 Do you want to learn how to trade stocks and cryptocurrency? Join our community of traders. Go to richpigsdaily.com and find the next 10 bagger. What are you doing today? I'm your host Rich. Here we have a RichTV Live with our very special guest, the CEO of FSD Pharma, Anthony Durketch. How are you doing today, Anthony? Great, Rich. How are you? I'm fantastic. Very excited to have you on the show. And why don't we get started, Anthony? And you can tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with FSD Pharma. Sure, thank you. So, I got involved with FSD Pharma back in 2017. The FSD are the initials of three last names, meaning Fairfoul, Zayed, and Durkaz, me being the third. Zee Shanssey, who was the president of the company and my partner, he did bring me into the company. And at the time we were looking at the former craft plant outside of Toronto, Canada, to build the world's largest indoor facility. And so that's how I ended up getting involved. I own an investment bank in Toronto, Canada called First Republic Capital. We've probably done about 200 different deals in many, many different industries, which gives us a lot of experience with microcap companies specifically that are public. And so we utilized our money raising capability to fund FSD in the beginning for $53 million and get the company going. Wow. Congratulations on all your success thus far. Can you go through some of the milestones that were hit in the first six months of this year and what the main goals are for the last six months of 2021 for FSD Pharma? Sure. So the first six months we, and just to be clear, I was brought on as interim CEO only last week. So right now what we're doing is analyzing what had happened in the past six months so that we can give the market updates. And these will be coming very, very shortly. And so, but in the first six months, the company was engaged in phase two trials of our lead molecule called FSD 201. And FSD 201 is a naturally occurring protein that's referred to as PEA. And what I find very interesting about PEA is that it enters the human body the same way that CBD does. So the properties that we believe it has are very, very similar to CBD. And so what's most important when it comes to the idea of medicine behind cannabis is that the property is that a target or attack inflammation because inflammation for humans is 75% of the root of all evil of disease. So we were excited by the fact that this protein enters the human body through the endocannabinoid system, which is the same system that cannabis enters the human body. And so that's been in phase two trials. We will have updates coming out very shortly, but we have been analyzing because we have just taken over as management in the past week. Going forward, it's very, very specific. We want to de-risk the company from only having one molecule in our biotechnology pipeline. And so we stated in March and in April in our information circular and amended information circular that we would be targeting other cannabis-based or psychedelic-based biotechnology assets. And to me, I was always a very firm believer in cannabis as a medicine. Recreationally, ironically, I'm in the cannabis industry in a very significant way, but I'm cautious about the recreational uses or overuse of cannabis, but the medical potential I see both in cannabis and in psychedelics is what really, really interests me and gets me really excited. I think there's a tremendous potential. I think that we're on the verge both in cannabis and in psychedelics on the frontier of new medicine of what we know has a lot of healing capabilities in so many ways, but was never allowed to legally be followed up for a number of reasons. So I think this is the most exciting time. And right now, for us, we think that in cannabis, there are a lot of companies. We saw what happened in the past with cannabis stocks, and it really all started in Canada. Canada was the leader for cannabis stocks. And so we thought when there was only Canopy and Aurora and Chronos and Organogram, when you had four or five or six stocks, you saw what ended up happening. The market went wild and all of these companies achieved multi-billion dollar valuations. And so I think that's potential now in the psychedelic space with stocks. So on the NASDAQ, for example, you have Compass Pathways, you have a tie, you have FieldTrip that's coming, and you have Saib and the GIST started trading on the NYSE. So there you have the four. And I compare that to sort of going back to 2017 in the cannabis sector. When there were four cannabis companies that were listed on the big board. So I think there's a tremendous amount of potential. Each of those companies, a tie has an over two billion market cap. Compass Pathways has, I think, about a 1.3 billion market cap. FieldTrip and Saib and both are like 600, 700 million. Oh, and Mind Medicine. Mind Medicine is the fifth one, which also translates like, which has about a billion dollar market cap. So I think there's a tremendous amount of potential in the sector, especially from an investor point of view. With the recent changes, which you've mentioned to the management team, can you give the viewers an idea of what the direction the team is looking to take the company and net? Yes. So, and we did, and I stated that before, both in March and in April, we stated that we would be looking at expanding our biotechnology pipeline and that we are specifically and engaged right now, currently in a number of opportunities that the board is evaluating to look at acquiring that are both in the cannabis and the psychedelic space. Fantastic. And Anthony, and I know you touched on this a little bit. Can you give our viewers an idea of how FSD Pharma is planning on growing its biotech pharmaceutical R&D side of the business and its psychedelic divisions? Sure. So it will be through acquisition with part of our acquisition strategy will be to acquire institutional quality management, because I'm a CEO, but I'm an interim CEO. I'm only here until we can find the right management to move the company forward. And I anticipate that that will be happening in conjunction with acquisitions that hopefully we will be making in the very near future. Very good. Very good. If FSD Pharma were to compare itself to its competitors in this sector, what would you say sets you guys apart? So it sets us apart. In simple terms, as we put out our financial statements yesterday, we have over $50 million in cash. We have an asset that is for sale, you know, that is for sale for about $21 million. So depending if we sell it or not, you know, you could do the math. But our market cap currently is about 60 million, maybe a little bit less US. So we're trading at less than that asset value. You know, we own a molecule that's in phase trials currently with the FDA that does enter the body the exact same way cannabis does. So I would say that the properties to us were similar, and that's why we're very excited about it. And in terms of acquiring in the psychedelic space, every single one of the competitors that trade publicly on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange and psychedelics start at, you know, 10 to 40 times market cap multiples. So I think there might be or we hope that there will be an arbitrage opportunity, you know, what we will be targeting in terms of acquiring