With the federal government on the verge of legalizing marijuana, high-value strategic assets in the cannabis sector are becoming valuable.
That is how Ottawa-based cannabis firm CannaRoyalty Corp. explained its interest in buying a 20% stake in Vancouver’s Anandia Laboratories.
The companies announced January 9 that they have signed a letter of intent for CannaRoyalty (CSE:CRZ) to acquire that 20% stake in Anandia for $4 million.
Anandia is a biotechnology company that tests medical marijuana and uses genomics for plant breeding. It has completed extensive research into cannabis genetics and has built a significant intellectual-property position that includes cannabinoid pathway patents, according to the company.
Anandia also been issued a dealers licence from Health Canada pursuant to the provisions of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Narcotic Control Regulations.
This dealers licence allows Anandia to analyze and extract cannabis, and cultivate cannabis for breeding and strain improvement. This licensing gives Anandia the ability to do research and development, and develop products that would not otherwise be permitted for licensed
producers under Health Canada’s Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations.
Because pesticide use is a concern in any product consumed by humans, Anandia also plans to use genomics to develop pest-resistant strains.
“We have elected to partner with CannaRoyalty given their expertise in extraction, post-processing and the development of proprietary formulations,” said Anandia co-founder Jonathan Page.
CannaRoyalty is a fully integrated, active investor and operator in the legal cannabis sector. It intends to build and support a diversified portfolio of assets that it thinks will grow in value as marijuana legalization becomes reality in Canada.
Some of these assets are research, consumer brands, devices and intellectual property.
Genome BC last fall announced that it had invested $500,000 in Anandia.
