Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings, one of the UK’s few remaining pharmaceutical cannabis companies, appears to have entered administration.
Like many early-stage biotech companies, OCTH, the holding company of its trading entity Octavian Therapeutics, had always been reliant on investment to push forward its clinical trials.
While there has been no official statement from the company or its administrators, Rushtons Insolvency Limited, numerous public filings confirm they have been appointed.
As such, their promising drug development pipeline, alongside valuable intellectual property for any similar biotech operators, is now likely up for grabs.
Its collapse is reflective of a wider crisis in the global biotech sector, particularly in the US where OCT saw its future, seeing widespread job cuts, a significant slowdown of M&A activity, and public investment opportunities all but grind to a halt.
On Friday, May 09, 2025, notice that OCTH had appointed administrators was published in The Gazette, the UK’s official public record of insolvency proceedings.
According to the filing, on May 02, Nicola Baker of Rushtons Insolvency Limited, was appointed as the company’s administrator.
Business of Cannabis has contacted OCT, its communications provider, and the administrators, but as of the date of publication has received no response to our enquiries.
However, a filing from AIM-listed Dillistone Group Plc (DSG), where OCT’s non-executive director and former Chair Julie Pomeroy is also a director, appeared to confirm the administration.
Under Rule 17 and Schedule 2, Paragraph (G) of the AIM Rules for Companies, listed companies must detail any directorships in any other companies held by their directors.
As such, Dillistone announced that Pomeroy had informed them that OCTH entered into administration on May 2, 2025.
Furthermore, according to Companies House, OCTH’s address was changed to that of the administrator on May 08, and authenticated by Baker.
As a pre-revenue company, not expected to commercialise its leading drug programme until 2028, OCT’s value lies almost entirely in its intellectual property (IP).
However, determining a concrete value for these assets largely depends on who you ask.
As of July 30, 2024, the most recently available company accounts, OCT has several patents in various markets protecting its lead clinical asset, OCT461201.
OCT461201, a small small-molecule new chemical entity (NCE) CB2 agonist, being developed for diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), was scheduled to begin Phase II clinical trials this year.
Eight patents had been granted for this asset as of July 30, 2024, covering the US, Canada, China, Brazil, Israel, Korea, Mexico, and New Zealand, with another six follow-up applications filed.
OCT estimates that CIPN and IBS together represent commercial opportunities worth over US$5.8bn by 2030
In February 2024, OCT received a reiterated valuation of £25.3m from leading independent research firm Edison, placing its value at over 5x its market cap at the time.
Edison’s valuation was ‘100% ascribed’ to OCT’s leading compound, which Edison expects to launch in 2030. However, it noted that its second compound has significant ‘potential upside’ and plans to incorporate this into its valuation ‘once it enters the clinic’.
According to the latest available data, patents have been filed for its second compound, OCT130401, a phytocannabinoid-based inhalation therapy targeting Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN), but have not yet been granted.
Back in 2021, OCT announced that it had signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Canopy Growth Corporation
This gave OCT the exclusive right to their entire pharmaceutical cannabinoid derivative library, including 335 derivatives and intellectual property rights, including 14 patent families and associated research data.
Throughout 2023, OCT continued to synthesise new derivatives, and the library now includes close to 500 proprietary compounds. Furthermore, according to its website, OCT has developed ‘a proprietary library of approximately 2,000 compounds’
The potential value of these largely untapped assets is huge, and depending on what happens to the IP post-administration, could represent a game-changing library for a company with the right funding and resources to develop them fully.
Business of Cannabis has been made aware that discussions around the future of this licence, and its associated assets, are still being discussed due to the early stage of the administration process.
Last year, OCT reported that four patent applications had been granted for this IP, and discussions were ongoing with Canopy Growth® regarding further patent applications, which would have been co-owned by the two companies.
In 2023, OCT announced that it was moving into oncology having identified a potential ‘first in class’ immunotherapy agent for the treatment of solid tumours, based on an asset which arose from this extensive library.
This would have targeted a market of therapies against solid tumours, it says was projected to be worth US$532bn by 2032. However, due to financial constraints, OCT soon rolled back activity on this programme to focus on its lead compound.
The collapse of OCT represents another significant loss both to the severely underfunded pharmaceutical cannabis sector, and the UK’s biotech sector as a whole.
After a tumultuous few years following its listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, OCT appeared to be making meaningful progress under the new leadership of Clarissa Sowemimo-Coker.
Despite clinical progress and meeting its development targets, the company continued to struggle to secure funding as the wider financial environment soured.
In May 2024, Sowemimi-Coker told Business of Cannabis that its decision to exit the public market reflected the wider struggles of biotech and small-cap companies in accessing capital, and the company believed a ‘far larger pool of capital’ would be available from private investors.
Having launched a new major fundraising initiative in March 2025, targeting a £10M raise, the growing caution of investment in the biotech space, thanks largely to uncertainties surrounding the new Trump administration, is likely to have thwarted these efforts.
According to Reuters, cuts across US federal health agencies exacerbated concerns in the biotech sector, already facing a prolonged downturn, of getting products approved.
“Mass firings at the US Food and Drug Administration are particularly risky for small- and mid-cap biotech companies that have innovative treatments in clinical trials but no products on the market to keep them afloat,” it said.
In turn, this has driven a major downturn in investment, seeing biotech companies raising just $4.2bn this year, compared to $11.1bn in the same period last year, according to LSEG data.
The post Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Collapses, Dealing Latest Blow to Embattled Cannabis Biotech Sector appeared first on Business of Cannabis.
