Cardiol Therapeutics Inc (CRDL)

[12yearplan]

Globe and Mail Jan 24, 2020

Cardiol Therapeutics Inc. (CRDL-T) is “on a catalyst-studded path that could see investors realizing significant upside in the near-term,” said Raymond James analyst Rahul Sarugaser.

In a research report released Friday, Mr. Sarugaser initiated coverage of the Oakville, Ont.-based company with an "outperform" rating.

“Cardiol Therapeutics (CRDL) is a biopharmaceutical company,” he said. "What CRDL is not: a cannabis company. The cause for confusion? CRDL focuses its therapeutic strategy around the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) cannabidiol (CBD): a molecule that occurs naturally in the cannabis plant. The key differentiator: CRDL formulates its products using pharmaceutical manufacturing quality standards, deriving its CBD by chemical synthesis and directing its products toward sensitive, underserved—i.e., paediatric and geriatric—patient populations that most need their source of CBD to be THC-free (THC is the psychoactive component of cannabis). We appreciate that even modest penetration of these patient populations with pharmaceutical-quality, data-supported CBD products in Canada would represent material upside for CRDL. This said, CRDL’s concurrent development of a pharmaceutical treatment for heart disease — through Health Canada and the U.S. FDA — we see as the real prize here.



“CRDL, leveraging its biopharmaceutical heritage and pedigree, is taking advantage of an opportunity that, as far as we understand, is unique to this moment in time in Canada. Because of the Cannabis Act, for the first time in history a pharmaceutically-manufactured drug, CardiolRx (chemically-synthesized cGMP-quality CBD) can be sold to medical cannabis patients while, concurrently, being developed as a pharmaceutical drug in gold-standard clinical trials with Health Canada and the U.S. FDA. We believe CRDL’s veteran management team—with its deep pharmaceutical roots, many hailing from Vasogen (VSGN)—has the discipline and experience to pull off this tandem commercial/clinical enterprise.”

He set a target price of $5 per share, which falls $4 short of the consensus.