Talking Cannabis
Cannabis Insider
English - September 30, 2021 20:18 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBInvesting Business Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
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Episode Summary:
On Thursday’s show, hosts Elliot Lane and Patrick Lane spoke with Dr. Michael Raymont, Director &CEO of Albert Labs.
Guests:
Dr. Michael Raymont: Director & CEO, Albert Labs
Hosts:
Subscribe to our Cannabis Daily Podcast for daily Cannabis news and trade ideas.Benzinga Cannabis Hour is a podcast focused on marijuana and all things weed, CBD, hemp and psychedelics. Hosts include Elliot Lane, Javier Hasse and Patrick Lane.
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Unedited Transcript:
Been a while since I've seen the insider intro, you and Havi keep taking the Tuesdays, but that got me pumped up a little bit. It's a nice intro. It really is. They did a great job with it. Shout out to Aaron Thomas producer, 80 behind the scenes and the team always. Yeah, what's up. Y'all it's Tuesday talking about Canada stocks and news.
I mean, I do it every day. Hopefully you're paying attention to our new podcast. Cannabis daily. Patrick is on every Tuesday, chatting up cannabis stocks and CEO's, and then sometimes I'm here Thursday, sometimes. You know, but we're always talking, Patrick, how are you? I'm great, man. I'm great. We listen.
Benzinga is a moving target these days. We are all over the place. We are covering so many different sectors. You guys are a very loyal. Uh, and giving generous audience, right? You let us know who you want to hear from, and we do our best to bring it to you. Right. So, uh, we have heard from many of you that you want to hear more psychedelics content.
So we're bringing you a little bit of that today. Um, I'm personally excited about that, but Elliot, why don't we hit some news? Yeah. There's a bunch of things happening today. I feel like it was kind of a slower end of the week, last week, but, um, a bunch of things happening today. W what, what are some highlights from what you said this morning?
Yeah. I have four major stories that I'm sure you'll probably touch on as well. One thing that I think is really cool, uh, is the village farms news from this morning, um, village farms, uh, enters into an option agreement. So they have the option to purchase 80%, uh, of a current license holder in the Netherlands.
Uh, the Dutch market, um, as reported this morning, uh, is apparently set up to be the first legal recreational market in. So village farms placing themselves very well, uh, right now, uh, to, to capitalize on that. And I, and this license covers cultivation and distribution, uh, to the retailers. So it gives them a lot, uh, I think it's a nice entrance for them, uh, into, uh, what's poised to be, uh, an up and coming market here in the near.
That's awesome. Yeah, I definitely caught that one. I'm thrilled for them. One thing that I caught only because it's close to home. I'm based in Detroit. Michigan is NBA hall of Famer, Chris web. Entrepreneur and co-founder of the Weber wild impact fund. Uh that's of course the, the fund that he's got with, um, prolific investor, Jason Wilde, uh, also CEO and chairman of, uh, Tara Sen, uh, is launching players only holdings, new $50 million cannabis operations.
I think there's some discrepancy in the number. I heard 75 million from another source, but, uh, it's. Downtown Detroit in Corktown in that neighborhood, it's going to focus on, uh, about 180,000 square feet. 60,000 of that with third will be cannabis cultivation. Right. Which is pretty exciting. Yeah. Right, right.
In the heart of the city. So it's, it'll be really fun to, uh, to pick Chris's brain. When we see him either at our, our cannabis conference in New York or on this show, sometime Dan Gilbert, putting some infrastructure work into the downtown of Detroit. Yeah, that's exciting. So, um, awesome newsman. I mean, is he, is he getting in with anybody?
There is it really? It's just his focus and he's got a partner. Um, uh, Lavetta Willis is her name. I'm not familiar with her. Um, but, uh, here's the thing. I, it, he, he's got something going with cookies, I think in an exclusive distribution partnership, uh, that they have with gay. And, uh, what he might be doing with this brand that he's creating.
Player's only being, not only cultivation in the facility and the title of that facility, but also a potential brand that he'll work on with cookies. So that could be cool. Pretty cool. Uh, you know, just touching on a few other things here, and I think we have to end with. Everything that is Aurora. Um, but before we get there, goodness growth enters into a cool partnership with IPR.
So the state of New York, I think what was, it's like a 52, 3, yeah, around the 50 and a half, like 55 ish million, uh, deal with IPR, uh, for a, uh, I believe a 90 plus 80. Plot of land and they're building a facility on it, through the sale, lease back partnership with, uh, it's uh, I think nicey listed IPR I'm goodness growth is GDN S F a on the OTC.
