Speaker 1: Cura and welcome to this episode of Shed Lunch where
Speaker 1: we delve into the world of medicinal cannabis. It's a
Speaker 1: market that's said to have lots of promise, but it's
Speaker 1: proving quite tough for New Zealand companies. I'm Helen Madison
Speaker 1: and I'll be talking about this topic. We see you are
Speaker 1: rue of Bioscience, Paul Neasky.
Speaker 2: Investing involves risk you might lose the money you start with.
Speaker 2: We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor. We also
Speaker 2: recommend reading product disclosure documents before deciding to invest. Everything
Speaker 2: you're about to see and hear is current at the
Speaker 2: time of recording.
Speaker 1: Welcome Paul. How are things in the Escape today?
Speaker 3: Ellen?
Speaker 4: A little bit wet and overcast, but we're boxing on.
Speaker 4: We've had our fair share of RAINO the last few weeks.
Speaker 1: So Paul, before we jump into finding out what Ruer
Speaker 1: Bioscience does, tell us about your background and how you
Speaker 1: came to be in this position.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good question.
Speaker 4: I think my mother asks me that quite a bit. Actually,
Speaker 4: how did you end up being CEO of a cannabis company? Yeah,
Speaker 4: so I've lived in Tarrafti for ni on eighteen years.
Speaker 4: In that time, I've got to know a few people
Speaker 4: and done a bit of business here. And as Marnham
Speaker 4: and Parnaper, who were the co founders of the company,
Speaker 4: started the company, they reached out to me in the
Speaker 4: early days and sort of said can you help? And
Speaker 4: I thought that what they were doing was excellent and
Speaker 4: brilliant and I'd been watching what they'd been doing and
Speaker 4: it was super exciting.
Speaker 1: So your background is it forestry and what else would
Speaker 1: you say that you've done? What's your skill set?
Speaker 4: So yeah, I did a forestry degree in Australia many
Speaker 4: many moons ago and came over as a young graduate
Speaker 4: in my early twenties with Fletcher Forests, and I started
Speaker 4: off in forestry, but I moved into sales and marketing roles,
Speaker 4: business development roles, then Fletcher Paper and then Fletcher Building
Speaker 4: corporate roles, management roles, and so in tai Arfiti, I
Speaker 4: moved to Tyrafiti work for an agribusiness corn company and
Speaker 4: from there did a little bit of other consulting work
Speaker 4: and then landed myself.
Speaker 3: In medicinal cannabis.
Speaker 4: So I've got a well rounded set of skills in
Speaker 4: terms of business. So I've done a bunch of different things.
Speaker 1: There's a number of companies in New Zealand in the
Speaker 1: medicinal cannabis market, as it were, all there supplying that market.
Speaker 1: At least three of them are listed. Your model is
Speaker 1: slightly different and it's changed recently, so can you tell
Speaker 1: us about that model? But also how are you different
Speaker 1: from your competitors?
Speaker 3: Yeah, a good question.
Speaker 4: Well, oll, we have changed and we listed in twenty
Speaker 4: the end of twenty twenty, and we started off like
Speaker 4: a this is a new industry and no one really
Speaker 4: knew how it was going to go. But we started
Speaker 4: off with a sense that we wanted to test manufacturing
Speaker 4: and test cultivation, and so we set up small cultivation
Speaker 4: and small manufacturing facilities in our region. And we've subsequently,
Speaker 4: as we learn more about the market and you delve
Speaker 4: into the nuances of the market and how it's all going,
Speaker 4: you soon realize that actually we've taken a view that
Speaker 4: New Zealand is not going to or we won't be
Speaker 4: able to get a great return on capital if we
Speaker 4: manufacture products here in New Zealand.
Speaker 3: You've heard it ad nauseum.
