The following is a Stockhouse Q&A with
Cannabis Technologies Inc. (
CNQ: C.CAN,
Stock Forum) President and CEO Craig Schneider.
1) Can you describe your company and what it does?
We are a biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops therapies using the unique pharmacology of cannabinoids. Our proprietary platform technology and highly qualified scientific team will position us to successfully achieve this.
2) What is your background and what attracted you to Cannabis Technologies?
I am a 20-year veteran of the Canadian capital markets. I am always looking for unique opportunities where my skill set of capital raising and public company management can help create shareholder value and drive and develop growth in a sector of the economy.
What attracted me to this opportunity was quite simple; I was looking into opportunities around the medical marijuana sector that have real value, and have resonated with the North American Investor community. I reviewed many opportunities but none to me had a clear path toward institutional investor participation, the opportunity to graduate to a senior North American exchange, and deliver health benefits on mass to the public…until we were introduced to Biogen Sciences.
This company had a very valuable platform technology, a world-class scientific team and last but not least a company already in this specific area of the Life-Science sector,
GW Pharmaceuticals Plc (
NASDAQ: GWPH,
Stock Forum). This company has a $1.6 billion market and trades on the NASDAQ. We knew then that if we could successfully discover and develop therapies using cannabinoids both Big Pharma and institutional investors would support us. This of course is the foundation of being able to create shareholder value.
3) Would you say your company is part of the medical marijuana sector?
Well we are definitely part of the medical marijuana sector however I would say that the traditional drug development path of our company puts us squarely in the Life Science space, an exponentially larger market on a global scale.
4) Could you outline your strategy moving forward to say how you differ from others in the field.
Our strategy is to employ our platform technology to quickly and effectively discover the compounds that will create our product pipeline; we will then graduate them from the discovery phase through the pre-clinical trials, Phase 1 etc.
We differ I believe because of the 2 distinct divisions in the company we have both a drug discovery & development division as well as a breeding and cultivation department. Out of all the companies in our space, which is few, we only know of GW as having both these capabilities.
5) When do you think we’ll see the first product in your pipeline?
All I can say is we are diligently working towards announcing our first therapy, we know our investors are eager to see our platform technology at work and our pipeline starting to be populated with therapies in our targeted disease areas.
6) What should investors be looking for from a company as evidence that it is hitting its milestones?
Investors need to see that we are working towards our stated company goals. For us that is: the announcement of therapies, graduation of these therapies from the various phases of development and movement of the breeding and cultivation of our proprietary phyto-feedstock.
7) Why should investors look at acquiring your stock today?
I think investors need to determine a few of the fundamentals for any investment and apply that to Cannabis Technologies; does the company have a sound business plan? Does management have the expertise to execute this plan? If they do, does the company have a structure that can reflect that success? All of these questions being reflected positively, I am comfortable with the risk/rewards of that particular investment. I believe we answer these key questions very well.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Cannabis Technologies is a Stockhouse Publishing client.