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Like many early-stage biotech companies, OCTH, the holding company of its trading entity Octavian Therapeutics, had always been reliant on investment to push forward its clinical trials.
While there has been no official statement from the company or its administrators, Rushtons Insolvency Limited, numerous public filings confirm they have been appointed.
As such, their promising drug development pipeline, alongside valuable intellectual property for any similar biotech operators, is now likely up for grabs.
Its collapse is reflective of a wider crisis in the global biotech sector, particularly in the US where OCT saw its future, seeing widespread job cuts, a significant slowdown of M&A activity, and public investment opportunities all but grind to a halt.
What happened?
On Friday, May 09, 2025, notice that OCTH had appointed administrators was published in The Gazette, the UK’s official public record of insolvency proceedings.
According to the filing, on May 02, Nicola Baker of Rushtons Insolvency Limited, was appointed as the company’s administrator.
Business of Cannabis has contacted OCT, its communications provider, and the administrators, but as of the date of publication has received no response to our enquiries.
However, a filing from AIM-listed Dillistone Group Plc (DSG), where OCT’s non-executive director and former Chair Julie Pomeroy is also a director, appeared to confirm the administration.
Under Rule 17 and Schedule 2, Paragraph (G) of the AIM Rules for Companies, listed companies must detail any directorships in any other companies held by their directors.
As such, Dillistone announced that Pomeroy had informed them that OCTH entered into administration on May 2, 2025.
Furthermore, according to Companies House, OCTH’s address was changed to that of the administrator on May 08, and authenticated by Baker.
What’s next for OCT’s intellectual property?
As a pre-revenue company, not expected to commercialise its leading drug programme until 2028, OCT’s value lies almost entirely in its intellectual property (IP).
However, determining a concrete value for these assets largely depends on who you ask.
As of July 30, 2024, the most recently available company accounts, OCT has several patents in various markets protecting its lead clinical asset, OCT461201.
OCT461201, a small small-molecule new chemical entity (NCE) CB2 agonist, being developed for diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), was scheduled to begin Phase II clinical trials this year.
Eight patents had been granted for this asset as of July 30, 2024, covering the US, Canada, China, Brazil, Israel, Korea, Mexico, and New Zealand, with another six follow-up applications filed.
OCT estimates that CIPN and IBS together represent commercial opportunities worth over US$5.8bn by 2030
In February 2024, OCT received a reiterated valuation of £25.3m from leading independent research firm Edison, placing its value at over 5x its market cap at the time.
Edison’s valuation was ‘100% ascribed’ to OCT’s leading compound, which Edison expects to launch in 2030. However, it noted that its second compound has significant ‘potential upside’ and plans to incorporate this into its valuation ‘once it enters the clinic’.
According to the latest available data, patents have been filed for its second compound, OCT130401, a phytocannabinoid-based inhalation therapy targeting Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN), but have not yet been granted.
Licensed assets and IP
Back in 2021, OCT announced that it had signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Canopy Growth Corporation
This gave OCT the exclusive right to their entire pharmaceutical cannabinoid derivative library, including 335 derivatives and intellectual property rights, including 14 patent families and associated research data.
Throughout 2023, OCT continued to synthesise new derivatives, and the library now includes close to 500 proprietary compounds. Furthermore, according to its website, OCT has developed ‘a proprietary library of approximately 2,000 compounds’
The potential value of these largely untapped assets is huge, and depending on what happens to the IP post-administration, could represent a game-changing library for a company with the right funding and resources to develop them fully.
Business of Cannabis has been made aware that discussions around the future of this licence, and its associated assets, are still being discussed due to the early stage of the administration process.
Last year, OCT reported that four patent applications had been granted for this IP, and discussions were ongoing with Canopy Growth® regarding further patent applications, which would have been co-owned by the two companies.
In 2023, OCT announced that it was moving into oncology having identified a potential ‘first in class’ immunotherapy agent for the treatment of solid tumours, based on an asset which arose from this extensive library.
This would have targeted a market of therapies against solid tumours, it says was projected to be worth US$532bn by 2032. However, due to financial constraints, OCT soon rolled back activity on this programme to focus on its lead compound.
Another major loss
The collapse of OCT represents another significant loss both to the severely underfunded pharmaceutical cannabis sector, and the UK’s biotech sector as a whole.
After a tumultuous few years following its listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, OCT appeared to be making meaningful progress under the new leadership of Clarissa Sowemimo-Coker.
Despite clinical progress and meeting its development targets, the company continued to struggle to secure funding as the wider financial environment soured.
In May 2024, Sowemimi-Coker told Business of Cannabis that its decision to exit the public market reflected the wider struggles of biotech and small-cap companies in accessing capital, and the company believed a ‘far larger pool of capital’ would be available from private investors.
Having launched a new major fundraising initiative in March 2025, targeting a £10M raise, the growing caution of investment in the biotech space, thanks largely to uncertainties surrounding the new Trump administration, is likely to have thwarted these efforts.
According to Reuters, cuts across US federal health agencies exacerbated concerns in the biotech sector, already facing a prolonged downturn, of getting products approved.
“Mass firings at the US Food and Drug Administration are particularly risky for small- and mid-cap biotech companies that have innovative treatments in clinical trials but no products on the market to keep them afloat,” it said.
In turn, this has driven a major downturn in investment, seeing biotech companies raising just $4.2bn this year, compared to $11.1bn in the same period last year, according to LSEG data.
The post Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Collapses, Dealing Latest Blow to Embattled Cannabis Biotech Sector appeared first on Business of Cannabis.
Continue reading...
