WeedMD Inc. (TSX-V: WMD) says its low-cost outdoor cannabis production will be used in a new line of strain-specific vapes for medical patients.
The new Aurum vapes, which will be produced in-house at WeedMD’s extraction hub CX Industries, will be available to Canadian patients in the coming weeks, according to a press release issued Monday.
The Toronto-based producer said it will expand the vape products into the adult-use market under its Color Cannabis brand in the third quarter of this year.
The first strain launched will be a THC-dominant Ghost Train Haze, followed by the CBD and THC balanced Mango Haze strain, and a CBD-dominant concentrate. The company said it will also use some weed its indoor harvests for the new vapes and will sell the products initially to patients registered with its Starseed medical subsidiary.
“Our cannabis 2.0 strategy evolved after thoughtful consideration of our medical clients’ need for relief from specific indications that may require precise cannabis dosing via alternate delivery methods,” CEO Angelo Tsebelis said in a statement. “When paired with our in-house talent in cultivating, extracting and processing, we developed Aurum as a perfect alternative consumption method.
Preview: Our #Cannabis 2.0 products are ready for pre-order. New @starseedCA vaporization pens called "Aurum" are produced in-house at our CX Industries extraction hub using our indoor and outdoor biomass. Available soon on all our medical channels. https://t.co/2ZMG127DzG pic.twitter.com/u2A0OF4JkS
— WeedMD (@WeedMD) June 17, 2020
WeedMD said the vape hardware was designed by New York-based Blinc Group, a custom vaporizer producer. The new vape units meet all Health Canada safety regulations and the cartridges and batteries contain the industry-standard 510 thread, so they will be compatible with many other products on the Canadian market.
“In developing and producing Aurum vapes — health, safety, and quality are our top priorities,” WeedMD CCO Moe Jiwan said. “Aurum is the finished product of many months of testing, perfecting formulations and collaborating between our team and our partner.”
Last fall, legal vape sales fell in the U.S. amid the rise of vape-related lung illnesses.
However, a study published by the American Medical Association this year showed people living in states with legal recreational cannabis were far less likely to suffer vaping-related lung injuries than those who live in states that prohibit weed use.
The research backs the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported that e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury, or EVALI, is likely caused by tainted vape cartridges sold in illicit markets.
Read more: States with legal cannabis have fewer vaping illness cases, study finds
Meanwhile, WeedMD says revenue for the first quarter will improve to a record $12 million from the $2.85 million it reported for the fourth quarter of 2019.
The producer began second season of outdoor growing, planting 18,000 cannabis clones earlier this month at its 27-acre outdoor field in Strathroy, Ontario.
Read more: WeedMD bullish despite reporting $2.8M in Q4 sales
It plans to convert more of its low-cost outdoor biomass into more cannabis 2.0 products under its own brands and under third-party labels.
The CX facility will be able to process over 50,000 kilograms of biomass a year at peak production, providing tolling and white labelling opportunities to other producers and brands, the company says.
In November 2019, WeedMD reported its first outdoor harvest yielded 8,950 kilograms of cannabis biomass for at production cost of approximately $0.11 per gram.
Read more: Outdoor cannabis licences almost double
Top image via WeedMD
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