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Health & Biotech
Special Report: Creso Pharma’s first medical cannabis product has landed in Australia as the company sets itself up for 2020 as a truly global player in the industry.
Creso Pharma’s (ASX:CPH) first shipment of its flagship medicinal cannabis product cannaQIX® 50 has arrived in Australia and is already being sold.
The medicinal cannabis product, sold under the brand name ‘LozaCan’ via Burleigh Heads Cannabis’ distribution network, is already being prescribed and is receiving positive feedback from physicians and patients.
Creso Pharma and Burleigh Heads Cannabis are now exploring the potential to expand their collaboration to include more products from Creso Pharma’s pipeline into the Australian market.
“We are pleased to announce the first delivery of cannaQIX® 50 in Australia. Burleigh Heads Cannabis and CDA Clinics Australia continue to rapidly expand their patient reach with their extensive distribution network,” Creso CEO and cofounder Dr Miri Halperin Wernli said.
“This close partnership enables us to fulfil our mission of bringing life-improving products to patients in Australia. We’re delighted to announce this progress and look forward to further new product introductions in the near future”.
Swiss-made cannaQIX® 50 is Creso Pharma’s proprietary buccally formulated cannabidiol (CBD) lozenge for chronic pain management.
Each lozenge contains 50mg of CBD and is designed to dissolve in the mouth in order to deliver the active ingredients more effectively into the bloodstream. By being dissolved in the mouth, the active ingredients enter the bloodstream directly, avoiding this first pass through the liver. cannaQIX 50 ® lozenges taste great and are a patient-friendly way to administer precise doses of CBD when compared to oil-based alternatives.
Creso Pharma has an exclusive distribution agreement with Burleigh Heads Cannabis, having secured an Australian import permit in April.
The collaboration will enable Creso Pharma to leverage Burleigh Heads Cannabis’ and its parent company CDA Health’s local regulatory experience and established distribution networks to facilitate patient access to its products in Australia.
“We are delighted to mark this milestone in our collaboration with Creso Pharma. This collaboration will provide Australian patients and doctors with a quality product option to utilise for patient care,” Burleigh Heads Cannabis managing director Guy Headley said.
“By leveraging our experience with Australian regulations and established distribution networks, we believe that we will be able to deliver an innovative product option to benefit patients across Australia.”
Creso is positioning itself as a truly global company heading into 2020, with plans to grow in Europe, Latin America, the US, the Middle East, and Africa.
Dr Halperin Wernli says the company has three key aims for the coming year around human health, animal health, and cannabis EU GMP manufacturing.
“We aim to strengthen our human health presence in Europe, enter selected Latin America countries, and prepare the groundwork to enter the US with our CBD hemp-based nutraceuticals cannaQIX® range, the topical cosmetics cannaDOL®, and new products” she told Stockhead.
“In animal health we plan to strengthen our presence in Europe, Middle East and Africa countries in partnership with Virbac with its current and two new anibidiol® products, and enter Latin America together with PharmaCielo. We’re targeting growth of 50-100 per cent over the previous year.
“And we intend to gain EU GMP certification for our Canada manufacturer Mernova and generate revenues with premium strains from sales in Switzerland and Germany.”
The company has 13 products in its portfolio but only four – two in human health and two in animal health have been commercialised.
The coming year will see plans to commercialise the remaining nine put in place, and see the company push into cosmetics with an oral care product and topical creams.
“The market potential for CBD-based oral care and topical cosmetics is worth more than CHF 1 billion ($1.5 billion),” Dr Halperin Wernli says.
The company is prioritising Spain, Portugal, the Scandinavian countries, Poland and Israel. Dr Halperin Wernli says Europe’s regulatory framework is advanced for nutraceuticals and CBD-based cosmetics, and Latin American countries have advanced regulatory frameworks, for example in Uruguay and Brazil, representing substantial market potential.
The launch of cannaQIX® Regular into South Africa is planned for Q1 2020, followed by a phased entry into other African countries.
In animal health, Creso Pharma’s partner Virbac is introducing the anibidiol® range of products into more European countries and will be launching the new animal health products in the near future.
Creso Pharma has started the march into the US with both its animal and human health divisions.
It is in discussions with a number of potential partners to introduce its human and animal products into selected US states.
“In 2020 Creso will set the groundwork for entering the US market through major strategic partnerships in negotiation,” Dr Halperin Wernli says.
> Cannabis stocks guide: Here’s everything you need to know
Read more:
Creso extends its global reach with new deal in South Africa
Creso receives first commercial CBD export from Colombia ahead of PharmaCielo acquisition
Creso just locked in a New Zealand distribution deal for its CBD products
Health & Biotech
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