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Leading Australian medicinal cannabis company Incannex (ASX: IHL) has today completed the acquisition of APIRx - a US biotech outfit with intellectual property (IP) in the cannabis space - for $124 million.
The deal brings the two firms together, with Incannex to benefit from APIRx’s 22 active clinical and pre-clinical research and development projects aiming to treat a variety of diseases, illnesses and disorders.
First announced back in March, the acquisition means APIRx’s founders Dr George Anastassov and Lekhram Changoer have joined the Incannex team as non-executive director and chief technology officer respectively.
The stakeholders of APIRx have been issued 218,169,497 new shares in IHL at a notional value of $0.573 per share.
“The acquisition of APIRx follows a long relationship with Dr Anastassov and Mr Changoer that first began in 2018 when Incannex transitioned its business towards the development of pharmaceutical cannabinoids,” IHL CEO and managing director Joel Latham said.
“After extensive due diligence and corporate strategy assessments of the APIRx assets, we are excited and readied to commence development activities over our newly acquired portfolio of drug candidates. Investors in Incannex on both ASX and NASDAQ will be updated of progress ongoingly”.
For Incannex, named Australia’s top cannabis company by Business News Australia earlier this year, the deal is its first big move after it listed on the Nasdaq in February.
Incannex says the 22 development projects have been transferred from APIRx to the merged entity, representing aggregate addressable markets of approximately US$400 billion (AUD$575 billion) per annum.
These projects are underpinned by an IP portfolio that includes 19 granted patents and 23 pending patents.
As such, Incannex now claims it has the “world’s largest portfolio of patented medicinal cannabinoid drug formulations and psychedelic treatment protocols”.
The 22 active clinical and pre-clinical research projects are targeted at treating an extensive range of conditions including pain, dementia, Parkinson’s Disease, restless leg syndrome, gastrointestinal diseases, periodontitis, addiction disorders, skin conditions and ophthalmic conditions.
Incannex says APIRx's US patents related to medicated chewing gum (MCG) are of particular interest, noting a focus of the combined group will be the ongoing development of the target’s CheWell, CanQuit and CanQuit-O cannabinoid combination MCG to treat cannabis addiction, nicotine addiction and opioid addiction.
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