Champignon Brands (SHRM.C) recent term sheet with California-based Wellness Clinic of Orange County not only furthers the company’s North American clinical expansion, but gives them access to an entirely new market: ketamine.
The Wellness Clinic owns and operates a ketamine infusion treatment centre within the Mission Hospital’s Laguna Beach campus. The clinic offers ketamine infusion therapy and is involved in research and complementary treatment protocols.
“This acquisition represents a major milestone as we begin to accelerate our vision of establishing significant scale and a sizable footprint of integrated ketamine centric clinics committed to providing innovative care and therapeutic options to improve the quality of life of patients suffering from chronic disease states that have failed conventional treatments,” said Dr. Roger McIntyre, chief executive officer of Champignon.
Ketamine is mostly known as a club drug used primarily for its disassociative properties and induction of a trance-like state while providing pain relief, sedation and limited memory loss. In street vernacular, it’s called going down a K-hole, but when used in medical settings, it can be used in intensive care and treatment of pain and depression. The effects have a five-minute onset when given intravenously, and last for approximately a half hour.
Research into ketamine’s efficacy has been supported by a breadth of peer-reviewed studies, including clinical trials, and intravenous ketamine has garnered some serious attention as a promising treatment option for many chronic diseases, including depression, anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), fibromyalgia and certain other pain disorders.
Ketamine’s path to legalization isn’t going to be the same as cannabis’, because the risks are different. The odds are good that ketamine will never be completely legal recreationally because of these risks, but will stay within the purview of medical prescription. There’s even an argument that the level and amount of side effects may outweigh the potential benefits, but that’s something for scientists and legislators to consider.
Here is a small, far from exhaustive, list of potential side effects:
- Chest pain, discomfort, or tightness
- Shortness of breath, trouble breathing, or not breathing
- Confusion
- Convulsions
- Dizziness, faintness, lightheadedness, or fainting
- Fast, slow, or irregular heartbeat
- Hives, itching, rash
- Delusions
The term sheet includes the company’s acquisition of 100 per cent of the Wellness Clinic and all subsidiary companies in exchange for payments over an 18-month period. The amounts are divided up into $600,000 (U.S.); one million common shares of Champignon; and 500,000 common shares of Champignon payable only if the Wellness Clinic collects at least USD$1.5-million in revenue over the following year and a half after the deal closes.
“This is an exceptional opportunity to both collaborate and scale with Dr. McIntyre and the world-class team at Champignon; with the objective of remaining at the forefront of innovation in this bourgeoning field. We are excited for our patients, both current and future, as we work to provide them with the therapeutic options that they deserve,” said Dr. Michael Bronson of Wellness Clinic of Orange County.
The completion of the acquisition is subject to a number of conditions, including, but not limited to, the execution of a definitive agreement and completion of satisfactory due diligence. There can be no assurance that the acquisition will be completed as proposed, or at all.
—Joseph Morton
