Elixinol secures foothold in Australian market with PharmaCann agreement

Elixinol secures foothold in Australian market with PharmaCann agreement

Elixinol (ASX: EXL) will finally be able to sell its CBD products in Australia after penning an exclusive distribution agreement with licenced wholesaler PharmaCann.

Under the agreement PharmaCann will import and supply Elixinol's branded CBD products into Australia from the US, opening the company up to a brand new market.

"We regularly receive queries about whether our products are accessible in Australia, so we're very pleased to now be able to offer a solution," says Elixinol group CEO Oliver Horn.

"The relationship with PharmaCann gives us the ability to see Elixinol branded products in our home market in a way which fits within current regulations."

As a wholesaler PharmaCann has a wide distribution network into major pharmacy chains including Chemist Warehouse, TerryWhite Chemmart, Priceline Pharmacy, and more.

The company also services more than 1,600 medical practitioners, more than 2,000 pharmacies in Australia and New Zealand and has access to a growing network of more than 130 prescribing doctors.

"At PharmaCann, our ethos is to ensure that all members of our communities have a streamlined access to the most affordable cannabinoid medicines in the market," says PharmaCann managing director Victor Caprio.

"By working with Elixinol Global to distribute their products in the region, the continuation of our program on delivering affordable, high quality medicines can be met."


Read more: Australia's top 20 cannabis companies


Elixinol says the company is looking forward to the proposed descheduling of CBD products. Should this occur Elixinol says its products will be made available more widely over the counter by Australian pharmacists in early 2021.

Today's news is a major coup for the company, one of Australia's Top 20 Cannabis Companies, which had a rollercoaster year in FY20.

Since July 2019 Elixinol's share price dived by 94 per cent, and by the end of March 2020 the company only had $11 million in cash left.

However, on the back of today's news, the company's share price is up 15.15 per cent to $0.19.

The deal with PharmaCann also follows an announcement made on 20 July when Elixinol announced it would be holding onto its subsidiary Hemp Foods Australia (HFA).

Elixinol said last week that, because of improved market dynamics and a positive outlook, it would continue HFA, whilst exploring potential to leverage the cost base and skillset in the HFA business to support opportunities emerging in the CBD landscape.

"Under strong management, HFA has delivered improving performance and we have put in place measures to further optimise the HFA business," Horn said.

"As a result of the strong performance, we are now working towards harnessing this positive momentum.

"With the TGA potentially relaxing Australian CBD regulations we are also exploring further synergies with HFA in bringing Elixinol branded products to market."

ECS to raise $850k, MGC Pharma unveils promising study results

In other cannabis industry news ECS Botanics (ASX: ECS) has announced an $850,000 raise to accelerate its retail and wholesale hemp food business, develop new products, accelerate its medicinal cannabis strategy, and provide new working capital.

The raise will be completed in two tranches: a $600,000 placement at a 30 per cent discount of $1.75 per share, and a $250,000 share purchase plan.

"ECS has been making extensive progress on its hemp food business, as well as completing a second successful hemp harvest," says ECS managing director Alex Keach.

"We've also been working closely with Pharmout in the development of our medicinal cannabis project.

"It's going to be an exciting year for the Company as a lot of our hard work comes to fruition."

In the cannabis research space MGC Pharmaceuticals (ASX: MXC) has unveiled the results from a safety and toxicity study on mice for a COVID-19 treatment ArtemiC done in collaboration with Swiss PharmaCan.

ArtemiC is not based on cannabis specifically, but rather it is based on Artemisinin, a drug derived from the Asian plant Artemisia annua.

The company hopes the research will demonstrate ArtemiC will have an effect on coronavirus-infected patients with inflammatory complications.

MGC says the new results are "promising" and showed that the study, completed on mice, had no clinical signs or adverse reactions.

"We are very pleased with these results achieved in the ArtemiC safety and toxicity study," says MGC co-founder and managing director Roby Zomer.

"Importantly, this study provides further support for the parameters of our Phase II clinical trial in COVID-19 patients currently underway.

"We look forward to receiving the histology results from this in vivo study in the coming days, to be followed by the first interim results from our Phase II clinical trial in Israel on COVID-19 infected patients that are now expected by early August."

Never miss a news update, subscribe here. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

Business News Australia

Get our daily business news

Sign up to our free email news updates.

 
Whitefox Recruitment founder Luke Hemmings making strides as a careers leader
Partner Content
After relocating his Canberra-founded company Whitefox Recruitment to the Gold Coast la...
Whitefox Recruitment
Advertisement

Related Stories

ASIC secures its first court win for greenwashing against US giant Vanguard

ASIC secures its first court win for greenwashing against US giant Vanguard

The Australian corporate watchdog has caught out one of the world&r...

Medicinal cannabis group Althea shaves $1.5m from its cost base through staff cutbacks

Medicinal cannabis group Althea shaves $1.5m from its cost base through staff cutbacks

Australian-founded medicinal cannabis company Althea Group (ASX: AG...

Charter Hall snares 15pc stake in Hotel Property Investments for $97m from 360 Capital

Charter Hall snares 15pc stake in Hotel Property Investments for $97m from 360 Capital

Listed funds manager 360 Capital Group (ASX: TGP) has offloaded its...

Lendlease gains approval for $1.7b transformation of Queen Victoria Market precinct

Lendlease gains approval for $1.7b transformation of Queen Victoria Market precinct

Australian development giant Lendlease Group (ASX: LLC) has been gr...