Patients in Ireland taking Althea’s CBD12:THC10 cannabis oil for two specific indications will be provided their medication free of charge from August 1, in a move described as a “big development” for cannabis by chief executive Josh Fegan.
The 50ml bottle will be available under Ireland’s Primary Care Reimbursement Service for people being treated for spasticity with multiple sclerosis and for chemotherapy-induced intractable nausea and vomiting.
Standard therapies must have failed for both conditions.
The agreed reimbursement price for the oil is Є327.89 (A$540).
“Any receipt of full reimbursement for a medicine in the pharmaceutical industry is a big development, even more so when the medicine is cannabis based,” Fegan said. “Our medical affairs team worked closely with the Irish regulator over the last year to make the reimbursement possible and this is a great result for them as well as patients and doctors in Ireland.”
He said the company has applied for a second product, Althea THC20:CBD1, to be added to Ireland’s list of reimbursed products.
Cann Group
Cann Group has doubled the size of its previous record harvest, a “key step” towards its goal of producing of 12.5 tonnes of cannabis each year, the firm said.
The harvest involved more than 320 square metres of crop which equates to annualised production of eight tonnes.
Cann Group claimed the yield of the “high quality dry flower” was 17% ahead of target.
Chief executive Peter Koetsier described it as a “tremendous achievement” that gives “strong confidence” in the firm’s ability to achieve the 12.5 tonne target.
“The improvement in flower quality underscores the value of our focus on cultivation processes and the investment we have made in leading-edge technology at Mildura,” he said. “We will continue to scale up production over coming months, reinforcing our competitive advantage and keeping us on the path to EBITDA profitability.”
Cann Group shares climbed 4% in Monday trading to close at $0.130c.
Greenfern Industries
New Zealand firm Greenfern has commissioned the first of its two new grow rooms with the second expected to follow “in the next few weeks”.
The development will allow the company to stagger harvests, with each room expected to deliver four or five harvests each year, generating 200 to 250kg of flower.
Construction of the rooms follows a capital raise at the end of 2022.
Managing director Dan Casey said the first grow room has been populated with 300 plants.
“While the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) installation has been a difficult, yet critical, piece of the infrastructure, we are now happy with how the environmental climate is controlled within the first room and will be excited to see the progress of the medicinal cannabis plants through their lifecycle,” he said.
Greenfern now faces the task of emulating its test facility – which met stringent European Pharmacopoeia standards regarding inhalation microbial counts without the need for irradiation treatment – in the larger facility.
Chairman Marvin Yee said: “This milestone marks Greenfern as being one of the New Zealand companies actually producing cannabis in New Zealand.
“We are excited at this opportunity and foresee cultivation being a strong line of business for our group.”
