The Hydroponics Company Ltd (ASX:THC) has progressed its medicinal cannabis relationship with Canada’s Ascent Industries Corp to encompass the exchange of cannabis strains.
The two companies have concluded a Letter of Intent to share cannabis product and knowledge to collaboratively grow their respective businesses.
This will give THC access to Ascent’s proprietary strains of Cannabis sativa on a royalty-free basis.
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THC will grow, cultivate and manufacture these strains at its Southport GMP certified facility in Queensland.
THC’s chairman Steven Xu said: “We are pleased to progress our strategic relationship with Ascent Industries to further enhance the variety of our unique cannabis strains.
“Ascent is a leading licensed cannabis producer in Canada and through this collaboration with THC, both companies and their shareholders will benefit from significant synergies. “THC continues to solidly build its plants catalogue to ensure that we have access to the best medicinal cannabis stock available.”
Ascent supplies Aurora Cannabis
Ascent is a leading licensed producer in Canada that was recently selected by Aurora Cannabis Inc to supply its unique cannabis strains.
Ascent is annually supplying 20,000 kilograms of dried cannabis flower and up to 6,000 kilograms of cannabis trim to Aurora.
Under the new agreement, THC will also provide Ascent access to its proprietary cannabis strains that have been developed over more than 17 years.
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The companies have also agreed to negotiate an offtake agreement for THC to supply Ascent with medicinal cannabis product that it will produce at its biomanufacturing facility at Southport.
This fully operational facility was previously owned by international pharmaceutical company LEO Pharma.
It is one of the largest pharmaceutical botanicals extraction and refinement plants in the Southern Hemisphere.
Ascent chief executive officer Philip Campbell said: “We are very pleased to be engaged with THC Pharma, which is a terrific operator in the cannabis space.
"We look forward to developing our business through collaboration with THC and expanding our footprint globally to provide the highest quality products for patients and consumers in the medical and adult-use markets worldwide.”