Canadian cannabis producer partners with big pharma for the first time

Mar 21 2018, 12:10 am

A BC-based licensed cannabis producer has entered into an agreement partner with one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies.

Tilray Canada already has a familiar name. They were the first cannabis company to announce that they were working on being a medical marijuana supplier to Shoppers Drug Mart.

Subject to Health Canada’s approval of Shoppers’ application to be a licensed producer, Tilray will supply Shoppers with its brand of medical cannabis products.

Now, the producer is making more more in the pharmaceutical front.

Tilray has signed a partnership with Sandoz Canada, an affiliate of Sandoz International GmbH, a global leader in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars, and part of the Novartis Group.

According to a release, the exclusive collaboration will accelerate innovation and increase availability of high quality medical cannabis products. It also represents further recognition of medical cannabis and cannabinoids as conventional medicine.

The companies will work together to develop new and innovative medical cannabis products that offer an alternative to smokable/combustible products.

“This agreement is a major milestone on the long road to legitimizing medical cannabis as conventional medicine,” said Brendan Kennedy, Tilray CEO, in a statement.

“Tilray is pleased to be, what we believe is, the first federally licensed producer of medical cannabis to form a strategic alliance with a local affiliate of a global pharmaceutical company to improve the availability and quality of medical cannabis products for Canadian patients in need.”

The cannabis producer currently supplies thousands of patients with high-quality, cGMP-certified products in ten countries, spanning five continents.

In addition to the agreement with Sandoz Canada, Tilray has partnerships with NOWEDA, one of Germany’s largest pharmaceutical distributors, which distributes Tilray products to more than 20,000 pharmacies across Germany, and Shoppers Drug Mart.

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