Permit delays for cannabis facilities

ASX-LISTED medical cannabis company THC Global has faced “extraordinary delays” in receiving its manufacturing licences for two facilities in Queensland, its chairman says.

But chief executive Ken Charteris’ recent communication with the Office of Drug Control has been “highly positive,” chairman Steven Xu said.

The company now expects the permits will be granted in the near term, Mr Xu told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in Sydney yesterday.

The permits are for the company’s pharmaceutical plant extraction and refinement plant in Southport, Queensland, that it bought last year from LEO Pharma, and its growing research and development site in southeastern Queensland.

“Receipt of these manufacturing licences will complete the THC Global’s vertical integration strategy - allowing for true ‘Farm to Pharma’ cannabis production by THC Global within Australia,” Mr Xu said.

One of the permits is before a delegate of the Health Ministry for review prior to granting, and the other soon be in the same final review stages, he said.

The company also hopes to receive a permit this year for 60,000sq m of land it has leased in northern NSW for cannabis cultivation, a lease it may expand to up to 150,000sq m.

The company does have a permit for cannabis R&D at its Southport site and has been researching high CBD strains of cannabis, as well as extracting non-cannabis material, including tea trees for a partner company.

THC Global has an export licence and plans to serve both domestic and international medical cannabis markets once it has the requisite manufacturing permits.