FSD Pharma Inc (Nasdaq:HUGE) (CSE:HUGE.CN) (FRA:0K9A) said on Thursday that it has decided to forfeit the licences of its wholly-owned subsidiary FV Pharma Inc and suspend all activities of the business within 30 days.

Consequently, FSD Pharma has begun the process of liquidating all of FV Pharma's assets, including the sale of the company's cannabis production facility in Cobourg, Ontario.

Raza Bokhari, MD, executive co-chairman and CEO of FSD Pharma, said the company believes that shareholder value is best served by closing down the medicinal grade cannabis operation and focusing instead on advancing pharmaceutical R&D efforts for its lead compound FSD201 (ultra-micronised PEA) and continuing to explore the acquisition of other compounds to expand its drug development pipeline.

Bokhari added: "Our pharmaceutical R&D team led by Dr Edward Brennan is actively working to submit an Investigational New Drug Application (IND) to the FDA for the use of FSD201 to treat hospitalised COVID-19 patients by down-regulating the over-expressed pro-inflammatory cytokine immune response to SARS-CoV-2 virus infection. We are hopeful to initiate the phase 2 clinical trial before the end of this year and remain cautiously optimistic that our study may improve treatment outcome for COVID-19 patients."