- Privately-held company developing proven plant medicine
- Ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive substance
- Looking to develop a network of global ibogaine-assisted psycho-therapy clinics
- Undertaking reverse takeover of P Squared Renewables
What Universal Ibogaine does:
Universal Ibogaine Inc. is a privately-held pharma company formed in 2018 which is poised to address the opioid epidemic in North America through proven plant medicine.
Ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive substance found in plants of the family Apocynaceae, such as Tabernanthe iboga, Voacanga africana, and Tabernaemontana undulata. It is a psychedelic with dissociative properties and preliminary research indicates that it may help counter drug addiction
Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Universal Ibogaine is in the initial stages of implementing and financing its business plan, which is to develop a network of global ibogaine-assisted psycho-therapy clinics for the treatment and ideally the cure of addictions to primarily opioids, as well as alcohol, cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and other stimulants.
The company plans to submit a Clinical Trial Application to Health Canada to undertake clinical trials in Canada to prove the efficacy of the use of ibogaine.
In the longer term, the group plans to introduce ibogaine into the addiction treatment protocols to be used in its future facilities.
The company also holds a 20-acre property on an island near San Pedro, Belize, and is reviewing the concept of having a joint venture partner finance and develop a potential future resort or after-care facility on this site.
How is it doing:
Universal Ibogaine kicked off 2021 with a new boss.
At the start of February, the company said it had appointed Dr Rami Batal as its CEO. Batal, a veteran biopharmaceutical executive, took up the reins from Jeremy Weate, who will remain involved in the psychedelics company through his seat on the board of directors.
Batal forged a global career in biomedical innovation, specifically biopharmaceutical research, development and commercialization of medicines for central nervous system disorders and pain, with multinational pharmaceutical companies and biotech startups. His most recent role at Canadian pharmaceutical firm Antibe Therapeutics saw him responsible for the commercial readiness of otenaproxesul, a phase 3 pain/osteoarthritis drug candidate, which was recently out-licensed to Nuance Pharma for the Greater China region.
On the financing front, at the end of November, Universal Ibogaine completed the first closing of $2.3 million under its current private placement offering of units.
The company said a total of 9,369,392 units had been issued at a price of $0.25 with a total value of $2,342,348. The units issued under the offering consist of one Universal Ibogaine common share and one warrant to purchase one additional common share. The warrants have a 5-year term to expiry, and an escalating annual exercise price (increasing by $0.25 per year, starting at $0.50 if exercised in year 1, to $1.50 if exercised in year 5.
In addition, Universal Ibogaine said it will issue a minimum of $500,000 of units as partial consideration payable on closing of its pending acquisition of the Kelburn Clinic. The total of $774,499 includes units valued at $306,667 which were issued for the value of past services received from members of Universal Ibogaine’s board of directors.
Universal Ibogaine had previously entered into a letter of intent with an arms-length party to acquire the operations of the Kelburn Mental Health & Addiction Recovery Centre, an addiction treatment facility near Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Kelburn Clinic is privately-owned and has been in operation for 6 years.
It is intended that the consideration payable for the Kelburn Clinic acquisition will consist of $1 million cash and a minimum of $500,000 equity requested by the owners of the property, payable in the form of 2,000,000 Universal Ibogaine Units (which will have the same terms as those being issued under the offering).
The Kelburn Clinic site is operated under a long-term lease of the premises from certain of its related party shareholders. Universal Ibogaine said it intends to initially acquire solely the operations of the Kelburn Clinic, and lease the related land and building (with a two-year option to subsequently acquire those assets). The group added that it intends to expand the operations and optimize and improve Kelburn’s historical occupancy.
On October 7, 2020, Universal Ibogaine finalized an Amalgamation Agreement for a proposed reverse takeover business combination/merger with P Squared Renewables Inc. (CVE:PSQ.P)), a capital pool company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange.
PSQ plans to conduct a prospectus offering of units closing concurrently with the merger for gross proceeds of a minimum of $3 million and a maximum of up to $5 million. It is intended that the units issued under the prospectus offering will be comprised of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant.
On December 18, Universal Ibogaine announced that it has engaged The Conscious Fund Psy Ltd (TCF) as a strategic advisor for services such as strategic planning, financing, and business plan development.
TCF is one of the leading investment funds and has been an early-stage investor in the emerging psychedelic sector, the company noted in a statement. It also operates 'Microdose', the largest investor network and forum for industry participants in the psychedelic medicine space. TCF has been retained by UI to provide a range of advice related to such matters as strategic planning, fundraising, expansion opportunities, branding and messaging.
Inflection points:
- Completion of P Squared Renewables reverse takeover
- Completion of Kelburn Clinic acquisition
- Further news on The Conscious Fund strategic planning
What the boss says:
In the February statement announcing his appointment, new Universal Ibogaine CEO, Dr Rami Batal said: “I am excited to be joining the Universal Ibogaine team at this strategic juncture to lead the company in advancing a potentially transformational clinical development program, targeting opioid use disorder and ultimately other addictions."
“I am equally thrilled to support UI’s ambition to acquire and operate addiction treatment centres, which will innovate and directly apply authorized tools and technologies to patient care,” he added.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com
