decades of experience in business and the investment industry. He began his career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley International plc, in healthcare corporate finance and UK equity capital markets before becoming a private equity executive at J. Rothschild Capital Management Limited, where he led private investments for the family office of Lord Rothschild and RIT Capital Partners plc.
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Neil is a known and respected leader in the European cannabis industry. Neil is the founder of London-based multi-family private investment firm Kingsley Capital Partners LLP, where he is Managing Partner. Through KCP, Neil sponsored and launched the End our Pain campaign, a prominent campaign that was instrumental in effecting the UK government reforms to medical cannabis legislation in 2018.
Neil holds a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford Union, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Before starting his undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford, Neil spent a year performing genetic research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, where he was chosen by Professor James D Watson, Nobel Laureate for elucidating the structure of DNA.
Kanabo Group (LSE:KNB)​
Kanabo is creating a new standard in the medical cannabis industry by improving the well-being of millions around the world. We focus on the distribution of Cannabis-derived products for medical patients, and non-THC products for CBD consumers.
We have conducted extensive R&D in order to develop high-quality Cannabis extract formulas, innovative medical-grade vaporizers, and various non-smoking consumption solutions – making use easy and accessible for anyone in need of treatment. Clinical and validation activities, including safety and efficiency tests, are conducted in Israel – an established leader in the Cannabis industry.
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The company is selling initial products in Europe already, and is ready to scale up to meet market demands and projected sales and revenues.
Avihu Tamir - CEO​
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Mr. Tamir is a cannabis entrepreneur with five years hands-on experience in multiple cannabis ventures and has vast experience in consulting for international cannabis projects. Mr. Tamir began his career and built his reputation as a senior strategy consultant at Accenture. He is also the founder of Teva Nature, the leading vaporizer company in Israel.
Mr. Tamir founded Kanabo Research in 2016 and since then has served as its CEO of the company. His expertise includes biotechnology, new agriculture and agro-tech, and other breakthrough technologies in the dynamic field of Medical Cannabis.
Mr. Tamir holds a B.A. in Finance and Risk Management (Magna Cum Laude), and a M.A. in Political Science (Magna Cum Laude) from the IDC Herzliya.
MGC Pharmaceuticals (LSE:MXC, ASX:MXC)​
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MGC Pharma implementing a “Nature to Medicine” core strategy. The company’s mission is to build an innovative, global bio-pharma company providing standardised, affordable plant derived medicines of the highest regulatory compliance for targeted global markets.
MGC currently holds pipelines for phytocannabinoid-based medications and unique formulations (Phytomedicines), both proprietary and for third parties, all under GMP certified regulations and facilities. This includes our ability to create API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) of various phytocannabinoids alongside compounding to be used in the pharmaceutical treatment and research globally.
MGC has developed an efficient production pipeline of phytocannabinoid derived medications, with multiple products currently being prescribed to patients, and products currently in clinical development and testing.
Roby Zomer - Co-Founder, MD & CEO​
Mr. Zomer was recruited into MGC by it’s founders at the inception of the company, and has since served in multiple roles in the company, culminating with his current role as MD and CEO. With ten years of experience in large scale projects in the Biotech and Agrotech sectors, Mr. Zomer has been crucial in moving MGC from a Cannabis Concept to a fully functioning BioPharma company with global activities. This was part of the vision that has allowed MGC to launch, and divest itself of, both a Cannabis Cosmetic company (MGC Derma) and a Lifestyle Company (MGC Nutra), which were both crucial building blocks to centralizing the company’s pharma vision and activities. Over the past year, Mr. Zomer has been crucial to solidifying the company’s standing as a leading provider of phytomedicines in several regions globally, has successfully launched a product, ArtemiC, which is proving an effective treatment against symptoms of COVID-19, backed by ongoing clinical trials. Additionally, he has put his engineering and medical background into play, and has put a significant emphasis on the company’s research and development activities, leading to possibilities of distribution and collaboration in several compelling markets around the globe.
Equinox International (Private)​
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Equinox International is a British medical cannabis company.
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The team behind Equinox has been active in the global cannabis industry since 2015 and combines extensive knowledge of the medical cannabis industry with scientific expertise, research and diverse business experience.
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Equinox has been working closely with governments in Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, championing the establishment of legal medical cannabis programmes, sharing industry knowledge and expertise, and promoting best practices.
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We are determined to advance the industry by driving innovation in plant genetics, agricultural techniques, proprietary formulation, product development and processing technologies, while ensuring strict compliance and quality assurance at all levels of our business.
Xan Morgan - CEO​
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Xan is the co-founder and CEO of Equinox International, with overall responsibility for growth and strategic direction of the company. Previously he spent 11 years as founding member and director of Bluewater Bio, an international water and wastewater company providing technology, engineering, operation and infrastructure management services. Xan's family business, Morgan Motor Company, has been manufacturing hand-built British sports cars with a unique blend of charisma, craftsmanship and performance for 110 years.
Xan has extensive experience working with governments across the globe and developing market leading innovative projects.
