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Province Brands of Canada Granted Health Canada Cannabis Research License


Friday, 04 October 2019 06:32.PM

- Targets 2020 Launch of World's First Fermented Beverages Brewed from Cannabis. -

Province Brands of Canada's co-located subsidiary, Evolved Canna-Innovation Labs, today announced that it has received its research and development license from Health Canada. The license permits an in-house pharmacology and pharmacokinetics laboratory and cannabis research facility in Province Brands' 123,000 square-foot facility in Grimsby, Ontario. Province Brands' subsidiary will use the license to continue its ongoing R&D into creating valuable intellectual property, enabling the worlds' first fermented beverages brewed from the cannabis plant. This moves Province Brands one step closer toward a 2020 Canadian retail product launch for their versatile portfolio of premium and super premium adult cannabis beverages.

Province Brands is the only known company exclusively focused on brewed or fermented beverages to receive Health Canada's cannabis research greenlight. The Company has invested more than $CAN10 million in direct R&D costs and has assembled a team of globally renowned bioprocess chemists, bioprocess engineers, pharmacologists and cannabinoid researchers to develop premium cannabis beverages crafted in an entirely new brewing tradition. The patent-pending technology enabling this new tradition helps Province Brands avoid many of the problems and pitfalls commonly found in cannabis-infused beverages and helps bring the company closer to its goal of creating a less harmful alternative that can be used in all the same social and leisure settings as alcohol.

For the past three years, Province Brands' industry-leading R&D team has been conducting research at colleges, universities, Contract Research Organizations, and other appropriately-licensed venues. The company's researchers will now be able to work directly with cannabis in the 123,000 square-foot facility in Grimsby, Ontario.

With the newly granted research license, Province Brands will focus on increasing the carryover of cannabinoids from the plant matter into the Company's final products and continue development of technologies aimed at creating a beverage with a dose/response curve similar to that of alcohol. Additionally, the company will develop protocols for cell-based research to advance its understanding of the phytocannabinoid pharmacology for future product developments.

On the Horizon

In 2020, Province Brands of Canada intends to leverage their technologies to bring to market a versatile portfolio of premium adult cannabis beverages. These beverages will be unlike any others on the market in many ways. For example, several of Province Brands' products will be brewed using only four ingredients – cannabis, yeast, hops and water – to produce a delicious, less harmful alternative to barley-brewed alcoholic beers.

"This is one small step for Province Brands and one giant leap forward for a world in need of a less harmful alternative to alcohol," said Dooma Wendschuh, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. "Health Canada's licensing allows final-stage development of some of Province Brands' technologies and early-stage development of others. The license not only allows our research team to work together under the same roof, it will meaningfully accelerate delivery of high-quality, authentic fermented beverages brewed from cannabis, and for our mission of creating alcohol alternatives."

Portfolio of Premium Cannabis Beverages

Today's announcement comes ahead of the expected October 17, 2019 Canadian legalization of cannabis edibles and beverages. Recreational cannabis use became legal in Canada in October 2018, but legalization of edibles and beverages was delayed for one year from that initial legalization.

SOURCE: Province Brands of Canada