Yield Growth Corp (BOSS.C) subsidiary takes on 18% of shroom clinical trial outfit

CBD product developer/retailer Yield Growth Corp (BOSS.C) has announced it has agreed to acquire 18% of Translational Life Sciences, a company that “aims to develop proprietary formulations using restricted substances to focus on unmet medical needs in opioid dependence, psychotic illness, pain management and traumatic brain injury, including concussion.”

The company also designs and oversees clinical trials of restricted substances such as psilocybin.

The value of the transaction comes to $750,000, through shares and warrants to Yield subsidiary Flourish Mushroom Labs.

REALITY CHECK TIME:

If we learned nothing else from the early days of the cannabis boom, we learned the hard way that sometimes these early pre-legality deals can be smoke and mirrors. As can be seen by the lack of real cannabis clinical trials out there, many weed companies did ‘deals’ with research groups that turned out to be more about building market cap than they did about building credibility and products.

So is Translational Life Sciences real?

Well, it’s been around for a few years now, having been incorporated in BC in mid-2017, and its core includes real academic and medical professionals with legitimate histories in this field.

Says Yield:

The company’s medical team includes William Honer and Caroline MacCallum and Dr. William Panenka, MD, MSc, FRCPC (Neurology and Psychiatry).

Some detail on those folks:

  • Dr. Panenka is a dually-boarded Neurologist and Psychiatrist and Canadian Institute of Health Research funded academic faculty member at the University of British Columbia. He did a post doctoral fellowship at UBC and Harvard University [and] maintains an internationally recognized research program in brain injury, mental health and addictions.
  • Dr. Caroline MacCallum, Chief Medical Officer, a pharmacist and internal medicine physician with expertise in complex pain and medical cannabis, also a director of a Vancouver based private cannabis clinic.
  • Dr. William G. Honer, key scientist, psychiatrist, physician, and an Internationally recognized translational scientist and previous Head of Department at UBC.

Yield had already installed Panenka as Chair of its Medical Advisory Board.

Dr. Panenka has authored over 30 publications in the last five years. He is an assistant professor, department of psychiatry, UBC, a Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute investigator, a member of the British Columbia Provincial Neuropsychiatry Program, the medical lead of Neuropsychiatry Concussion Clinic, and a neurology consultant at the Fraser Health Acquired Brain Injury Concussion Clinic.

“Dr. Panenka’s dedication to research in treating addictions and his expertise in clinical trials, neurology and psychiatry make him an ideal adviser to help establish Flourish Mushroom Labs as a leader in the fast-growing industry of psychoactive medicines,” said Yield Growth chief executive officer Penny White.

No slouch.

In fact, REALLY no slouch.

Here’s detail on Panenka at UBC’s Centre for Brain Health:

Vancouver’s downtown eastside is home to our most vulnerable population, characterized by a mixture of primary psychiatric illness and refractory addictions. As part of a large team led by Dr. Bill Honer [also part of TLS] (Head of Psychiatry) we recruit individuals housed in single room occupancy hotels who then undergo detailed medical and psychiatric testing, including brain MRI. This is a longitudinal study that follows approximately 500 individuals for up to 5 years. The data generated is important to policy makers and to science. There are a multitude of opportunities to explore psychiatric and neurological illness from many angels within this study.

Here’s one of his team from just a month ago on CBC talking about traumatic brain injury. CTV and others also picked up this story.

Yield is adding to its roster on the product development side also:

The Yield Growth Corp. subsidiary Flourish Mushroom Labs Inc. has appointed Jeff B. Smith as a director and as chairman of the board.

Mr. Smith was an executive for over 20 years at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, the world’s largest and most diversified health care company, with worldwide sales of $76-billion (U.S.) in 2017. His roles included chief transformation officer, group chairman, consumer North America, and president, U.S. skin care. Mr. Smith served on the Johnson & Johnson group operating committee executive.

It’s early days in the mushroom revolution, as far as it pertains to legality and financial markets, but I can’t fault Yield for these hires, at this time. If you were looking to do it right, these folks aren’t wrong.

— Chris Parry

FULL DISCLOSURE: Yield Growth Corp is a ShroomStocks.ca marketing client

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