Speaker 4: The regulatory environment in New Zealand doesn't lend itself well
Speaker 4: towards export, and yes, there has been some changes recently,
Speaker 4: but as you sort of work into the big wide
Speaker 4: world of cannabis, that's a very competitive world out there,
Speaker 4: and New Zealand is going to be a minnow in
Speaker 4: the scheme of things. So we've taken a view that
Speaker 4: we can't really get a return on capital for manufacturing
Speaker 4: products here in New Zealand, and we looked at our
Speaker 4: strengths and we've got sort of our home and heart
Speaker 4: is in real Tortia. As you know, the founding story
Speaker 4: of the company is about the dream of creating jobs
Speaker 4: for the people of the East Coast, particularly Rhuatoria, and
Speaker 4: building on the strengths of the community as it relates
Speaker 4: to cannabis. And so we looked at what we were
Speaker 4: good at relative to others and we've landed on a
Speaker 4: business model which, yeah, it is different, and the way
Speaker 4: it's different is we've we've if you think about the
Speaker 4: value chain of like normal agribusiness, like if you took apples,
Speaker 4: for examples, you'd have apple seeds and then you'd sort
Speaker 4: of grow apple trees and then you'd create apples.
Speaker 3: Which would go into apple products.
Speaker 4: What we've done is we've sort of said like that
Speaker 4: that middle part of commercial cultivation and commercial manufacture, we're
Speaker 4: not going to do that.
Speaker 3: We're going to outsource that to others. But what we're
Speaker 3: really good at is we've got some.
Speaker 4: Links with good apple seeds or good cannabis genetics, and
Speaker 4: we've got distribution agreements with partners in the market, so
Speaker 4: we know sort of what distribution agreements distribution companies look
Speaker 4: like in overseas jurisdictions. And so we're going to outsource
Speaker 4: the capital intensive heavy bit in the middle, which is
Speaker 4: cultivating the apples or manufacturing the apples into apple pies
Speaker 4: if you like. But we're going to link our apple
Speaker 4: seeds cannabis genetics with apple pies or cannabis products in
Speaker 4: different markets around the world. Now that means we reduce
Speaker 4: the amount of money it takes. And so we've got
Speaker 4: a small team which works with cultivation partners to take
Speaker 4: our genetics and turn them into crops and products for
Speaker 4: overseas markets.
Speaker 1: What do you define as cannabis genetics just for listeners,
Speaker 1: so we understand.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, cannabis genetics is either like a cannabis seed
Speaker 4: or a small cannabis plant, like if it was an apple,
Speaker 4: an apple seed or a small sort of apple plant
Speaker 4: ready to go. Cannabis is easily cloned, so you can
Speaker 4: sort of take clones and tissue cuttings off the plant
Speaker 4: and export that, or you can sort of go to
Speaker 4: other people and so to say take this plant and
Speaker 4: propagate it into a commercial crop, please.
Speaker 3: So that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1: So are the hundreds of varieties of cannabis in that
Speaker 1: you could be finding unique strains and you're discovering and
Speaker 1: breeding those. That is that a fear summation of what
Speaker 1: you're doing?
Speaker 4: Hundreds probably thousands, like yeah, and it's really it's it's
Speaker 4: fascinating because you know, like apple's there's like standard breeds
Speaker 4: and Cawi fruits have got certain varieties, and but like
Speaker 4: cannabis is is it's really exciting because it's been in
Speaker 4: the black market for nine on seventy years all around
Speaker 4: the world, and like you've got this whole industry which
Speaker 4: is essentially coming out of a black market. So how
Speaker 4: do you define a cannabis variety is a real curious question.
Speaker 4: So there's lots of people who've been growing cannabis, as
Speaker 4: we know, in the community for like all those years,
Speaker 4: and in the black market, and so it's they've got
Speaker 4: varieties and cannabis genetics that they've been breeding for a
Speaker 4: long period of time. So we're using some of those
Speaker 4: and taking them into the market. And New Zealand's really
Speaker 4: quite unique New Zealand. One of the good things about
Speaker 4: the New Zealand regulations that they put.
Speaker 3: In place that.
