Althea gets a pot manufacturing licence, shares bounce 27pc

The ASX’s newest pot stock Althea Group has gained a manufacturing licence, taking its total haul to three.

The stock opened 27 per cent higher on Friday morning at 49c.

The Office of Drug Control has been handing out more licences lately after getting approval in the last month to hire more staff.

>> Scroll down to see who is licensed in Aussie pot.

Althea has a cultivation licence, which is the initial permission needed in order to grow cannabis, an import licence which it’s using to bring in products made by its Canadian partner and major shareholder Aphria, and now a manufacturing licence, which is the first step to being able to make products.

The licensing system allows companies to set up their facilities, but a permit which sets out type and quantity is required to grow each batch of cannabis and make products.

Offtake agreements are necessary to receive a cultivation permit, which is why a number of Australian companies are going down the ‘vertically integrated’ route where they can be their own offtaker.

Althea CEO Josh Fegan says the new licence means they can proceed with the next planning phase of their proposed Victoria production facility.

“Althea shareholders can look forward to a vertically integrated, seed-to-sale, state of the art medicinal cannabis operation,” he said.

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Mr Fegan says they are now supplying 127 patients in Australia with imported medical cannabis products and have 50 doctors prescribing these.

“Our aim is to reach 1,000 patients by this time next year and the comprehensive work we are doing educating mainstream doctors across Australia, makes that a distinct possibility.”

Althea listed in September and tripled its IPO price on debut but has since slid back.

Althea has been contacted for comment.