Sud Agarwal – a former chief medical officer of Incannex who now heads his cannabinoid-focused business Cannvalate – said the “reality has begun to set in”.
“The industry went off with a bang in 2016-2017 and there was kind of new industry excitement, and it may have got overheated,” said Dr Agarwal, who remains Incannex’s biggest shareholder.
“By 2019-2020 things got a bit tighter and certainly in 2021 and the latter half of early 2022, there was a real compression of values. That is mainly because a lot of companies haven’t performed in terms of revenues but also people who had previously been investors in cannabis probably just got fatigued.”
Hygrovest, a listed investment company focused on cannabinoid stocks wrote in its June portfolio update that “he decline in the value of the listed Canadian cannabis sector during FY22 has been the biggest disappointment” it has faced. Since December, has been forced to expanded its investment mandate to resources, healthcare and the digital economy.
Dr Agarwal said several American companies claiming they had a cure for Covid-19 “didn’t help the cause”. US Neutra Corp – an over-the-counter stock that does not trade on any formal stock exchange – trumpeted in January a Oregon State University study that found cannabidiolic acid and cannabigerolic acid prevented Covid-19 from “penetrating” human cells, despite being yet to complete phase one clinical trials.
“Australians are a bit more cautious about making those claims because the TGA would clamp down on it relatively quickly – like what happened with Peter Evans when he made some claims about his products,” Dr Agarwal said, adding companies that will succeed will venture down the biotech route, creating specialised rather than generic products.
To this end, Incannex – the largest ASX-listed cannabis stock with a market value of more than $400m – has launched a raft of clinical trials and has been liaising with the US Food and Drug Administration closely.
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No more doubts about Dr Sud and Incannex's direction -
We can infer that Dr Sud is still Incannex's biggest supporter IMO
GLAH