Western Australia’s McGowan Government has awarded $300,000 to medical cannabis company Little Green Pharma (ASX:LGP).
Little Green Pharma was the first Australian medicinal cannabis company to produce locally-grown medicines for patient use both here and for export markets. It’s a vertically integrated business with operations ranging from cultivation and production through to manufacturing and distribution.
LGP’s manufacturing capability is currently via a third party TGA-GMP licensed manufacturer, but the company is in the midst of constructing its own manufacturing facility – and that’s where the $300,000 comes into play.
“These new medicinal cannabis processing facilities will be a first for the South-West and will help establish the region as a leader in medicinal cannabis production and processing in Australia,” said WA Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan.
It’s been a busy year for Little Green Pharma. Demonstrating that it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, the company says COVID-19 has made it more difficult to get medicines from overseas into Australia and the push for “buy local” has probably also benefited the company.
In the last 3 months, another 1,300 new patients have started using LGP’s products made from cannabis grown in a secret location near Perth. The company had sold more than 16,500 bottles of its medicines by the end of June, compared to around 6,400 to the end of December 2019. LGP’s “Classic” range has varying levels of THC and CBD ratios, with its CBD 50 product containing less than <0.2mg/mL THC and 50mg/mL of CBD. The highest THC product contains 20mg/ml of the cannabinoid.
Even without coronavirus impacts boosting demand and this grant, 2020 to date has been a success for the company on a number of other fronts. Just last month, it was granted a Medicinal Cannabis Cultivation and Production Permit by Australia’s Office of Drug Control (ODC) for its expanded facility, meaning the expansion is now fully ODC licenced and permitted.
The expansion has boosted LGP’s cannabis flower production to the point of it being able manufacture more than 110,000 bottles of medicinal cannabis oil per annum. And it doesn’t look like it should have any problems with selling it all given local and overseas demand.
“We expect the increased production scale will allow us to fulfill both growing demand in Australia as well as serve as a platform to become a significant supplier into the German, UK and other key European markets,” said LGP Managing Director Fleta Solomon in July.
