TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - March 21, 2017) - Delivra Corp. (
"The Federal Government of Canada has numerous concerns, and barriers to overcome, before legalizing cannabis, including stricter regulatory controls. The partnership between the three companies addresses many of these concerns, providing greater safety and efficacy of medical cannabis specific products for the patient, with products that provide consistent, accurate dosing, and that are manufactured under pharmaceutical GMP Standards," said Dr. Joseph Gabriele, CEO of Delivra. "This collaboration between Delivra, Dosecann and Avanti addresses an exploding field of medicine by seeking to standardize, validate, package and distribute cannabis products in innovative mono-dose delivery platforms to licensed producers and other future legal distribution networks, ultimately meeting the needs of the patient."
"This agreement both validates Delivra's proprietary transdermal platform technology and allows Delivra to capitalize on an unmet need in the pain market: to provide quality, accuracy, consistency and repeatable dosing using cannabis-based therapeutics," added Dr. Joseph Gabriele. "This transaction provides our shareholders with compelling value to participate in the changing landscape of the cannabis marketplace in which standardization will be a key to success. With formulation and extraction beginning immediately, we expect that this transaction will be accretive to the Company's Q4 2017 revenue."
Strategic Rationale
Cannabis is a diversified plant that has many medicinal applications for diseases such as pain, sleep, anxiety, epilepsy, and cancer. However, cannabis is a controlled substance and needs to be accurately metered and dosed.
The collaboration supports and accelerates a standard in the medical cannabis market including:
- Evidenced based science to validate its medicinal properties;
- Expertise in formulation and transdermal delivery;
- Cannabis standardization, ensuring each lot produced contains the exact amount of medicinal and non-medicinal ingredients;
- Third-party regulatory testing to assure each product is safe and efficacious; and
- A reliable dosing platform to prevent patients from overdosing and by receiving the same measured dose each time.
Properly administered, medical cannabis provides real alternatives to more addictive type drugs, including opioids.
Under the terms of the agreement, Delivra will use its expertise in formulation and proprietary delivery system platform to conduct preclinical and clinical studies for the evolving Canadian medical marijuana market along with international markets. Dosecann will potentially gain a suite of medical cannabis products for pain, sleep and anxiety packaged in a novel, revolutionary topical mono-dose format and a metered dosed oral spray. The costs of the clinical trials and research will be paid by Dosecann, Delivra will own the intellectual property, and Delivra will receive a royalty percentage on the related sales of the suite of medical cannabis products in a license agreement which continues for as long as the products are sold by Dosecann. Avanti will be responsible for the quality-control testing, extraction and production of the finished products under pharmaceutical GMP Standards.
"This three-way joint venture with Delivra and Avanti enables us to potentially formulate, manufacture and distribute medical cannabis products that are standardized, quality controlled and provided through unique delivery platforms effectively dosing medical cannabis," said Greg Boone, Founder of Dosecann.
ABOUT DELIVRA CORP.
Delivra Corp. is a specialty biotechnology company that has a proprietary transdermal delivery system platform that can shuttle pharmaceutical and natural molecules, through the skin, in a targeted specific manner. Delivra manufactures and sells a growing line of natural topical creams with the proprietary transdermal delivery system platform under the LivRelief™ brand, for conditions such as joint and muscle pain, nerve pain, varicose veins, wound healing, and under the LivSport™ brand for sports performance. LivRelief™ products are available in pharmacies, grocery chains, and independent health food stores across Canada, and on-line at www.livrelief.com. LivRelief™ pain and nerve pain products are also available in the United States on Amazon and at www.livrelief.com/us. In parallel with its consumer products business, Delivra also has a mandate to license its patent-pending proprietary transdermal delivery technology platform to pharmaceutical companies globally, for the transdermal delivery of repurposing Rx molecules to treat a broad range of conditions, along with licensing its over-the-counter products globally. Delivra is headquartered in Burlington, Ontario and has a research and development laboratory in Charlottetown, PEI.
Further information on Delivra can be found at www.delivracorp.com, www.livrelief.com for Canada and www.livrelief.com/us for the United States.