Speaker 4: Was the fact that you're allowed to under the regulations
Speaker 4: bring illicit genetics from the black market into the legal
Speaker 4: framework and all of a sudden, it's legal now Canada,
Speaker 4: but Canada had a similar amnesty situation, but that lasted
Speaker 4: for six months. But what we've done, we in New
Speaker 4: Zealand have a permanent amnesty if you're like so with
Speaker 4: links to the black market and links to some illicit growers,
Speaker 4: we can bring varieties into the legal framework that aren't
Speaker 4: necessarily available to other consumers around the world or patients
Speaker 4: around the world.
Speaker 1: Now, there's also a couple of aspects to your model.
Speaker 1: There's a breeding and development which you've just explained, but
Speaker 1: there's also you on sell products from other manufacturers. Can
Speaker 1: you tell us a bit about that?
Speaker 3: Yes, so part of our strategy.
Speaker 4: So what I just outlined is our is our absolute
Speaker 4: commitment is to take strains from our community, varieties from
Speaker 4: our community.
Speaker 3: Outsource the cultivation.
Speaker 4: And manufacturing, and deliver those products into the markets that
Speaker 4: we choose, which is UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
Speaker 3: But of course that actually takes time.
Speaker 4: Now, the thing with cannabis, it falls under a medicinal
Speaker 4: or a pharmaceutical regime that the process of doing that
Speaker 4: takes time. But in the meantime, heck, we need money.
Speaker 4: We're absolutely focused on sales and revenue and getting a
Speaker 4: return for our shareholders in the very short term. What
Speaker 4: we do is we call it we set up the pipelines,
Speaker 4: and that's basically ensuring that within each of the key
Speaker 4: jurisdictions that we operate in. In the first instance, we
Speaker 4: might have to buy someone else's genetics if you like,
Speaker 4: the apple seeds, if you like. So we use someone
Speaker 4: else's to get the pipeline going, and then we are
Speaker 4: filling those pipelines over the next one two, three years
Speaker 4: with genetics from our community. So that's quite that's quite different.
Speaker 4: We're sort of not sort of saying we're going to
Speaker 4: manufacture everything ourselves. We're saying we're going to work with
Speaker 4: other manufacturers and cultivators to create products using our genetics.
Speaker 1: So we think about those markets, then whats of relationships
Speaker 1: you have in those markets with new distributors. I mean,
Speaker 1: how does that work, because that's pretty key obviously if
Speaker 1: you're wanting to generate revenue and also what would be
Speaker 1: the revenue split. I mean, as you say the cultivation
Speaker 1: or the breeding sorry and the like does take time
Speaker 1: at the moment, would be the revenue that's coming more
Speaker 1: from those cultivars and the light that you're sourcing from
Speaker 1: other companies.
Speaker 3: Well, look, if he questions about like.
Speaker 4: Where do we think the relative profitability and sales are
Speaker 4: going to come from in the future, just walking through it,
Speaker 4: we've got four key markets that we're focused on Germany, UK,
Speaker 4: Australia and New Zealand, and we think fundamentally in the
Speaker 4: short medium term Germany and Australia are going to be
Speaker 4: the key key drivers of revenue and therefore associated profit margin. Germany,
Speaker 4: we launched our first product there last year. We're launching
Speaker 4: our second product there in Germany next week, and that's
Speaker 4: a really exciting market at the moment. As of the
Speaker 4: first of April, the regulations changed in Germany which allowed cannabis. Like,
Speaker 4: there's a lot of detail, but fundamentally, what it's meant
Speaker 4: is that cannabis is now more widely prescribed than it
Speaker 4: was before the first of April.
Speaker 3: There is very.
Speaker 4: Strong demand in Germany and launching product.
Speaker 1: Can we just be clear the reason that is in
Speaker 1: demand is for what mainly pain relief?
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, pain relief.
Speaker 4: It's all through a medicinal framework, so you have to
Speaker 4: have a doctor's prescription no matter what. So what's happened
Speaker 4: is because, like I said, it's a little bit in the.
