Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings (OCTP) had a positive year in 2021 and has begun 2022 on the same foot.
The company has reported financial results for the six-month period ending 30 November 2021 in line with expectation, during which approximately £920k of research and development costs were incurred. The costs were primarily on lead drug candidate OCT461201, which accounted for approximately £604k of the total.
OCTP and its subsidiary, Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Ltd. (OCT) had total cash reserves of approximately £12m and no debt, having repaid a Government bounce-back loan of £50k in full. The group has noted that progress is being made on all four of its programmes.
CEO, John Lucas, commented: “We are pleased with the progress made on all four programmes during the Period. OCTP remains on time, on budget and in line with our expectations.
“This was a busy period for the company following the successful listing in May.
“During the first half, we made good strides across the board and, as such are excited by the potential as the year progresses and look forward to updating the market further in due course.”
2021 also saw the company enter into agreements with leading global cannabis company Canopy Growth Corporation, as well as with Aptuit (Verona) SRL, a subsidiary of Evotec SE (Evotec).
OCTP’s agreement with Canopy Growth Corporation gives the company an exclusive license to Canopy Growth’s cannabinoid library. This includes 335 derivatives and 14 patent families. Oxford Cannabinoids has now begun screening the drug-like compounds in multiple therapeutic areas, including pain, neurology, immune-inflammation and oncology.
OCTP is working with Dalriada Drug Discovery to screen the compounds and Oxford Cannabinoid Technology’s (OCT) existing proprietary cannabinoid library. Dalriada previously designed, synthesised, and experimentally tested all of the compounds in the Canopy library and as such, OCT will be able to leverage Dalriada’s existing knowledge and experience as it continues its experimental research.
The aim is to identify two drug candidates for pre-clinical development by the end of 2022.
A further agreement with Oxford Stemtech announced in November 2021, is supporting the research and development for all the company’s drug development programmes, with a particular focus on programmes three and four.
Stemtech’s “pain-in-a-dish” model replicates human pain using stem cells from volunteers that are re-programmed into pain neurons. This agreement also marks an evolution of OCTP’s relationship with Oxford University Professor, Dr Zameel Cader.
OCT also entered into a £2.6m contract research agreement with Aptuit (Verona) SRL, a subsidiary of Evotec SE (Evotec) in July 2021.
Read more: Further drug development agreement for Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies
The company has confirmed in its update that the planning phase has been completed and “wet-work”, manufacturing process development and crystallisation development have now been initiated.
It has also confirmed that it is anticipated that Evotec will provide the OCT with a submission-ready regulatory document and an approved batch of drug product that is ready for Phase 1 clinical trials by Q1 2023.
Originally set to commence in Q3 2022, the date for the trial has been moved to Q1 2023 due to technical issues requiring additional optimisation of the crystal development for scale-up manufacturing, which has been now successfully implemented.
The OCT board has stated this will not impact time to Phase II clinical trials, there is no material cash flow impact and the time to market is currently anticipated to remain the same.
The agreement with Voisin remains on track according to the update with a roadmap ti clinical development having been generated to support the ongoing pre-clinical package for programme one.
Voisin has also undertaken activities in preparation for the commencement of the Phase I clinical trials and is providing the Group with regulatory support to address immediate priorities for filing and registration of Programme 2’s metered-dose inhaler in the UK and US market.
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