So honestly, great partnership. Goodness growth is not the most visible MSO, but they are a good one. Uh, they're strong in their activations. They have a great entrance into the New Mexico market. Um, so I think it's interesting to see. Uh, you know, take on such a heavy lifting and the tri-state as well.
Absolutely. Well, one more hit your, uh, your Aurora commentary. Cause there are, that's my commentary. Y'all what do you think of Aurora ACB? That's NASDAQ listed ACB market cap over a billion. Um, been trending just down and down and down and down for effort. It seems, but all of a sudden they release earnings, which by all intents and purposes, we're not stellar and we're happy.
So, so who's buying, who's buying the dip. I want to know. So you guys in the chat, which of you are buying the dip, and that's why we're seeing some, some action here, but I also want to know if, if people think that there's something brewing behind the scenes here, if there's, yeah. I mean, I mean, listen, you never know in this space, you almost have to assume that every company is entertaining.
The idea of either buying or being bought right now. Just how much momentum there is in this space. Yeah, I mean 6% what's going on there at 6%, but it's not just their earnings that bother me. It's their dilution. They have time and time again, taken away from the shareholder. Uh, and it, just, to me, it doesn't, it doesn't seem like they're protecting those who have invested in them.
So it's interesting to me that there's such positive sentiment without any type of management, you know, addressing the current sheriff. Uh, populace, if you will. Well, let's dive into this one. Let's let's, let's come back to it. Let's talk to our news desk and figure out if there's something they know that we might not.
But this is interesting. I mean, there's a, there's a lot of, a lot of reason behind the scenes. I'm sure. For whatever movement that is, but I dunno, I don't know that it's just a. Well, I will see, I mean, corrections will come if it's not like that. Yeah. But I mean, Hey, good for them. If they keep trending up, you know, any cannabis stock that moves in the right direction is good for the industry for the most part, unless it's in the, for the wrong reasons.
But for the most part, uh, you know, ACB doing well is decently good for the Canadian market? I would say other than that, Patrick, one last thing we'll call everybody's attention to is B H N G F bank. Uh, partnering with Belushi farms. Um, also another one that's relatively been under the radar. Um, Jamie, you know, kind of took over if I'm not mistaken right before the pandemic, uh, over there.
And you know, it was tough for her to get going, but I really think she's, uh, created some incredible partners. Over there to in she's placing herself very well. So if you want a cool brand, a brand incubator, if you will be H N G F is a pretty cool one and Patrick solar does have a, uh, an interesting question.
Do we want to touch on NDA now or later at the end of the show? Okay. India you go. So that's the safe act? Um, I, so the house passed, um, the NDA, which includes, um, safe, uh, the banking bill. Um, I am not bullish on the Senate passing this simply because we, you know, it's the same thing we talked about with the CAO.
Um, a Chuck Schumer wants the whale, um, which it is what it is, but B the order of the bills is the issue for a lot of Democrats. Uh, they want a criminal justice bill. Uh, they want a social equity bill, um, um, you know, decriminalizing bill. Before banking. Um, I don't think, you know, maybe, maybe it's just the, the visibility of it, the look of it that they're trying to get the wind from, but, you know, a safe would obviously ideally protect a lot of cannabis industry employees.
So, um, I think they'd be silly not to pass it. Um, but I, I hope they do. Um, but there is a lot of pushback right now. Yeah, no, I don't, I don't see it going. Uh, we were talking with Scott griper from Britain. Um, really, really tuned into what's happening on Capitol hill right now. And it's, it's listen. It's great to see any momentum with things happening in this space.
I think we're all excited by that, but this Senate is so fractured, unless there's something that happens with the filibuster. I just don't see this getting through anytime soon, unfortunately, so let's not get too excited right away. Um, even though. The stocks might move a little bit on, um, on, on that news.
Yeah. I mean, one thing I will add is that the, um, they didn't reintroduce the more act. Uh, so federal legalization basically, um, to the house rules committee, I believe, uh, I don't think they expected to go anywhere, but it's due for a. Uh, it's due for compromise and, you know, to work on that bill. Uh, and I think both of these bills, the more and the safe acts are much more viable than the CAO way.
Um, so, you know, for me, those are the two that I would like to see it. Um, and, uh, yeah, I mean, solar, that's the issue, isn't it? Um, you know, it, it's stalemate, it's politics, people playing politics with something that's so easy, uh, you know, to me. So anyway, this is something that the commentary is probably pretty similar across the board for everybody right now in Canada.
It's just frustration. Just, you know, just pass the damn bill, excuse my language. Um, but outside of that, I don't really have any more, I don't think it's going to happen before the midterm. Um, and then depending on what happens in the midterms probably won't happen in this presidency. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, definitely, definitely not before the end of the year.
