Althea has completed the $1 million sale of its medicinal cannabis assets to Tasmanian Botanics – announced in May – and will now close the business via voluntary administration.
While Althea retains ownership of the division – Althea Company – there are no assets to warrant its continuing operation, the firm said.
The move is not expected to affect Althea’s North American operations, where it continues to focus on growing its THC beverage business through Peak Processing Solutions.
Argent Biopharma
Argent Biopharma has begun to supply its cannabinoid-based active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) to the paediatric clinic at University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia’s largest hospital.
It follows a successful pilot and marks the start of ongoing clinical use under neurologist-developed protocols.
Manufactured to EU-GMP standards, the API is being dispensed for children and adolescents with drug-resistant epilepsy.
Argent worked with Slovenian health authorities to provide technical data and clinical evidence, helping shape national guidelines for hospital compounding of cannabis-based treatments.
The hospital’s senior consultant neurologist Dr David Neubauer said the formulation gave clinicians “an evidence-based option for the most complex epilepsy cases”.
“Early results were encouraging, and we have developed strategies to use the cannabinoid formulation to treat the most resistant epilepsies and encephalopathies in children and adolescents,” he said.
ECS Botanics
ECS Botanics will supply its 10mg THC capsules – Avani THC10 – for a University of Western Australia clinical trial investigating medicinal cannabis as a treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea.
The randomised, double-blind study will assess how THC affects the severity of the condition, underlying physiological factors, and next-day cognitive performance.
Recruitment of 24 participants is expected to begin this month.
ECS Botanics managing director Nan-Maree Schoerie said trials remain vital to building the evidence base that informs prescribing decisions.
“We are proud to support academic and medical research that helps explore the therapeutic potential of medicinal cannabis,” she said.