Doylestown’s Kannalife goes public in merger

Kannalife Sciences, Inc., the Doylestown-based cannabis research company, announced Thursday that it had merged with TYG Solutions Corp through a share exchange transaction, making it a publicly-traded company.

Kannalife, founded eight years ago, holds an exclusive license from the National Institutes of Health for the commercialization of cannabinoids (the active molecules in marijuana) as antioxidants and neuroprotectants.

The products the company creates, synthetic cannabinoids including the molecule CBD, are used in research at Temple University and other schools for the study of brain injuries, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The company, a spokesman said, does not touch the marijuana plant.

"While we certainly don't consider ourselves an 'anything cannabis' company, we haven't lost sight of the fact that Kannalife was among a select few companies in the pharmaceutical space to approach drug development in cannabinoid therapeutics," said Kannalife CEO Dean Petkanas, a former vice president of research at Stratton Oakmont, the penny-stock trading company depicted in The Wolf of Wall Street.

TYG is touted as a design company and iPhone app developer on its website. It last traded at zero dollars. TYG appears to have no experience in the biotech or cannabis markets. According to its website, TYG acquired approximately 99.7% of the issued and outstanding shares of Kannalife rendering Kannalife a 99.7%-owned subsidiary of TYG.

This story has been updated to correct the products made by Kannalife and Petkanas' former position at Stratton Oakmont.