Alta Flora (Private) ​
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At Alta Flora we provide a real-world, real-time research platform to answer questions that conventional methods cannot. We offer a novel approach to safety with a patient-led, remote monitoring platform.
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Our mobile app Eva was created first and foremost to support patients—and this powers our research platform. We believe new opportunities lie in developing technology in partnership with patients instead of forcing it upon them.
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We offer a low-cost way to conduct research involving real-world patient reported data. Eva has been developed in conjunction with patients so projects benefit from using technology designed with empathy for the end-user.
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Eva supports patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), symptom diaries, validated Quality of Life tools and treatment monitoring.
Eva is designed to support patients beyond the end of any individual project which means we can offer completely new type of patient-powered data for pharmacovigilance and post-release monitoring.
Gavin Sathianathan - CEO​
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Gavin Sathianathan is widely recognised as a leader in the European cannabis industry. He began his career in management consulting at Bain & Company Holdings Limited, spending four years in London before moving to Delhi as part of the founding team of Bain’s India operation. Gavin then pursued a career in the technology industry, where he was part of the early team at Facebook UK Ltd, driving adoption of the Facebook platform with the start-up ecosystem and building the Facebook profit and loss through relationships with some of the largest advertisers in the world. Gavin has also held senior executive roles at Endemol Shine Group Limited where he was Director of Business Development and Tesco Plc, where he was a managing director focused on data and digital media.
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In 2018, Mr Sathianathan founded Alta Flora Ltd, a digital health platform focused on novel therapeutics including medical cannabis where he is currently the CEO. Mr Sathianathan has been an advisor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Medical Cannabis; regularly works with institutional investors on the evolution of the cannabis market and is an adviser to multiple FTSE 100 consumer packaged goods companies. Mr Sathianathan is also a co-founder and non-executive director of Product Earth Expo UK Ltd, a sustainability focused hemp brand.
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Mr Sathianathan holds a MEng in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Sainsbury Management Fellow.
Hempflax (Private)​
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HempFlax is a socially responsible and ethical company that gives back to the planet by offering consumers affordable natural hemp products. By actively stimulating the awareness process of entrepreneurs in the world market, we contribute to the sustainability of their company. We embrace the philosophy of the circular economy and will do our very best to comply to this strategy.
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HempFlax was founded in 1993 by Ben Dronkers with the aim of restoring the age-old crop to its former glory. With succes: nowadays there is a huge demand for high-quality professional hemp products. The synergy between the various branches creates a sustainable and innovative business environment in which HempFlax can become the market leader in the field of industrial hemp production.
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Our cultivation takes place in the Netherlands, Germany and Romania with our factories located in Oude Pekela, Netherlands and Alba Iulia, Romania.
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Mark Reinders - CEO​
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Mark Reinders has been at HempFlax since 2008 prior to being appointed as CEO of the HempFlax group in 2016. Raised in a farming family, Mark holds bachelor’s degrees in agri-business and crop production from Het Van Hall Instituut, and earned a Master of Science degree in management from Nyenrode University. He has served on the board of directors of the European Industrial Hemp Association since 2008, prior to being elected President of the Association in June 2016.​
Love Hemp Group (AQSE:LIFE)​
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Love Hemp is the UK's leading CBD product line. It is the only UK listed CBD focused company with substantial revenues in the UK and Europe. It has a trusted brand with established owned sales channels and retail relationships with Boots and Holland & Barrett and major online platforms Ocado and Amazon.
The company is positioned to continue to acquire market share in a fractured UK marketplace and globally and is focused on developing a globally recognised brand in North America and Asia, as well as building on existing business. Love Hemp has manufacturing and distribution relationships in the USA that will facilitate North America expansion, as well as with eCargo for the expansion into Asia.
The company recently agreed an exclusive multi-year marketing deal with the UFC as well as a landmark endorsement agreement with Anthony Joshua MBE. Brand new, state of the art production facility in London and experienced new product development team
Andrew Male - Chairman ​
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Andrew is an experienced Director and Chief Executive Officer of international public and private investment, companies. Working with several family offices that seek access to an array of transformational opportunities. He is a former Founder and CEO of a TSX Venture Exchange Top 50 company, ranked 9th. He is an Associate of Columbus Energy Partners, an energy sector incubator. Andrew is also a Director of Global UAV Technologies Ltd., Non-Executive Director of Clarity Gold Corp. and Managing Director of a privately held Corporate Finance and Investment entity.
Lyphe Group​
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LYPHE is Europe’s most popular cannabis clinical telehealth and dispensing ecosystem. We own the medical cannabis supply chain vertically from digital clinical care, manufacturing medical cannabis, to patient home delivery.
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Our pursuit is for patient access to be mainstream and global.
Jonathan Nadler - Group Managing Director​
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Since founding his first £1m+ revenue business aged 24, Jon has gone on to successfully exit a strategic consultancy, and a CBD oils company.
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Jon is co-founder and Group Managing Director at LYPHE GROUP, merging the intersection between cannabis health and tech.