Speaker 3: Detail, but it's it's rigid.
Speaker 4: It's come down the schedule of controlled drugs, which has
Speaker 4: made it easier for prescribers in Germany to prescribe cannabis.
Speaker 3: And what that's done is.
Speaker 4: It's opened up opened up more patients and more avenues
Speaker 4: for doctors to prescribe.
Speaker 3: It's a little bit easier.
Speaker 4: So what's that You've got an increase in demand since
Speaker 4: the first of April for patients predominantly, seventy percent of
Speaker 4: the prescriptions are for pain relief, typically chronic pain. You've
Speaker 4: got a next twenty or thirty percent is for anxiety
Speaker 4: stress PTSD, those sorts of conditions. So Germany is a
Speaker 4: very strong market at the moment and we're really excited
Speaker 4: to be actually putting a product in there next week.
Speaker 3: We think that that's going to go really well.
Speaker 4: Nimbus Health where are distributors over there, really supportive, extremely professional,
Speaker 4: and we've got a really good relationship with them, so
Speaker 4: that'll go well.
Speaker 3: Australia is.
Speaker 4: A very big, strong, growing market. It's got lower regulatory hurdles,
Speaker 4: easier to get into the market, so it's actually a
Speaker 4: lot more competitive. And we've got a guy on the
Speaker 4: ground over there who is our business development manager and
Speaker 4: he's got a number of distribution channels that we work
Speaker 4: with and the sales are growing over that over in Australia,
Speaker 4: but it's a slightly different environment insofar as the regulations
Speaker 4: that are in place. So because of the size of it,
Speaker 4: we think it's just going to be a bit of
Speaker 4: a cornerstone of our revenue and profit margin going forward.
Speaker 4: And those are the two, like Germany and Australia are
Speaker 4: the big ones, and then you've got UK, which is
Speaker 4: in general terms, i'd sort of say two or three
Speaker 4: years behind Australia and Germany in terms of its growth.
Speaker 4: It's got a different environment so far as the specialists
Speaker 4: have to prescribe the product. But what that means is
Speaker 4: is that as they build up the systems, that's only
Speaker 4: going to yield growth in so far as it's a
Speaker 4: very big market. You've got a population of sixty sixty
Speaker 4: odd million people and we know that there's demand and
Speaker 4: the graphs are all going up in the.
Speaker 1: UK that BIG's a question too about New Zealand is
Speaker 1: if those are the three markets, with Germany and Australia
Speaker 1: being the top ones, is there any potential here or
Speaker 1: is it more that you're focused on the export well.
Speaker 4: From an early early stage in our development, we've always
Speaker 4: realized that we have to focus on export markets to
Speaker 4: get a return on capital. I love New Zealander bits,
Speaker 4: it's awesome, and we will be bringing product to the
Speaker 4: New Zealand market, but we're never going to be able
Speaker 4: to get a return on capital that we need we
Speaker 4: focus on export markets and so yes we will be
Speaker 4: we will be bringing product to the New Zealand market.
Speaker 4: In fact, we've got to approved recently by the New
Speaker 4: Zealand Ministry of Health or Medicinal Cannabis Agency, and those
Speaker 4: products come in to market very soon, but we do
Speaker 4: know in our spreadsheets and our graphs it's always going
Speaker 4: to be a lot smaller. It's the population, of course,
Speaker 4: but it's our home market and we have a compassionate
Speaker 4: access program here which we certainly want to support local
Speaker 4: members of our community. So yeah, and in terms of
Speaker 4: profit margin, it's number four, but it's necessary.
Speaker 1: And we're talking cannabis oil, are we and the flowers?
Speaker 1: The dried flowers. Is that what a patient might use
Speaker 1: or a doctor might prescribe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So the product formats in all four key markets,
Speaker 4: you pretty much have two main product formats. Dried flour
Speaker 4: as a herbal medicine which you would vaporize, and oil
Speaker 4: which you would put under your tongue oral oil basically,
Speaker 4: and those two formats are the dominant ones. You're seeing
Speaker 4: a lot of growth in Germany and dried flower formats
Speaker 4: and that's where our genetics from the community sort of
Speaker 4: play into that sort of format more so than the oils.
