Cannabis Professional’s daily roundup of industry news. View archive here.
Quiet start to this Monday morning in marijuana: Canada now has 214 cannabis licence holders according to a late Friday update from Health Canada and more recently, the Ontario Cannabis Store is forcing CannTrust to take back nearly $3-million worth of unsold products.
– Jameson Berkow
Health Canada issues more cannabis licences
Canada now has 214 cannabis licence holders after Health Canada announced Friday the agency had issued three new cultivation licences and approved three site expansions.
Tumbleweed Farms Corp. of Chase, British Columbia, and 314 Pure Cannabis Ltd. of Crossfield, Alberta were both granted cultivation, processing and medical sales licences and POS Management Corp., also known as Keyleaf, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan secured a processing licence.
Tumbleweed is owned by GTEC Holdings, which is listed publicly on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker GTEC. 314 is privately held and Keyleaf was purchased by Canopy Growth for an undisclosed amount in June.
Health Canada did not disclose the names of the companies that were approved to expand their existing cultivation facilities. The agency also announced 15 cannabis research licences were awarded over the course of last week, bringing the total to 113.
Names of the winning licence holders were also not disclosed. However, Toronto-based Avicanna, which debuted on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the ticker “AVCN” almost exactly one month ago on July 18, released a statement Monday identifying itself as one of the research licence winners.
“The Research Licence will allow Avicanna’s research and development team to work with cannabinoid-based formulations and advanced pharmaceutical drug development at Avicanna’s research and development headquarters located at MaRS Discovery District in Toronto,” the company said.
Avicanna stock has declined by more than 37 per cent since it began trading, closing Friday at $4.39 per share.
– Jameson Berkow
Ontario Cannabis Store returns all CannTrust inventory
Canada’s largest online cannabis retailer is returning millions of dollars worth of unsold CannTrust products.
The Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS), which is owned by the provincial government and holds a legislated monopoly on recreational cannabis ecommerce, has found cannabis products produced by the Vaughan, Ontario-based cultivator violated its supply agreement. CannTrust, currently under investigation by Health Canada, the Ontario Securities Commission and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for allegations related to the company’s growing unlicensed cannabis, said it will abide by the OCS notice.
“The products listed in the OCS return notice constitute all or substantially all of the Company’s products currently held at the OCS and are valued at approximately $2.9 million in the aggregate,” CannTrust said in a statement, adding Health Canada “has not ordered a recall” of any of its products.
The OCS voluntarily stopped selling CannTrust products on July 10, just days after news of CannTrust violating Health Canada regulations first broke.
OCS pulls CannTrust products following Health Canada sales freeze
– Jameson Berkow