ABOUT ARA-AVANTI RX ANALYTICS INC.
ARA-Avanti Rx Analytics Inc. is the first Health Canada GMP and OCDS approved Contract Organization specializing in the field of controlled drugs and substances particularly in the area of Medicinal Marijuana, HEMP, Cannabinoids, and Marijuana based concentrated products. ARA-Avanti Rx Analytics Inc. offers a comprehensive menu of services ranging from analytical R&D and QC testing, large commercial scale extraction under a controlled environment, cannabinoids purification, cannabis infused-product formulation, and cannabis waste management by means of material denaturation, as well as the QA and regulatory consulting services. Our focus is in the provision of a broad range of sophisticated, state-of-the-art services to Health Canada approved licensed producers (LPs), authorized pharmacies, medical practitioners, Health Canada approved patients, government enforcement and regulatory agencies, and regulatory approved allied cannabis communities, and to continue to remain at the forefront of the healthcare industry, building an enviable reputation. ARA-Avanti Rx Analytics Inc. core values include: 1) Advance quality control and quality assurance for medical cannabis; 2) Support the safe consumption of medical cannabis; and 3) Ensure transparency for our medical cannabis community.
Further information on Avanti can be found at www.avantirx.com.
ABOUT DOSECANN INC.
Dosecann is a private specialty pharma company that has built a team of seasoned scientists, doctors and business leaders. We offer unique solutions to the emerging cannabis industry for numerous medical conditions. Dosecann fully understands the remarkable medical benefits of the natural Cannabis plant. We use evidence based, standardized formulations coupled with delivery platforms that will precisely dose cannabis extractions through Dosecann's RDR process (Refine, Define, Reproduce). Dosecann is presently formulating a monodose topical application to target specific areas of the body and an innovative metered dose oral spray formulation for patients that have chronic nerve pain, anxiety and sleeping disorders. With strategic partners, our goal is to validate our formulations through in vitro, pre-clinical, and clinical trials. We have proven expertise in taking pharmaceutical and natural products from concept to commercialization. All products are manufactured in a Health Canada GMP approved and OCS (Office of Controlled Substances) licensed organization. Initial products in development will meet Health Canada's regulatory requirements under the ACMPR program. Dosecann has built strategic relationships with key players in the industry to ensure constant innovation of new formulations and delivery technologies for numerous medical conditions. Our products will be distributed internationally to countries that allow for the importation of medial cannabis and related products. Dosecann will also distribute within Canada through the current LP model.
Further information on Dosecann can be found at www.dosecann.com.
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute "forward-looking statements", which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "intends", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan", and similar expressions. Specifically, forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements regarding: the research to be completed by Delivra for a suite of medical marijuana based products; the Company's drug research and development plans in general; the timing of operations; and estimates of market conditions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results or events, performance, or achievements of Delivra to differ materially from those anticipated or implied in such forward-looking statements. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, but there can be no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. In formulating the forward-looking statements contained herein, management has assumed that business and economic conditions affecting Delivra will continue substantially in the ordinary course and will be favourable to Delivra, that clinical testing results will justify commercialization of the Company's drug candidates; that Delivra will be able to obtain all requisite regulatory approvals to commercialize its drug candidates, that such approvals will be received on a timely basis, and that Delivra will be able to find suitable partners for development and commercialization of its drug repurposing candidates on favourable terms. Although these assumptions were considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, they may prove to be incorrect. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements include: unsuccessful outcomes in research for a suite of medical marijuana based products; uncertainties associated with obtaining regulatory approval to perform clinical trials and market products; the need to establish additional corporate collaborations, distribution or licensing arrangements; the ability of the Company to generate sales and profits; the Company's ability to raise additional capital if and when necessary; intellectual property disputes; increased competition from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; changes in equity markets, inflation, and changes in exchange rates; and other factors as described in detail in Delivra's public filings, all of which may be viewed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements and information, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, Delivra disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking statements or otherwise.
Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contact Information:
For more information, please contact:
Investor Relations:
Joanna Longo
jlongo@terrepartners.com
416 238-1414 x 23