Right. And I don't know that again, you guys, you, we, we see news, we trade on news all the time. I would just, you know, I'd add a little bit of caution to, to that news because I don't think that that's going anywhere in the, the upper house, the upper Senate here's to hoping. Yeah. Maybe, maybe, you know, I'm not here, like, you know, super proud about like being bearish, but, you know, I just, with the way politics has been played, the last four times safe has been introduced to the Senate floor.
I mean, history is not on our side here, so anyway, let's move on. Let's get our guest on. We have a cool guest, Patrick, I think it's Dr. Michael Raymont from Albert. Um, Patrick mentioned, uh, we're bringing some more psychedelics content, your way, super excited for this introduction, introduction and interview, I should say.
So Erin, if we can get Michael over, let's do that. How are you, Mike? I'm well, thank you. Thank you for having me as a guest today. Oh, thrilled. Too thrilled to serve. So let's dive right in. If you wouldn't mind telling us a little bit about your background and then a little bit about Albert labs. Well, I'm a chemical engineer by training and then decided not to produce a follow of chemical engineering and a basic way of been in the venture capital and private equity business.
Most of my life, um, I've read, I retired four years ago. I'm not the youngest guy in the universe, but getting together with some friends of mine who I've worked with before we saw a tremendous opportunity. To bring a new way and a new approach to drug development, using plant-based therapies to tackle illnesses and diseases that haven't been dealt with effectively by current pharmaceutical products.
So Albert labs is a drug development company and. I'm luckily in the position of CEO, chairman and leading a fantastic team of people, where, again, as I say, we're in the drug development business, we're focused on improving patient access to plant-based therapies. That's in a broad scale. And to do this in a very timely and cost-effective manner.
So it's all about speed to market and speed to market helps investors because you should see better returns and it helps patients and suffers in the mental illness space because we can bring those therapies on a regulated basis to market. We believe faster than anybody has been able to. So. That is really cool.
I want to piggyback on that really quickly, Dr. Raymont, if you don't mind, when it comes to, uh, Albert labs and where you sit in this nascent industry, when we talk about industries, right? Psychedelics is at that place where in cannabis, we were maybe 10 years. Right. Um, we're, we're, we're seeing a lot of the, the evolution early on of some of these therapeutics gain traction.
Um, some of the regulatory hurdles seem to have gone away more quickly in the psychedelic space, which I think is very exciting. Um, tell us a little bit about your geographic footprint at Albert labs. What, where you guys are operating. And then also, if there are specific therapeutics that you're focusing.
Well, from a geographic point of view, we have a development and early production lab in Burnaby, which is a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia and Canada. We have, uh, located a production facility in the UK up near Manchester, and we also have, um, agreements and we're just looking at facilities in portraits.
To take advantage of some skills that in terms of what we're focused on, specifically as a product right now, cyber seven. So this is a well, listen to your viewers would probably know it as magic mushrooms for the most part, but I'm sure they've also now heard of cider seven because it's getting a lot of attention and we've chosen the silo seven and we've chosen.
To test it as a, an effective drug and hopefully gain approval for it as a regulated drug for the treatment of anxiety and cancer patients. Now just think about it. Somebody goes to the doctor, listen. I'm sure we've all known people who have been touched by cancer, but you go to the doctor and the doctor says to you, I'm sorry to tell you.
You have cancer. It's just a terrible shock to your system. And probably one of your first reactions is one of acute anxiety. And that stays with so many people who have cancer, cause it's a long, hard road hopefully to success, but that anxiety state stays with patients. And so anxiety does terrible things to the human body.
Apart from the fact that. Difficult in itself to deal with it actually suppresses your immune system. So it means that as you are anxious about your condition, you're actually not helping your body respond. Your body's immune systems are degraded in dealing with the very thing that you're trying to fight.
So there's some strong evidence of Sila seven will in fact help correct these anxiety. Um, that's what we're focused on today. I'm curious. Uh, is there a reason you have gone so specific? Uh, because I mean, traumatic anxiety obviously is not just specific to cancer patients. I'll be a very much needed to have something like your product there and your pipeline and therapeutic, but there, obviously their anxiety can come from an, a number of traumatic experiences.
Um, illnesses. So I'm curious, you know, does your addressable market get bigger or, you know, what was the, the impetus at being so focused? Well, in order to get the fastest possible approvals, uh, by regulators. And I want to emphasize, again, we're talking about here getting approval for a pharmaceutical drug that has shown to have efficacy in treating the condition that we identified.
