Valens Australia was recently granted wholesale licences required to sell and supply Schedule 4 and Schedule 8 cannabis-derived products in Victoria.
A subsidiary of Canada’s Valens Company, the firm says this will enable its local representation to supply derivative products containing cannabidiol (CBD) and/or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
“This exciting milestone allows us to accelerate our Australian expansion plans and continue to strengthen our reputation in Australia as a trusted supplier of derivative products for the medicinal cannabis market,” said Tyler Robson, Chief Executive Officer of The Valens Company.
Earlier this year, Valens inked a distribution agreement with Cannvalate, which claims to be the largest network of cannabis medicine prescribers in Australia and is said to hold estimated market share of almost 50% of cannabis prescriptions in the country. Valens says it will leverage this association to distribute products and secure white label*, bulk and extraction agreements throughout Australia, while also establishing on-the-ground operations for Valens Australia.
Some of the products that are to be offered in Australia include balanced blends (10:10 and 25:25), high potency THC (20:1) and medicinal CBD oil for (1:10 and 1:110).
Medicinal cannabis is a controlled substance regulated by both the Australian Commonwealth and Victorian governments.
An organisation considering selling or supplying any related substances by wholesale in Victoria requires a licence from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. While a licence to supply scheduled substances doesn’t enable the holder to supply direct to patients or the public, the holder can supply other persons or organisations holding a current poisons licence or permit, authorised health practitioners, pharmacists in approved pharmacies, dentists and even vets; plus other properly authorised persons.
Valens claims to be the largest third-party extraction company in Canada, boasting an annual processing capacity of 425,000 kg of dried cannabis and hemp biomass that it processes at its facility in Kelowna, British Columbia. The company also produces tinctures, capsules, vape cartridges and beverages.
Valens won’t be without perhaps significant local competition in Victoria in the time ahead. The Victorian Medicinal Cannabis Industry Development launched in 2018 aims to create a local medicinal cannabis industry that can supply half of Australia’s market by 2028.
*A white-label product is produced by one company and other companies re-brand it to sell under their own name.
