Painkiller maker Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies debuts on London’s market
Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies (OCT), which makes painkillers using cannabis components, has debuted on the London Stock Exchange this morning, offering £0.01 per share.
The UK-based company, a pre-revenue pharmaceutical company developing cannabinoid-based prescription medicines, will begin trading on the capital’s main market at 8:00 this morning.
Offering around 960m ordinary shares, OCT is set to receive net proceeds of £14.82m to bolster its drug offering.
The proceeds will fund pre-clinical drug development, clinical trials and the advancement of other non-addictive drugs for pain conditions.
“As a British pharmaceutical business, we are pushing back the frontiers of cannabinoid-based drug development. Being a listed company will provide new investors with the opportunity to participate in the next chapter of our exciting story,” CEO John Lucas said.
“This IPO will enable us to take our pipeline of drugs through the next stage of development, including taking two of our drug candidates into clinical trials.”
OCT has been developing licensed prescription medicines that target the endocannabinoid system, with a primary focus on the pain market.
The addressable pain market is estimated to be worth at least £42.5bn, the company said this morning in statement. Meanwhile, its first two drug development programmes target around £1.55bn of the market.
The company’s medicines that have undergone clinical trials, with regulatory marketing approval and expect to see drugs produced by 2027.