The U.K. medical marijuana company backed by Snoop Dogg’s venture firm is targeting Big Pharma in its latest fundraising round and said drugmakers getting involved in cannabis would help validate the burgeoning European industry.
Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Ltd. is working on breaking cannabis extractions down to their constituent parts then investigating potential uses in immunology, oncology, neurology and pain relief, OCT Chairman Neil Mahapatra said. The firm is seeking about $50 million, which should be enough to finance its work until about 2024, he said. For now, no public stock offering is planned until around that time, although a listing could come earlier.
When it raised money in 2018, OCT scored investments from the venture arm of tobacco giant Imperial Brands Plc and from Casa Verde Capital LLC, the West Hollywood, California-based venture firm that counts rapper Snoop Dogg among its partners.
This time around, major pharmaceutical companies are also on the call list and if they get involved, that “can only be good for the industry,” Mahapatra said in an interview. Big Pharma would bring deep pockets and help to legitimize the medical potential of cannabis, he said.
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