Speaker 1: Okay, So in New Zealand, particularly with the listed companies,
Speaker 1: it has been pretty tough. As I said at the beginning,
Speaker 1: you've got a number of companies and we've had quite
Speaker 1: a tough time in terms of raising capital for those companies.
Speaker 1: Sheer prices have been in the dul drums. Let's get real,
Speaker 1: there's been nothing too great there for retail investors. You're
Speaker 1: pretty confident that you can turn things around. We've obviously
Speaker 1: had recently with cheeses investors. A lot of them are
Speaker 1: in Canna South and they have obviously in bonduntary administration.
Speaker 1: So the environment is quite tough and particularly for retail
Speaker 1: investors trying to figure the out. But you you seem
Speaker 1: to think that right, okay, we've changed our model, we
Speaker 1: can actually go of a different path, and you're pretty
Speaker 1: confident that you can, you know, reap some rewards.
Speaker 4: Oh look, I'm extremely confident because we took a really
Speaker 4: hard decision as a company eighteen months two years ago.
Speaker 4: You know, there's a tough decision to shut down our
Speaker 4: manufacturing because you know, I mean I myself basically designed it,
Speaker 4: planned it.
Speaker 3: We've been working.
Speaker 4: For years on what we're going to do in manufacture
Speaker 4: in New Zealand and that was the hope and the dream.
Speaker 3: But is that the real plant?
Speaker 5: Paul Letson Realtoria, is that the no, this one's in Gismon,
Speaker 5: So just a Yeah, we've got two facilities a cultivation
Speaker 5: and realtorting and manufacturing which looks like extraction and bottling
Speaker 5: an aspect like that in Gisbon.
Speaker 4: So we had to shut the Gismond one down. I mean,
Speaker 4: the reality is costs a lot of money. So we
Speaker 4: made the decision about eighteen months two years ago. And
Speaker 4: we've been talking with this tub is in Germany and
Speaker 4: Australia for a number of years, so we're sort of
Speaker 4: we understand where we think we can add value. So
Speaker 4: so yeah, I'm confident because A we've got a low
Speaker 4: cost base and b we're in three markets now and
Speaker 4: by October we'll be in the.
Speaker 3: UK with a portfolio of products. So in three to.
Speaker 4: Four months time we'll be in four markets with four
Speaker 4: revenue streams. Now the challenge will be like growing those
Speaker 4: sales and telling the rule story. And we've got some
Speaker 4: we've got something different. We're actually different to many other
Speaker 4: cannabis companies in New Zealand and around the world insofar
Speaker 4: as we've got genetics on the front end of the
Speaker 4: value chain and we've got distribution channels out the other
Speaker 4: with a strong grounded brand in our values basically and
Speaker 4: we're linking the two of those up. There's lots of
Speaker 4: companies who do distribution, lots of companies have got brands,
Speaker 4: lots of company are telling a unique story, and lots
Speaker 4: of companies are doing genetics on their own. But there's
Speaker 4: no one doing genetics on the one hand and putting
Speaker 4: that through a value chain and branding it out the
Speaker 4: other end with a strong New Zealand centric brand focused
Speaker 4: on sort of our founding community and telling that story proudly.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I do think we're extremely different, and I
Speaker 4: do think we've got a bright future for sure.
Speaker 3: No one's saying it's tough, not tough.
Speaker 4: It's definitely tough, and I honestly we've been at this
Speaker 4: for five years and look at where we are now.