The reason we've chosen anxieties in cancer patients specifically is because that's a really unmet need at the moment it's treated. If it's treated at all with opioids and some of these things that we know all the bad consequences and opioids, and some of these other treatments that exist right now just don't work effectively.
So this is where I identified this relatively narrow, as you say, market opportunity. So. But you've introduced a great point and that is success in this trial. The one we're about to embark on means that then we can move on to apply either the same formulations to other indications. And as you correctly, point out, there are many types of anxieties that exist out there.
And we have every reason to believe that we can be successful with those as well, but from a regulatory point of view, Make it narrow to begin with, get your approval. And then you have a drug that you can actually test in other indications beyond that. I think that's interesting. Is anyone else doing that in this space?
It seems like everybody's going through this sort of traditional, you know, clinical trial. Phase one phase two phase three methods, you're doing something different, right? You're you're using this real world evidence studies to get through the process a bit quicker. Is that correct? That's absolutely correct.
So, as I mentioned, COVID-19 vaccines were approved through the RWE or real world evidence trial mechanism. They are just as rigorously reviewed by regulators. And now we see a lot of success with that pathway, so that pathway is faster, but it only suits itself to certain types of potential drugs. So generally something that's a new synthetic drug.
So the typical approach of a pharmaceutical company is to synthesize a new compound. And when you do that, It's almost inevitable that you have to go through the traditional randomized clinical trial process RCT. And that takes hundreds of millions of dollars in many cases about the least that you could get through an RCT would be $50 million.
And it takes many years, often five to 10 years using the RWE approach. You can actually do these trials for a lot less money and. Approval. If the right results come through from our trial can be granted in a matter of a year or two, along with reimbursement. So we have a, then the potential of a much more rapid commercial success and access immediately then by patients who have unmet needs right now.
Why do more companies not do RWE? It's very new. And I'm very pleased to say that on our management team, on the medical side, we have experts who have experience or having worked from regulators in the UK and even in the EU who understand this pathway and therefore how we can adapt it to. Um, formulations and how we can approach this.
So there's a steep learning curve to know how to approach our Wes. Well, okay. I have to say, you know, no valid company out there in the marketplace is ever without competition. There are people who are thinking of these same pathways, but we actually have a protocol ready, approved, and essentially ready to go.
So we're talking about patient enrollment. In Q1 of 2022, and we're talking about results and cross our fingers approval by late 22, that's amazingly fast for a new drug to get to the marketplace, generate revenues and treat patients best of luck there. I do have. A quick question. I'm very curious and probably has to do with what you're able to research or study in each of these markets.
But you've very interesting footprint. I think it was, it was Portugal. It was the UK. It was British Columbia. Uh, can you dive into that as to why those markets specifically, or did it just come to be, I'm curious. No, there's a lot of, uh, both strategy and, you know, looking at where people are more receptive to these ideas.
And it turns out that maybe this is one good thing from Brexit is that Britain UK has looked at the whole question about WWII. And that probably further ahead from the regulatory point of view in dealing with RWE trials than anywhere else in the world, there is, however, there are the mechanisms whereby an approval by one country.
In this case, we expect to get it first in the UK. Can that. Work its way into approvals by others on our first target, after that would be the EU. So, uh, partner, that explains why we're active in Portugal. We have some good links to some research institutions that have been doing work in psychedelic, somehow some real skills there.
The Canada connection. Well, I don't know, I guess magic mushrooms grow in Canada. And as it turns out, the people who got together myself included, uh, to really kick this company off, started where we live in Canada. And we started here with just some ideas and some strategies. Very cool. So, so what should investors watching expect from you guys?
Uh, towards the end of the year here and. And w what is it that differentiates you other than this process, this RWE process from the rest of this market, right? We've seen some early winners and only winners, maybe because they're listed on the NASDAQ already, or they're doing well. Right. But w we, we know some of those names, maybe in our final couple of minutes here, Dr.
Raymont, tell us what to expect and maybe what sets you guys apart. Well, thank you for that one. Yeah. I want to tell your viewers that we are within days a couple of weeks, two or three weeks of listing on a Canadian exchange, the CSC. So we've had all our filings, we've had questions back and forth, and those have all been dealt with now.
So it's just working through the final process steps of getting our listing and there the same time we've been raising some money. And we will continue to raise money because once we proven this drug development approach, there are many other, uh, psychedelic and psychoactive drugs that we could look at.
I shouldn't say drugs, I should say there that plant-based formulations or, or chemicals that have already been shown, um, usually recreationally to have. Uh, uh, a great impact. And when I say a great impact, look what these do and people shouldn't be afraid of the term psychedelic, because what these compounds do I have the potential to do is to reset some of the processes in our brain to remove the bad thinking that we've been engaged in I anxiety or pain and things like that.
