Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings plc (OCTP), the holding company of Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Ltd (“OCT”, together, the “Group”), a company developing licensed prescription cannabinoid medicines for approval by regulatory agencies worldwide and targeting the U$ multi-billion pain market, is pleased to announce that OCT has signed an important new drug development agreement with Dalriada.
The agreement with Dalriada, a Canadian company which provides drug discovery, medicinal chemistry and intellectual property services to pharmaceutical companies, will provide R&D activities on compounds OCT accessed as part of its exclusive, worldwide licence agreement signed with Canopy, announced on 22 September 2021. OCT’s exclusive license includes Canopy’s entire cannabinoid derivative library, comprising 335 derivatives, intellectual property rights constituting 14 patent families, and associated product research and development.
Dalriada designed, synthesized and experimentally tested all of the compounds in the Canopy library. OCT will be able to leverage Dalriada’s existing knowledge and experience as it continues research and development aimed at identifying multiple drug candidates targeting indications in pain, neurology, inflammation and oncology. A goal of the collaboration is the selection of two drug candidates ready for pre-clinical development by the end of 2022.
OCTP Chief Executive, Dr John Lucas, said: “Whilst our main focus remains pain therapy, the collaboration with Dalriada, in synergy with the strategic collaborations recently announced, will enable us to expand and differentiate our efforts into other therapeutic areas including neurology, oncology and inflammation. Working with the team that helped Canopy to develop its library is hugely exciting for OCT and will help us get the very best out of that important acquisition.”
Dalriada Chief Executive and co-founder, Diana Kraskouskaya said: “Dalriada looks forward to supporting OCT advance the cannabinoid derivative library we helped discover. Targeting the endogenous cannabinoid system with small molecules holds significant promise in delivering improved therapies and over the years, we have significantly invested in building our expertise and infrastructure in this pharmacology as well as our work with controlled substances. Together we are well equipped to rapidly advance OCT’s pipeline through hit-to-lead and lead optimization.”
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 (which forms part of domestic UK law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018).
