VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. (TSX.V - XLY) ("Auxly" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the product strategy of the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Dosecann Inc. (“Dosecann”), as well as a number of strategic additions to the management team of Dosecann.
Dosecann, Auxly’s cornerstone midstream asset that is Canada’s largest cannabis specific “Licensed Dealer”, is positioned to play a significant role as a leading research, product development, extraction, formulation and consumer packaged goods manufacturing center in the Canadian cannabis industry with its 42,000 square foot purpose-built facility in Charlottetown, PEI.
As previously announced, Dosecann has successfully obtained a Dealer’s Licence for Controlled Drugs and Substances (the “Licence”) from Health Canada and has commenced operations related to the creation of value-added cannabis products, as permitted by the Licence and applicable laws. Dosecann has further subdivided its cannabis activities into two segments, Medical Products and Consumer Packaged Goods.
The Medical Products segment, led by Dr. Christina Woollard and Dr. Bob Chapman, is focused primarily on research and development of new value-added cannabis products for sale to domestic and global medical cannabis and wellness markets. Part of this segment’s activities will include observational studies and clinical trials to validate the efficacy of new cannabis formulations and intellectual property. It should be noted that, while current regulations do not allow for the creation of Natural Health Products containing cannabis, the Medical Products segment of Dosecann's business will also focus on addressing market demand for wellness products containing cannabinoids through the research and development of such products within the parameters of applicable legislation.
The Consumer Packaged Goods segment, led by Mr. Peter Crooks and Dr. Bob Chapman, is focused on the creation of novel consumer packaged products for the medical and non-medical cannabis markets. Initially, this segment of Dosecann's business will be focused on the creation and manufacturing of cannabis edible and cannabis concentrate products for sale within Canada in anticipation of Health Canada permitting the sale of such products in 2019.
The Company is also excited to present Dosecann’s world-class management team as follows:
Greg Boone
(Founder & Chief Executive Officer)
Mr. Boone is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the Executive Search and Management consulting field through his company HEC GROUP. He specializes in building high performance teams for his clients in the automotive, food, pharma and chemical industries. For the past 5 years, Mr. Boone has applied his talents to the rapidly emerging medical Cannabis industry as an investor and trusted advisor to companies throughout the world looking to enter this space. Mr. Boone founded Dosecann with the primary goal of bringing the best cannabis innovations to domestic and international consumers across medical, wellness and recreational market segments.
Dr. Christina Woollard
(Chief Scientific Officer)
Dr. Woollard has more than 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical development industry, across big and small pharma. Prior to joining Dosecann, Dr. Woollard worked as a Formulation Scientist at Pfizer for 4 years and then joined GW Pharmaceuticals, a British biopharmaceutical company. She spent 16 years with GW Pharmaceuticals managing the Product Development team and working on multiple cannabinoid projects including Sativex, Epidiolex, injectables, solid oral dosage forms and THCV products. Dr. Woollard received her degree in Pharmacy from the University of Wales, Cardiff, followed by a PhD, studying the use of liposomes to deliver gene therapy to the lung.
Peter Crooks
(Chief of Product Innovation)
Mr. Crooks brings more than 20 years of senior leadership experience in product and brand development across food & beverage, natural health products, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Most recently as the Executive Director of Canada’s Smartest Kitchen (Canada's leading food development laboratory) for which Mr. Crooks was recognized in 2017 as one of Atlantic Canada’s Top 50 CEOs, Mr. Crooks successfully led a multi-disciplinary team of chefs, food scientists, marketing professionals and product developers to become Canada’s leading food product development center. In his career, he has overseen the development of over 2,100 products and raised more than $160M to support product innovation and commercialization. He also has been involved in the conceptualization, design and build of three Maritime-based innovation and applied research centers and currently advises several Federal departments on the future of food and innovation.
Dr. Bob Chapman
(Chief Operating Officer)
Dr. Chapman has been applying his broad practical experience in organic and analytical chemistry for the past nineteen years to solve problems of industrial relevance. Most recently, Dr. Chapman was a Principal Research Officer with the National Research Council Canada (“NRC”) Aquatic & Crop Resource Development Research Centre based out of Charlottetown, PEI. With the NRC, Dr. Chapman was responsible for leading a national program and strategic projects focused on the development of Natural Health Products and functional ingredients with private sector companies. In particular, he was responsible for leading strategic projects that aim to develop new functional ingredients based on nutritional oils and plant-based proteins which led to research on cannabinoid-based mixtures. Prior to the NRC, Dr. Chapman spent 6 years working as a Senior Scientist for two venture capital funded bioscience startup companies in San Francisco, California. Dr. Chapman is an Adjunct Professor with the Chemistry Department at the University of Prince Edward Island, the Vice-President of the NHP Research Society, a member of several international standards groups including ASTM D37 committee on cannabis serving as the recording secretary for the processing and handling subcommittee. For NRC ACRD’s research center, he served on national advisory committees supporting the standardization needs for the emerging cannabis industry to ensure quality and safety of cannabis supply. Dr. Chapman is an active member of the Canada’s bioscience community serving on several boards and advisory boards. He holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of British Columbia, has published widely, holds several patents, and has presented at numerous scientific symposia. Dr. Chapman is the recipient of many awards, including a postdoctoral fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) tenured in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University with Professor George Whitesides.
