Miton UK MicroCap Trust plc (LON:MINI) Co-Fund Manager Gervais Williams was asked by DirectorsTalk his views on portfolio company Celadon Pharmaceuticals plc (LON:CEL) earlier this month.
DirectorsTalk asked, “In the health sector in January, Celadon Pharmaceuticals became the first UK company to be registered to make cannabis-based medicines. They are now waiting for the Home Office to update their license to begin supply, what are your thoughts on the market opportunity there?
Gervais Williams commented:
It’s interesting, the UK currently imports quite a lot of cannabis oils and other products for medical use and actually, we don’t have any domestic production.
Celadon Pharmaceuticals are well positioned to take advantage of that and they’ve just been announced that the Home Office is likely to approve their application. That means they could possibly have up to 80 million of substitute sales from the imports, which would drive substantial growth to the business up.
The share price has actually risen from 55 through to about 130 recently. What that’s really says is, just like many other smaller quoted companies in the UK, their valuations are relatively low and on any good news, they cannot just improve but can see quite substantial improvements in the share price and this is a good example of that.
On 14 March 2023, Celadon announced that its current Home Office licence has been successfully updated to allow the commercial sale of its high Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) product, following the Company’s recent registration as a Good Manufacturing Practices (“GMP”) manufacturer by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
James Short, Chief Executive Officer of Celadon said:
“Following our milestone GMP certification, our updated Home Office licence now gives Celadon the opportunity to pursue revenue through the sale of our medicines, and to becoming a partner of choice in the pharmaceutical cannabis sector.
It has been a great start to 2023 for Celadon and we continue to work hard to get our products to market and, most importantly, to the patients that need our medicines most.”
Celadon Pharmaceuticals Plc is a UK-based pharmaceutical company specialising in the research, cultivation, manufacturing and supply of cannabinoid-based medicines.
