Rua Bioscience
Rua Bioscience has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of New Zealand-based medicinal cannabis company Zalm Therapeutics for NZ$10 million in new Rua shares valued at around 41 cents per share.
The deal is expected to complete in late-January 2022 subject to shareholder approval.
Chairman Trevor Burt said: “Combining speed to market with long-term preferential access to substantial volumes of competitively priced product will enable the company to build a meaningful market presence faster and with a greater economy of scale than our current capacity. This will significantly reduce pressure on revenue.”
Emyria
Emyria has appointed US-based pharmaceutical expert Dr Karen Smith to its board as executive director.
Dr Smith, who previously chaired Emyria’s Strategic Advisory, will lead the company’s US-based drug development and registration programs in cannabinoid and novel psychedelic medicines having overseen more than 100 clinical trials and 20 drug registrations globally.
She was previously chief medical officer and global head of research & development at Jazz Pharmaceuticals and founding CEO of Minderoo Foundation’s Eliminate Cancer Initiative supported by Dr Andrew Forrest AO.
She is a director at Acceleron Pharma, which was acquired by Merck for US$11 billion earlier this month.
InhaleRx
InhaleRx will have two new medicinal cannabis vaping formulations for its Medihale pods available for sale via its partnership with Melbourne-based EC Pharma.
EC Pharma’s two new vaping liquid products, one comprising 275mg of CBD and 275mg of THC and the other comprising 500mg of THC, are both contained within 1.1mg of c-liquid and a proprietary blend of terpenes.
As well as its arrangement with EC Pharma, InhaleRx recently signed a two-year deal for Cannim to use Medihale pods as a delivery mechanism for its cannabinoid formulations.
In October, the company rebranded from Lifespot Health to better reflect the focus of the business.
Cannasouth
Cannasouth has entered into an unconditional agreement to acquire the balance of the stake it does not already own in its cultivation joint venture business Cannasouth Cultivation for an aggregate purchase price of NZ$3.54 million.
The deal with Aaron Craig and his family interests supersedes a lapsed agreement previously entered into in July 2021 which collapsed after Cannasouth failed to raise the NZ$6 million it needed to complete the transaction.
The new deal is expected to settle on November 30, 2021 after which the company will wholly own all group entities after acquiring the outstanding 40% shareholding in Midwest Pharmaceutics NZ in August.
Roots Sustainable Agricultural Technologies
ASX-listed Roots Sustainable Agricultural Technologies has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with irrigation system specialist Cherry Irrigation SA giving it a foothold in South Africa’s cannabis market.
Under the arrangement, Roots will market, sell and install its Root Zone Temperature Optimisation and Heat Exchange Probe technologies in South Africa and Namibia.
CEO Boaz Wachtel said: “Securing our first LOI and sales into Africa is a major step for our company and highlights the applicability of our products to farmers and growers globally.”
Creso Pharma
Creso Pharma’s wholly-owned Canadian psychedelics company Halucenex Life Sciences has had its Controlled Drugs and Substances Dealer’s Licence from Health Canada upgraded to include production and packaging amendments.
The additions allow Halucenex to begin manufacturing synthetic and botanical psilocybin and other psychedelic compounds.
Epsilon Healthcare
Epsilon Healthcare has extended its agreement with The Valens Company to January 31 2022 to allow additional time to settle the deal.
The long-term exclusive partnership was announced in September 2021 and allows Valens access to Epsilon’s GMP facility in Southport. In return Valens will grant Epsilon a licence to use its intellectual property in operating the facility.
Epsilon chief executive officer Jarrod White said: “We are pleased at the progress made under the Epsilon and Valens partnership since its inception in September.
“We look forward to executing formal agreements with Valens to take the Epsilon Southport facility to a global scale, and towards delivering on key orders for local and export markets in early 2022 and beyond.”