Through a share placement, private investment group Tattarang will invest $5 million in medical cannabis and psychedelic drug company Emyria Limited (ASX: EMD).
Tattarang, owned by the Forrest family, currently holds investments in many industries, including agri-food, and health-tech. Their latest investment in Emyria will help the company accelerate the development of two key programs.
The first program is working to register a synthetic cannabinoid with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and the US’s Federal Drug Administration (FDA). The second is working to develop MDMA-analogues with the University of Western Australia. Both programs aim to produce medications that can help people with chronic pain, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), insomnia, IBS, and other conditions with treatments that are sometimes ineffective, full of side effects or don’t exist.
As per the terms of the share placement, Emyria will issue Tattarang 20 million shares at $0.25 per share. This will give Tattarang a stake of roughly 7.3% in Emyria. Emyria will also give Tattarang 1 million options at an exercise price of $0.40 with an expiry date in two years.
According to Tattarang’s chief investment officer John Hartman, Tattarang chose to invest in Emyria because there is “massive growth potential” in medical cannabis and psychedelic drugs, and both sectors need high-quality, data-backed treatments fast.
Emyria’s investment in industry-leading data collection at the front-line of care will allow it to innovate faster and help bring new treatments to those who need them, faster and more cost-effectively.
Emyria works in several parts of the medical cannabis industry (including research and development) and owns subsidiary Emerald Clinics. Emerald Clinics has seven Australian-based sites and works with over 5,000 patients. As a result, Emyria has access to a lot of high-quality data on treatment outcomes. Emyria is also part of a world-class data platform through the Palantir’s Foundry Builders Program.
Emyria expects to issue Tattarang’s shares and options on Wednesday, November 24th, 2021.