KannaLife Sciences, a US-based medical company developing drugs from plants such as hemp, has raised $1.5m in its series A round from two corporations.
Medical Marijuana (MJNA) and CannaVest led the A round. The investment follows a deal earlier in the month for CannaVest to buy MJNA’s PhytoSphere assets for $35m of its shares.
KannaLife holds an exclusive license with US government’s National Institutes of Health – Office of Technology Transfer (NIH) for the commercialization of US patent 6,630,507, “Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants”.
Dean Petkanas, founder and chief executive of KannaLife, said: “The investments being made into KannaLife by CannaVest and MJNA go well beyond the actual dollars and cents. CannaVest and MJNA have paved highly sensible commercial inroads in the field of phyto-medics, and principally in the area of cannabinoid based medicaments.”
Michelle Sides, chairman and chief operating officer of MJNA, added: “The NIH exclusive license in our opinion is a true industry game changer. Our investment in KannaLife helps further build our pipeline of patented cannabinoid based medical products. In the very near future, it is patents such as this that we believe will determine a company’s future success in the cannabis based pharmaceutical industry.”
Michael Mona, president of CannaVest, said: “The companies work in the standardization of cannabis based products packaging, testing and identification is clearly where the industry is heading. We believe that KannaLife will be able to deploy its proprietary technology for standardization to markets that CannaVest and MJNA are currently in.”