Allan Arsenault
(Director of Operations)
Mr. Arsenault has more than 17 years of senior management experience within the food industry. He has extensive experience in GMP, HACCP, budgeting, production planning, human resources, materials management, equipment planning, training, auditing, and facility management. He has experience with CFIA, FDA, and SQF audits and has managed facilities that met and exceeded government food safety standards and has led plants to be industry leaders in food safety. Allan has a business degree in Management and a degree in Socio-economics from UPEI in addition to an engineering certificate from Holland College.
Sandra LeClair
(Director of Quality)
Ms. LeClair has been working within the PEI scientific community for over 20 years, with a wide range of experience in multiple roles in academia, government, and private industry. For the past 6 years, she managed the Quality Control department in a GMP facility manufacturing animal vaccines that were distributed worldwide. Prior to this, Ms. LeClair spent 5 years as a Senior Scientist for a global animal health company, working on developing new and unique animal health products. Ms. LeClair graduated with honors from UNB with a Bachelor of Science, and proceeded to enroll in the Masters of Science program at UPEI, completing her Master’s thesis in 2000.
Jeremy Stiles
(Regulatory Affairs/GMP Consultant)
Mr. Stiles is an experienced quality professional in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry. With over 30 years’ experience as a leader in the public and private sector he has worked extensively to design, develop and implement quality and environmental management systems. He is well versed in a variety of quality assurance standards and the regulatory requirements associated with pharmaceutical filings such as CMC, DMF’s, NDA’s or ANDA’s. Prior to joining Dosecann, Mr. Stiles spent 20 years with BioVectra, most recently as Director, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs. Mr. Stiles graduated from the University of London England with a Masters of Science in Environmental Management.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors and Management, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate Greg on building a world-class operation and to welcome the incredible team he has assembled at Dosecann to the Auxly Cannabis platform,” said Hugo Alves, President of Auxly. “Dosecann is the cornerstone asset in the midstream segment of our business and we feel strongly that the team that has been assembled and the product innovation and development strategy that Dosecann has developed distinguishes Auxly from its peers and puts us in a position to become one of the leading cannabis products companies in the world. We are hugely excited to see these products come to life at Dosecann and offering consumers innovative quality products backed by research and science!”
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Chuck Rifici" Chairman & CEO
About Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. (TSX.V: XLY)
Auxly Cannabis Group is a collective of entrepreneurs with a passion for the cannabis industry past, present and future. Our mandate is to facilitate growth for our partners by providing them with financial support and sharing our collective industry experience. Our partners all have different visions, voices and brand values, and all share a common goal—to build a world-class industry based on ethics, diversity, quality and innovation.
About Dosecann
Dosecann is a Canadian Licensed Dealer dedicated to developing cannabis solutions for the cannabis industry. Located in Charlottetown, PEI, Dosecann’s purpose-built, 42,000 square foot facility will be the hub for cannabis extraction, quality testing, research and development, product formulation and manufacturing.
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Notice Regarding Forward Looking Information:
This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or information that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. This information is only a prediction. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forward-looking information throughout this news release. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to: the proposed operation of Dosecann’s facility, future legislative and regulatory developments involving cannabis and cannabis products, the timing of proposed research and clinical trials, the timing and outcomes of regulatory or intellectual property decisions, the relevance of Dosecann’s proposed products, consumer preferences, political change, competition and other risks affecting the Company in particular and the cannabis industry generally.
A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from a conclusion, forecast or projection contained in the forward-looking information in this release including, but not limited to, whether: Dosecann is able to maintain its Licence, the Company is able to successfully manage the integration of Dosecann's operations with its own, Dosecann can obtain all necessary governmental and regulatory permits and approvals for the operation of the facility and the development of its proposed products, and whether such permits and approvals can be obtained in a timely manner, the success of Dosecann’s research strategies, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion and uncertainties related to the regulatory process, the acceptance of future Dosecann product by consumer and medical professionals, and general economic, financial market, legislative, regulatory, competitive and political conditions in which the Company and Dosecann operate will remain the same. Additional risk factors are disclosed in the revised annual information form of the Company for the financial year ended December 31, 2017 dated May 24, 2018.
New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all of those factors or to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on the Company's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking information. The forward-looking information in this release is based on information currently available and what management believes are reasonable assumptions. Forward-looking information speaks only to such assumptions as of the date of this release. In addition, this release may contain forward-looking information attributed to third party industry sources, the accuracy of which has not been verified by the Company. The purpose of forward-looking information is to provide the reader with a description of management's expectations, and such forward-looking information may not be appropriate for any other purpose. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information contained in this release.
The forward-looking information contained in this release is expressly qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements and is made as of the date of this release. Except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.