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Ananda Developments (AQSE:ANA)​
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Ananda’s focus is on finding suitable areas in which to invest in order to create a footprint in the cannabis sector that will enable the company to become a significant player in the long term. Currently our investments and interests include:
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– It is in the process of applying to the Home Office of the UK Government for a licence to grow >0.2% THC cannabis. Ananda’s partners in the application are JEPCO and Anglia Salads, two companies which have previously held Home Office licences to grow medicinal cannabis
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– It holds an investment in iCAN Israel Cannabis, one of the leading global cannabis conference companies and also an incubator of companies in the cannabis sector. Ananda uses its relationship with iCAN to source intellectual capital and remain up to date with developments in medicinal cannabis research
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– It holds 15% of Liberty Herbal Technologies, the 100% owner of hapac, a system for the inhalation of medicinal cannabis. Ananda sees the opportunity for hapac to be used in the medicinal cannabis sector in the UK in the future and potentially in other markets in the near term.
Melissa Sturgess - CEO​
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Melissa Sturgess holds a BSc and an MBA and has more than 20 years of experience as a director of UK and Australian Stock Exchange quoted companies, mainly focused on the acquisition, structuring and financing of natural resources deals across Africa. Miss Sturgess commenced her listed company career as a member of the Executive Committee of Aquarius Platinum Limited, the most successful Australian/UK dual listed company and a miner of platinum in South Africa and Zimbabwe. She was also founding director of Sylvania Resources Limited and a number of other companies operating in the metals and mining sector throughout Africa and listed on the AIM Market in London. During her career Miss Sturgess has raised significant amounts of capital and in 2017 she spearheaded the £50m financing for the acquisition of a building materials business in the Channel Islands. After a short break, her interest in the cannabis sector commenced with a trip to Israel to review the medicinal cannabis research in that country. She subsequently founded UK based, AQSE quoted Ananda Developments Plc to invest in the sector and is its largest shareholder. Melissa is also the founder of premium CBD brand Montana (montanawellness.co) and was the recipient of the Executive of the Year at the Malta Cannabiz Awards in November 2019. She is also a director of Lexington Gold Limited, an AIM quoted gold exploration company and a director of Imperial X plc which is seeking a quote on the Standard List of the London Stock Exchange.
CiiTECH (private)​
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CiiTECH is a brand building, consumer focused company dedicated to ongoing cannabis research and the commercialisation of cannabis products. CiiTECH uses its partnerships with leading institutions and scientists to create niche consumer brands. We continually innovate as we strive to create the best science-led brands in the cannabis sector.
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Clifton Flack - CEO & Founder​
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Clifton has accumulated over 25 years of consumer and corporate marketing experience. Entering the emerging medical cannabis industry in late 2014, Clifton helped create CannaTech, the International Conference on Medical Cannabis innovation & investment. Seeing the regulatory challenges, in 2017 Clifton founded his second cannabis company CiiTECH, focusing on the food supplement regulated CBD industry in the UK.
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OTO CBD (private)​
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OTO CBD is a leading UK premium CBD brand developing unique products for the health and wellness market.
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Our mission is to help people discover the power of CBD through thoughtful and effective products that easily and enjoyably fit into their daily lives.
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We create the world’s finest CBD experiences. Through our unique curation process, we source the highest quality essential oils, scents and flavours from around the globe, blending them with pure CBD. Every step of our design process is taken with care, and uncompromising attention to detail.
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James Bagley - CEO​
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James is highly experienced in brand building and distribution in the consumer goods industry. Prior to becoming CEO of OTO in 2019, he was CEO of DMD Ventures, a leading retailer and wholesaler of luxury drinks in UK. He was formerly VP of Sales and Marketing in the UK and the USA for Naked Wines. James was involved in funding and founding California’s first legal online dispensary. Previously, he led strategy and planning for Sky, T-Mobile and Telstra, assuring his tech and media experience and grounding in fast growth, large corporates
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Save Minds (Private)​
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Save Minds is the UK’s first private provider of psychedelic assisted therapy for Anxiety, PTSD, Treatment Resistant Depression and other mental health challenges
The clinic is the culmination of three years development to achieve regulatory approval and setup, in close collaboration with the Ketamine service at the Oxford University NHS Foundation hospital.
Our Mission is to develop a leading clinic network featuring doctors, psychiatrists, psychotherapists and nutritionists focused on mental health treatment using psychedelic and other plant-based medicines
Dr Yadhu Rajalingam - CEO​
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Dr. Yadhu has over 25 years experience as a qualified medical professional. He is a consultant in Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, part of the University College London. He is co-founder of Smart Life - Cenegenics UK, the world’s largest age management programme for physical and mental wellbeing and is the Founder of Save Minds Clinic UK, the first private Ketamine Clinic focused on treatment resistant depression. Yadhu is passionate about healthy ageing and has been involved with age management research for many years. Being an anaesthesiologist and Critical Care Medicine specialist, has used Ketamine for more than 25 years and is working very closely with Oxford Mental Health Institute (University Of Oxford) to establish and grow the Save Minds Clinic.
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