is always has to be something that's unique, that's separate from the rest. And that's something that will, you know, foster the development of helping out humanity and helping on medicine. Here at Rich TV Live, we've got community investors from all over the world, literally 100 countries that will watch this video. And it's extremely important for us to look for companies that have a tight share structure. Can you go through your share structure for our viewers and how the company plans to attract more institutional investors, as well as retail investors? That's an interesting question. So the share structure of FSD Pharma, I was interested in it. So we ended up ordering Nobo lists dated for July 28 through 29. And we started to get a breakdown of our share structure. And it's fascinating. And I'll just make sure that I'm looking so that I'm telling you exactly where it is. But in our share range analysis and reports that were sent to us, there are approximately 157,000 shareholders in FSD today. That's incredible. We have just over 35 million shares. Wow. So we have a enormous retail component to our shareholder base today. So you're talking that over 95% is retail held, over 150,000 shareholders. So to me, that's very unique. First of all, being someone who's done over 200 deals in the microcap world in different industries, I have never seen a share structure like that. And so I've just never seen it. I mean, I've interviewed probably 500 companies, and I can't think of any company that has told me that they have over 150,000 shareholders. And in the microcap world, I understand if you're Tesla, yes. But to be a relatively unknown microcap company, with that size of shareholder base, I see it as a tremendous opportunity. And so rule number one, and for the record, you are the first interviewer that I'm doing as CEO of FSD. Thank you. You're the very first interviewer. What I think is really interesting, and I'm also fascinated by it is, you know, so number one, we have to now do a much better job than in the past at reaching out to our existing shareholder base, because we're already starting with such an enormous base. To me, this is something that I think I would have only dreamt of. So if I can just make sure that we're providing and keeping our shareholders updated, right, if we just reach 20% of them, that's more than total shareholding of other microcaps ever. And so to me, this is a tremendous opportunity to not only re-engage our existing shareholder base, but then, you know, now then to hopefully grow it. And when it comes to, you know, attracting institutions, I can tell you that in my past and in a lot of our most successful deals, and one of them, say, was patient home monitoring. And that's where I learned a lot of lessons in Canada, where we had a company and really, we raised the money all retail for the first three rounds of financing. So it was always a retail held stock. And then the company began to execute and became more of an institutional story. And then we handed it up to the institutions. And where I see a lot of times companies can get into trouble from the stock side is where institutions are there in the very beginning, and then they sell into the retail and into the retail buying. And so I'm a believer that, you know, retail should be first and let retail hand up to the bigger money as opposed to the bigger money selling down. And so I think, you know, the way that this share structure is, which is just so unique and exciting to me. And so we want to, and we will be engaging in, you know, very, very, very aggressive campaigns to ensure that we are telling our story and that we are reaching out to our shareholder base. I think that they have the right to information. And frankly, we want them to be excited and invigorated again. And it's been too long. And so that's why we're going to start and you're the first of what will be many probably interviews and ways of reaching out to the existing shareholder base and then to grow it. And then I think eventually, with the acquisitions, you know, we will eventually be able to hopefully hand up to institutions. And it'll start with making sure that what we acquire comes with institutional quality management. That's great. If there was one thing you'd want the shareholders to know about FSD Pharma today, what would that be? Our market cap. Okay. We're trading at about, you know, 60 million market cap. And if you look at our balance sheet, you can do your own math. Yeah. I mean, like you said, how much money did you say you guys have on the balance sheet right now? Over 50? Yeah, we followed our financial statements yesterday as of June 30th. There's 51 million, I think, approximately in cash. You know, we have the asset for sale on our books, states it's 8.9 million, which was the cost, but it's for sale for 21,900,000 right now. So if you do that math, you know, you can come to your own conclusion. But, you know, I think if we can acquire right now, I think the market's not valuing FSD 201 at anything because of where we're trading, you know, to our net asset value. And then I think if we can make the right acquisition or acquisitions in either the cannabis or psychedelic spaces, considering all the psychedelic cons on the NASDAQ NYC today, which all start at, you know, 10x, 10 times where we are and head up from there, I think that, you know, hopefully we'll catch some of that differential. Anthony, what is the best way for shareholders to get in touch with the company if they have any questions for you? Go to our website at www.FSDPharma.com. Anthony, thank you so much for joining us today, CEO of FSD Pharma Anthony Durkic. If you're not winning, you're not watching, we bring you winners and we bring them to you first. FSD Pharma is a company we've literally been talking about since day one. I remember talking about FSD Pharma when they were penny stock, watched them run all the way to a dollar. Investors made a killing on huge when it first came out. And now they're just getting started again with a new direction and new approach with 157,000 shareholders. That's a great place to start from. And thank you for joining us today, Anthony. Thank you so much. Like I said, this is my first interview as CEO of FSD. So I really appreciate the risk that you gave me the opportunity. Always a pleasure to love to invite you back on our show anytime you have any big breaking news or you just like to chat or talk to your community. We'd love to invite you here on Rich TV Live. Now, remember guys, if you like these videos, please smash the like button, comment down below, share the video everywhere and subscribe if you're live. Remember, Rich TV Live is strictly for information and education purposes. Please do your due diligence, do your research before you invest in anything that we talk about here in Rich TV Live. In saying that, I do like FSD Farm. I love the fact you guys have money in the bank. I love the fact that you guys have over 150,000 shareholders. I like the fact that you're in the cannabis and psychedelic sectors, two very fast growing sectors. And we're going to be watching very, very closely to see some of those new acquisitions, which I think can really bring a lot of value into the company. So thank you for joining us today, Anthony. And thank you guys for watching. We'll talk to you guys soon.