And reset. It's sort of like a reset your computer. If you want to think of it, this is a computer, but it's a biological one. And using a biological agent, namely a plant-based Sarah could be, we can help along with some psychotherapy at the same time reset, uh, people who are suffering from these mental conditions.
So back to what you could, what we hope will happen over the next few months from an investor point of view. Is yes, our listing. That's very exciting. I'll start all over then me readily available and liquid on a, an accepted marketplace and stay tuned because I'm not going to say anything today, but we'd like to talk about at some point, and we have plans underway to list on another stock exchange.
Not one you might think of immediately. Given that we're in north America, but it's one that's very relevant to Europeans. Fantastic. Okay. Wow. That's fantastic. Awesome. Dr. Raymont, appreciate you coming on and sharing some of this with us. I look forward to having you back, uh, as some of these announcements, uh, come to fruition and please keep us updated on the RWE status and how that progress is for you all fascinating, uh, approach to this.
Uh, but thanks again for being here. Well, thank you. And thank you for your interest and viewers interest. And, uh, as I say, stay tuned, we'll keep our fingers crossed. We can both make money and treat patients who have no other way through their problems right now. Thank you. Amen. Dr. Raymont. Amen. See you soon, sir.
Very cool. Thank you, sir. Bye now guys. Bye-bye. I love this space. I think it's really cool. And again, granted, you know, Dr. Raymont he's been around a while. He said it himself. Right. But his, his evolution in this space has been interesting. I was doing some research on him and Albert labs earlier. There, there are still some companies just like there were in the early stages of cannabis that are not quite real yet in psychedelics.
Right. I, if I, I mean, I would be wary of some of those companies that don't really have much to show. I think Dr. Ray Mon is building something interesting. And I think the process seems to be one that could accelerate the timeline, especially if it's, and I'm sorry, solar up. We didn't get through your last question, but I know.
Yeah, but I, I do expect we'll have him back. Um, we're going to start doing more in psychedelics, you guys. And I think the important thing to note is that we want to be. Right. We, we want to be cautious about which companies we're lifting up. So you can, Garrett, you can pretty much guarantee that if they're coming on, we're doing our homework.
We want to know who these guys are. We want to know what they're bringing to market and how real they are before. We're going to put them on our stuff. Right? Well, solar app and Christopher Diaz are two new entrepreneurs. I hear solar up starting a psychedelic single malt business. It looks like I'm here for that.
I will invest. I will, as well. Christopher Diaz was shrimp burgers and. Uh, honestly, guys keep it up. These are the ideas I need to retire on. Um, Patrick, we have a fun two days coming up. Do you want to talk about that real quick before you guys it's in the bottom of the screen right below my face, October 14th and 15th.
We're in New York city. We're also virtual, right? So we're going to have a live conference at the Marriott. Marquis in times square Elliot will be there. I will be there. We'll all be there. Uh, benzene is really coming out strong for this cannabis conference. It's our first live event back in almost two years.
So we are, we are excited, obviously we're taking all the necessary precautions, but just a couple of, of names for you. Truly ascend wellness, the parent company, Verano, a Corona local farms, clever leaves. Right? We have the companies that are making news in this. And we're really, really excited to show you guys the kinds of discussions and networking and behind the scenes.
I think Spencer or Michael Murray or somebody who's going to be walking around with a camera and microphone just around the venue, interviewing Spencer Israel. I mean, that's, everybody's dream, right? I mean, that's my dream really, but, um, one more thing we need to mention guys, please, tomorrow nine, I think like 20 5:00 AM we start our healthcare.
Yeah, billion dollar opportunities, several, several small and micro-cap opportunities in the cancer and the COVID, uh, in psychedelics in cannabis. Uh, we'll have them all over the next two. Super excited about that too. Yeah. Make sure you tune in, even if it's just for a little bit, come back and watch the recording later, do whatever you need to do.
But man, this is one you're not going to want to miss. We're really packing it with a lot of interesting companies moving the needle in a lot of different ways. Right. So make sure you're tuning in for that. Um, Elliot and I will not be on screen for that. You'll have Brenty and uh, and Spencer. But, uh, obviously it's going to be a great couple of days.
Yeah, guys. Thanks for tuning in solar up. Zach, Christopher Diaz, money mooch, uh, all the rest. Thank you all very much older brother. You're old, but I love you so old guys every day tomorrow. We'll see you tomorrow. All right. Thanks everyone.
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