A drugs company developing cannabis-based medicines and backed by Imperial Brands, the big tobacco group, has moved to appoint administrators just months after promoting a former chief executive of the Conservative Party to chairman in a “transformative” rebrand.
Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies (OCT), which is developing prescription medicines for pain, delisted from the London Stock Exchange last year, saying turbulent British markets had exerted “continuous, irrational and regressive pressure” on its share price.
The company, which was founded in 2017, had sought to rejuvenate itself as a private company. In February it rebranded as Octavian Therapeutics, promoted Lord Mott, 52, a non-executive director, to chairman and announced plans for a “major fundraising initiative”, targeting £10 million.
Lord Mott had been promoted to chairman in February with plans for a £10 million fundraising initiative
ROGER HARRIS PHOTOGRAPHY
However, the company is understood to have struggled to raise funds and an application has now been filed with the High Court to appoint Rushtons Insolvency as administrator.
OCT, Rushtons and Imperial Brands, the London-listed maker of L&B cigarettes, declined to comment. Imperial held a 9.6 per cent stake, according to filings, and until March last year had a representative on the board.
A source blamed the wider difficulties biotech companies are facing in accessing sufficient capital and liquidity in the UK.
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OCT, which raised £16.5 million and was valued at £48 million when it floated in 2021, delisted last June blaming “turbulence” in the UK public markets for a “punitive effect on sentiment in biopharma as a sector, and on quoted biopharma businesses in particular”. It had said this had constrained it from sustaining a “sensible” valuation that reflected its “record of scientific and clinical achievements” and, in turn, had impeded it from raising money to develop its pipeline.
The rapper Snoop Dogg is a partner in the cannabis-focused venture Casa Verde, which was a shareholder
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Casa Verde, the cannabis-focused venture capital firm whose partners have included Snoop Dogg, the rapper, was also a shareholder. It is not clear whether Case Verde retains a stake. It was approached for comment.
When promoting Mott, who was chief executive of the Conservative Party between 2020 and 2022, and before that director of campaigning, the company had said he would provide “access to his extensive global network of investors and industry leaders, critical to Octavian’s continued growth”.
Mott had said: “My focus will be ensuring that investors fully appreciate the strength of Octavian’s drug discovery programmes and the commercial opportunities ahead.”
A number of small-cap biotech companies have delisted in the past year or so, including Destiny Pharma, which also subsequently entered administration.