Speaker 4: We're still like some of the markets where we're just
Speaker 4: getting into the UK. So it's long and tough and arduous,
Speaker 4: and that's necessarily it's the face of this industry because
Speaker 4: of the fact it comes under a pharmaceutical medicinal regime.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's no I mean, I can't change the
Speaker 4: regulations as much i'd love to, but we're playing within
Speaker 4: the sandpit that we've got, and within this sandpit We've
Speaker 4: got some fence posts and some guardrails which are governed
Speaker 4: by governments and regulator around the world, and we've just
Speaker 4: got to play with that, which means, yes, it does
Speaker 4: take time. And I'm really sorry to investors for that,
Speaker 4: but that's the reality.
Speaker 3: These things just do take time.
Speaker 1: I suppose there will be some proof in the pudding,
Speaker 1: and maybe it's too soon come into August when you
Speaker 1: announce your full year results. I see that you don't
Speaker 1: give forecasts. That's quite tough for retail investors. I mean,
Speaker 1: how do they become informed and how do they know
Speaker 1: that what they're backing, you know, has some substance if.
Speaker 4: You like, Yeah, that's a good question. We're loath and
Speaker 4: reluctant to put out forecast. This is like, I mean,
Speaker 4: I still think this industry is a very new and
Speaker 4: early industry. We're starting to bed down some of the
Speaker 4: pipelines and bed down the processes and it's.
Speaker 3: Becoming a little bit more systematic and formulae.
Speaker 1: Just wondering though about your model you talk about in
Speaker 1: your commentary being capital like, can you kind of explain
Speaker 1: what you mean by that?
Speaker 3: Well, we've got very low overheads, we've.
Speaker 4: Very small number of employees relative to our potential. I
Speaker 4: mean we've got I think thirteen people, not all full time.
Speaker 4: We as I said, we've closed down our manufacturing facility
Speaker 4: and we're looking to sort of capitalize on that and
Speaker 4: sell that and turn that into cash.
Speaker 3: We've got our Rualtoria facility. When we built the Rualtoria facility, we're.
Speaker 4: Well conscious of sort of saying let's let's let's not
Speaker 4: over capitalize, which build a small, minimum viable sort of
Speaker 4: operation sort of to prove, to prove what's possible, because
Speaker 4: we didn't really know how the regulations we're going to go.
Speaker 4: No one knows how the market's going to evolve. So
Speaker 4: that's what we mean by capital We've spent small amounts
Speaker 4: in Rutoria and we've got a small team. We don't
Speaker 4: have a large manufacturing environment, so that's what we mean.
Speaker 1: What about cash, Boon and Kesh, if you don't give forecasts,
Speaker 1: can you tell us a bit about those?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I mean I can answer that sort of.
Speaker 3: You know, over the last eighteen months.
Speaker 4: To two years, we've reduced our cash bean by about
Speaker 4: fifty percent were we were consuming about you know, three
Speaker 4: point eight million in cash in a six month period.
Speaker 3: Two years ago.
Speaker 4: Now we're down to less than half that, at sort
Speaker 4: of about one point six million in a six month period.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we've taken the view that we cannot keep
Speaker 4: spending the amount of money.
Speaker 1: That we were inevitably leads me to think that you
Speaker 1: probably need to capital raise. I know that you are
Speaker 1: looking at various options. Can you shed any light on
Speaker 1: that for us?
Speaker 4: Well, no, I can't really go into a lot of details,
Speaker 4: suffice to say that yet we are looking at options.
Speaker 4: I mean I look at all the options for our
Speaker 4: cash in and our cash out, and as we increase sales,
Speaker 4: obviously we need less cash and we're on the cusp
Speaker 4: of increasing sales as sort of in Germany in the UK.
Speaker 4: So yeah, at this stage, nothing much to add apart
Speaker 4: from we're in conversations with larger shareholders of course looking
Speaker 4: at options. But yeah, nothing more to add than that.
Speaker 1: Just one thing too that might be or might not
Speaker 1: be material, is that I know you've got a bit
Speaker 1: of a court case happening in Victoria and Australia with
Speaker 1: a supply agreement. Can you give us any update on that.
