Aurora Cannabis Completes Acquisition of Anandia Laboratories
Aurora Cannabis has announced that its acquisition of Anandia Laboratories is now complete.
Anandia is a world-leading cannabis-focused science company, specialized in genomics, metabolite profiling, plant breeding, disease characterization, and cultivar certification, as well as providing testing services to producers and patient-cultivators.
Dr. Jonathan Page, co-founder of Anandia, is a globally renowned cannabis scientist, whose 37 peer-reviewed publications include key studies on cannabinoid and terpene biosynthesis. He previously led the Canadian team of scientists who were first to publish the cannabis genome sequence. As a result, Anandia now holds intellectual property with a significant commercial value that can be applied towards highly specialized and customized cultivar and product development. Dr. Page is also an accomplished inventor with 8 issued patents or patent applications, and a frequent lecturer on cannabis science at international conferences.
The acquisition of Anandia represents a critical piece of Aurora's vertical integration strategy – to create a company that captures margin along the entire cannabis industry value chain, enhances cultivation yields to improve financial performance, develops industry-leading intellectual property, and builds a broad portfolio of high value-added products.
In addition to providing strong competitive advantages to Aurora, Anandia provides access to several new revenue streams, delivering services to licensed cannabis producers, such as:
• Tissue culture archiving and propagation with services to provide off-site back-up to secure crucial genetics and provide disease-free material
• Genetic testing including plant genotyping to "fingerprint" valuable cultivars and sex ID assays, which provide early genetic screening capability to help growers prevent crops from developing seeds and breeders choose parental material
• Predictive chemotype profiling where chemical analysis is used to predict the cannabinoid and terpene profiles of a cultivar at an early stage.
Anandia is the Canadian leader in independent third-party testing and was awarded "Top Testing Lab" at the 2017 Lift Canadian Cannabis Awards. The Company has developed the most stringent testing protocols to assess that the cannabis produced for the Canadian medical system is free from contaminants such as pesticides and microbes. Anandia issues a simplified certificate of analysis for each batch tested that confirms the credibility and safety of cannabis produced for medical markets. Aurora, for its part, pioneered the establishment of these certificates, and their online publication. Anandia will continue to offer these services to the wider LP community, both for medical cannabis and cannabis produced for the adult consumer use market.
With a view to enhancing its capacity and broadening its research capabilities, Anandia is currently in the process of developing a unique, purpose-built Cannabis Innovation Centre on Vancouver Island which will include expansion to a new laboratory in Vancouver. Strategically located minutes away from a major regional airport, the 22,500 square foot greenhouse facility in Comox, BC, designed by Aurora Larssen Projects Inc., and associated 10,000 square foot laboratory, will house one of the main sites of Aurora's cannabis breeding and genetics program. The site has already obtained municipal zoning approval for cannabis production and processing and has the option to expand to 100,000+ square feet.
Management commentary
"This transaction will enable us to develop new, customized cultivars for specific applications, creating high-margin products that generate positive health outcomes in relation to specific medical indications, while further enhancing efficiencies at our facilities," said Terry Booth, CEO of Aurora. "For years, Jon and his team have been on the cutting-edge of plant-based developments in the cannabis industry, and this acquisition will now allow us to leverage our deep repository of data on the efficacy of cannabis-based therapies. We are incredibly excited to have closed this transformative transaction, and look forward to working with Jon and his team on delivering major innovations throughout the value chain."
Jonathan Page, CEO of Anandia, added, "Aurora and Anandia share a thirst for innovation and passion for science. The cultures of the two companies are well-suited, with long-standing relationships across the science and production areas, which will allow for a straightforward integration of the two companies. We look forward to working with the impressive science teams throughout the Aurora organization and leading together in the developing applications of this amazing plant for medical and adult consumer use purposes. Cannabis 2.0 is on its way."
