CANNAINVESTOR Magazine February / March 2017 | Page 30

Key Strategic Market Drivers

Since listing on the ASX in late 2016, significant investor interest and demand saw the share price increase by nearly 70% over the first four weeks as a public company.

This strong shareholder interest is a reflection of the growing global demand market for medical cannabis and the top tier management and advisory team behind Zelda. Some of the key drivers of this are:

•Medical Evidence

-Strong clinical data being generated that shows the evidence that medical cannabis can treat specific disease conditions. The science and evidence is gaining strong support from medical experts world-wide. The National Academy of Sciences recently released an international review showing positive clinical evidence of medicinal cannabis in certain diseases including pain and insomnia.

•Legal and Regulatory

-Many countries are changing their regulatory frameworks to legalize the use of medical cannabis and put in place measures to allow doctors to prescribe it.

•Consumers

-Consumers are seeking alternative, botanical derived medical treatments and are changing perceptions to accept medical cannabis, canvassing governments to legalize it.

The Future Outlook

Strong global interest in medical cannabis, combined with the company’s clear business strategy to generate revenues in the short and medium term and build longer term value through its pre-clinical work will continue to drive strong shareholder interest.

Zelda Therapeutics has identified medical areas to fast track its formulations into clinical trials including insomnia and eczema. While these are relatively niche markets there is potential for Zelda to create significant shareholder value over the next 12-18 months.

The company’s cancer research program will take a longer timeframe before moving into clinical trials, but has the potential to generate significant advances in treatment options for patients. Successful results will see Zelda actively engage with the bio-pharmaceutical industry to progress into human clinical trials.

Furthermore, the company has an active intellectual property (IP) strategy in place and is focusing on areas where it can obtain IP protection to create further value for shareholders.

With the strategies outlined above, its achievements to date, together with its Board and leading scientific advisory team, all the right components in the equation are there to ensure this research focused company will deliver to the market medically significant cannabis treatments for specific disease conditions.

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