Speaker 4: It's with the lawyers, we're going through the process. We
Speaker 4: feel like we've got a very strong case, but yeah,
Speaker 4: we will inevitably end up in mediation and they're not
Speaker 4: too distant future, and I suppose after that mediation we'll
Speaker 4: have an update for the market.
Speaker 3: Then what I can.
Speaker 4: Say is we've basically it's a disagreement over the territory.
Speaker 4: We feel we've got rights to the Australian market, and yeah,
Speaker 4: we're we believe we've lost out because of that.
Speaker 1: If we look at the Australian market, though, you do
Speaker 1: think there's promise there in terms of both supplying the
Speaker 1: genetics and also selling hot act.
Speaker 4: Look, and I'd say, like for all markets, that there's
Speaker 4: one there's one fundamental thing about all the cannabis markets
Speaker 4: that we operate in and probably all the cannabis markets
Speaker 4: that we don't operate in that you know, across Australia
Speaker 4: and New Zealand, Germany, in the UK, A lot of
Speaker 4: the data that I've seen is that the current medicinal
Speaker 4: cannabis market is approximately ten percent of the illegal black market.
Speaker 4: So there is what's fundamentally driving it is that the
Speaker 4: legal framework is in almost every jurisdiction in the world
Speaker 4: is opening up the pie for legal cannabis is only
Speaker 4: going to get bigger from this point on, and you
Speaker 4: were seeing that in Germany and what that is having
Speaker 4: a flow on effect to other markets in Europe, for
Speaker 4: example France's and January twenty twenty five loosening its grip
Speaker 4: insofar as it's now allowing specialist doctors to prescribe medicinal cannabis.
Speaker 1: Just to finish pool, I want to talk about what
Speaker 1: you're bringing to the community, particularly Rebatoria, the use cape
Speaker 1: and also I think we talked about the sponsorship of
Speaker 1: patients for those who need medicinal cannabis but perhaps can't
Speaker 1: afford it because I imagine it isn't subsidized in this country.
Speaker 1: Can you enlighten me there.
Speaker 4: Most medicines have lots of clinical trials, lots of data,
Speaker 4: lots of evidence backed up by years and years of research.
Speaker 4: Medicinal cannabis by virtue of the fact that it's been
Speaker 4: in the black market and there's not a lot of
Speaker 4: research being done on it, it falls in an area
Speaker 4: called Section twenty nine or an unapproved medicine, so it
Speaker 4: falls within an area of medicine that basically means that patients.
Speaker 3: Have to pay for it. It's private pay.
Speaker 4: And that's the same in the UK, same in Australia,
Speaker 4: same in New Zealand. So so, but we know it
Speaker 4: does have benefit for a number of a number of patients.
Speaker 4: And when the company was started, when we got our
Speaker 4: first products into the market through our own manufacturing, Yeah,
Speaker 4: the company started a compassionate access program responsor thirty patients
Speaker 4: in our community that can't afford it.
Speaker 3: So it's all driven by doctors.
Speaker 4: If a doctor sort of says that this patient can't
Speaker 4: afford it and I think they would benefit from medicinal cannabis,
Speaker 4: they apply to it, apply to the scheme to get
Speaker 4: the patient approved and that patients on the list. It's
Speaker 4: a small cost of the business, but we think it's
Speaker 4: worth it for our community. I think we're going to
Speaker 4: fifty two patients with another supplier that's actually come on board,
Speaker 4: so it's a sort of it's a small give back
Speaker 4: to the community, but we passionately believe that this medicine
Speaker 4: makes a difference to people's lives.
Speaker 1: So, Paul, there has been some changes to the regulations
Speaker 1: in terms of medicinal cannabis and New Zealand just recently.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me what sort of fit that is
Speaker 1: going to have.
Speaker 4: The big overarching change if I was to summarize it fundamentally,
Speaker 4: the regulations are tweaked such that it's easier for New
Speaker 4: Zealand manufacturers to export products to the world, much much easier.
Speaker 1: Thanks Poor for your insights today. It's been great to
Speaker 1: have you on no worries, and thanks everyone for tuning in.
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