VICTORIA, March 11, 2015 /CNW/ - T-Bird Pharma Inc.
(TSXV:TPI) ("T-Bird" or the "Company"), a
pharmaceutical company focused on developing premium quality
medical marijuana products and a licensed producer ("LP") to
cultivate marijuana under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes
Regulations (Canada) ("MMPR"), is
pleased to announce that it, together with certain of its
shareholders, has entered into an agreement with Medna Biosciences
Inc. ("Medna") whereby Medna will acquire (the "Escrow Transfer") a
total of 20,156,790 common shares of T-Bird (45% of the Company's
issued shares) from five of its founding shareholders, including
its former CEO and CFO, at a price of $0.21 per share. This block of shares is
currently held in escrow and the shares will be transferred within
escrow and remain bound by those terms and conditions. The
Escrow Transfer is subject to TSX-V approval.
Medna is a privately held company building a portfolio of
diversified assets in the medical marijuana space. The founder
and Chairman of Medna and its largest shareholder, Dr. Avtar Dhillon, will join the Board of T-Bird as
Chairman on the closing of the Escrow Transfer. Joining him
on the Board of T-Bird will be Jim
Heppell, CEO of Medna, and Punit
Dhillon, currently CEO of OncoSec Medical
(OTCQB:ONCS). Stepping down from the Board of T-Bird will be
Frank Barr, Dr. Essam Hamza and Dr. Bin Huang. David Raffa
will continue as a director of T-Bird but will step down as
Chairman in favour of Dr. Dhillon. Dr. Huang will maintain her
role as CEO of T-Bird.
Dr. Dhillon served as President and CEO of Inovio
Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) from October
2001 to June 2009, as
President and Chairman of Inovio from June
2009 until October 2009, as
Executive Chairman until August 2011,
and as Chairman from September 2011. During his tenure at
Inovio, Dr. Dhillon led the successful turnaround of the company
through a restructuring, acquisition of technology from several
European and North American companies, and a merger with VGX
Pharmaceuticals to develop a vertically integrated DNA vaccine
development company. Dr. Dhillon led multiple successful financings
for Inovio, raising over $200 million
for the company, and concluded several licensing deals that
included multinational companies, Merck and Wyeth (now Pfizer). Dr.
Dhillon has served as Chairman of the Board of OncoSec since
March 2011 and of Arch Therapeutics
since April 2013.
Prior to joining Inovio, Dr. Dhillon held roles of increasing
responsibility with MDS Capital Corp. (now Lumira Capital Corp.),
one of North America's leading
healthcare venture capital organizations, from the period of
August 1998 until September 2001.
"I am pleased to welcome Dr. Dhillon, whom I have known for many
years, to our Board. Dr. Dhillon is an experienced, proven life
science entrepreneur with strong capital markets experience who has
built a number of successful companies. He will make a great
Chairman of T-Bird going forward and has my full support," noted
Raffa. "I am excited to join the T-Bird team and look for ways
to grow the opportunity from the base they have built. We
have a number of exciting opportunities we are looking at and I am
committed to making T-Bird a success for all of its shareholders,"
noted Dr. Dhillon.
Jim Heppell, CEO of Medna, was a
co-founder of BC Advantage Funds (along with David Raffa) where he was a fund manager
managing a portfolio of life science companies. In 2006,
Advantage's investment in Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, led by Jim, won
Canadian Venture Capital Deal of the Year for having the highest
realized return (23.4X) of any venture capital fund in
Canada. During his career Jim has participated in building a
number of successful life science companies including Aspreva
(acquired by Galenica for approximately $1B) and Inovio.
Punit Dhillon is the co-founder
and CEO of OncoSec Medical, a biopharmaceutical company
developing advanced-stage immunotherapy to treat solid tumors.
Punit was formerly VP, Finance & Operations at
Inovio. In his management experience, Punit has raised over
$160 million through multiple
financings and several licensing deals including early stage
transactions with Merck and Wyeth. More recently, Punit has
been leading the development of a pipeline of novel immunotherapy
candidates for a wide range of solid tumor applications at
OncoSec. In 2013, he was recognized as one of the "Top
100" CEOs by PharmaVoice and the "Most Admired
CEO" by the San Diego Business Journal. In 2014, he was
recognized as a finalist for Ernst & Young's "Entrepreneur of
the Year."
"I would also like to welcome Jim and Punit to our Board and
thank our two outgoing directors, Frank
Barr and Dr. Essam Hamza, for
their service to the company. They provided considerable
value in their brief tenure, and we are very appreciative of them
making their seats available to accommodate the new board members",
added Raffa. "Since taking this company public we have looked
to continue to add proven entrepreneurs to our team and this
represents another step in that direction. This positions the
company well for its next stage of growth."
The incoming directors will be granted a total of 1,500,000
options exercisable at the market closing price. The option
grant is subject to the closing of the Escrow Transfer and TSX
Venture Exchange approval.
About T-Bird and Thunderbird
T-Bird Pharma Inc. is the parent company of Thunderbird
Biomedical Inc., a wholly owned private subsidiary formed in
January, 2013. The principal activities of Thunderbird are the
production of marijuana from its Victoria, British Columbia production
facility, as regulated by the Marihuana for Medical Purposes
Regulations (Canada). Thunderbird obtained a medical
marijuana license to undertake the production of medical marijuana
in February 2014, being the fifth
company in Canada to obtain such a
license. Thunderbird was acquired by T-Bird in September,
2013.
About Medna
Medna is a life science company focused on unlocking the medical
potential of cannabis through developing pharmaceutical drug
candidates from compounds derived from cannabis; creating natural
non-psychotropic extracts of cannabis as nutraceutical products;
designing proprietary strains of cannabis to treat specific medical
conditions; and carrying out clinical studies to determine the
efficacy and dosage of its pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and
cannabis products.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"David J. Raffa"
Chairman
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX
Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.
Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information
Certain statements in this press release constitute
forward-looking statements, within the meaning of applicable
securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts,
including without limitation, statements regarding future
estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives,
assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, are
"forward-looking statements".
We caution you that such "forward-looking statements" involve
known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
and future events to differ materially from those anticipated in
such statements.
Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to,
statements with respect to commercial operations, including
production and sales of medical marijuana, anticipated revenues,
projected size of market, quantities of future medical marijuana
production, completion of production facilities and other
information that is based on forecasts of future results, estimates
of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management.
T-Bird Pharma Inc. (the "Company") does not intend, and does not
assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements
except as required by law. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties relating to, among other things, results of
production and sale activities, the Company's historical experience
with medical marijuana operations, uninsured risks, regulatory
changes, availability of production facilities, timeliness of
government approvals and the granting of permits and licenses,
changes in prices, actual operating and financial performance of
facilities, equipment and processes relative to specifications and
expectations. Actual results may differ materially from those
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
SOURCE T-Bird Pharma Inc.