ASX-listed Bioxyne’s wholly-owned subsidiary BLS Wholesalers has launched its CanxChange trading platform in Australia with more than A$10 million of leads uploaded in its first week of operation.
The B2B platform is invite only and built to enable pharmacies, licensed manufacturers and cultivators to transact in a secure and user-friendly environment.
BLS CEO Sam Watson described CanxChange as “a sophisticated technology platform marketplace solution to help licensed businesses navigate the highly regulated environment safely, with greater transparency and ease”.
He added: “We have launched CanxChange to target the $500m-plus medicine specials market in Australia, including medicinal cannabis.
“CanxChange aims to solve market inefficiencies, and to create more transparency in pricing and supply in the B2B prescription cannabis industry, which is moving rapidly towards $1 billion per year.”
In its first week since launch the platform has seen more than $10m of sale interests uploaded.
Watson said: “There are other platforms in the market which cater to pharmacy and pharmacy to patients, but nothing that connects cultivators to manufacturers, suppliers to pharmacy.
“There is nothing exclusively B2B, and nothing with international access.
“That’s what’s on offer here – a global platform connecting Australian operators with the international cannabis community, and vice versa.”
He said the interest garnered so far – with very little marketing – was testament to the power of the platform.
“We haven’t even started to market [it] and there is already a huge uptick in interest, just through our modest network,” Watson said.
“We really think CanxChange Australia could see a significant portion of the total market transacting on it each year and that’s a big number.
“There is no added margin or hidden cost in using it, just a small percentage fee for service shared between purchaser and seller to cover the platform technology and administration costs.”
Bioxyne completed the acquisition of BLS in May last year, with Watson and COO Jason Hine joining the board.
BLS holds Australian licences to import, export, wholesale and manufacture Schedule 3, 4 and 8 medicines including medicinal cannabis and ketamine. It has operations in Australia, the UK, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, and the US.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) inspected its Brisbane manufacturing facility in November with the firm expecting Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification in the coming months.
Watson said certification will enable the company to significantly scale its existing production capabilities and to bulk manufacture its trademarked Dr Watson medicines and therapeutic goods for third-party clients in Australia for export and local supply.
“Certification will allow us to significantly scale up manufacturing for the Australian market as well as for export to foreign markets such as Germany, the Czech Republic and the UK where we have a strong foothold and sales team,” he said.
“We hope to be able to update the market on our GMP status before the end of February.”
