South Australia-based MedTEC Pharma is among the first Australian companies to produce freeze-dried cannabis products from domestically cultivated plants, a development the company says will differentiate it from rivals and deliver therapeutically rich medicine to patients.
With oil sales plateauing or declining across the industry, MedTEC has committed what it described as a "significant" investment in advanced post-harvesting technologies to produce live rosin vapes, freeze-dried live flower and live rosin gummies.
The product range will be sourced from 12,000 cannabis plants cultivated under protective netting at the company's facility in South Australia's Riverland region, 260km east of Adelaide.
As part of that investment, MedTEC acquired a large-scale freeze dryer from New Zealand and cryo-trimming equipment sourced from the US. The company plans to display the machinery's capabilities at the United in Compassion (UIC) symposium in Brisbane next weekend.
MedTEC chief commercial officer Dirk Beelen said in an interview that products were quietly launched earlier this month, with a broader rollout expected over the coming weeks.
"We did not make a big bang out of it because we were afraid we would get too many orders in a short period of time and one of our promises is that we'll never be out of stock," he said. "So we only went to a few select partners. We've been extremely pleased with the response.
"What we are doing is unique in the Australian market. Indeed, no-one in the southern hemisphere has a freeze-drying machine of the size we have for medicinal cannabis. Even worldwide only a handful of companies possess this type of technology.
"We believe it will set a new benchmark in delivering terpene and cannabinoid-rich products for Australian prescribers and, of course, patients."
Freeze drying cannabis bypasses the conventional steps of hang drying, dehydrating and curing, allowing the plant to retain the same profile and quantities of compounds it contained before harvest.
Within an hour of being harvested, buds are frozen to -20 degrees before undergoing bladeless cryo-trimming, a process in which buds are slowly tumbled at comparable sub-zero temperatures for around 30 seconds.
As the sugar leaves turn brittle, they shed during the tumbling process, leaving what Beelen described as "perfectly trimmed buds". Those buds are then moved into the freeze dryers, while the cannabinoid-rich sugar leaves are collected for use in producing MedTEC's live rosin.
Beelen elaborated that the freeze-drying cycles operate under sub-atmospheric pressure to trigger sublimation, a process where moisture transitions directly from a solid to a gas, skipping the liquid phase entirely.
"Take a frozen spinach leaf as an example," he said. "If you put that on your kitchen bench, a while later you'll have a pool of water and a leaf that has disintegrated.
"If the spinach had been freeze dried, that leaf would look the same as when it was picked."
“Initial feedback on the freeze-dried product has been extremely positive,” Beelen said.
"The colours are more vibrant and the buds have retained all the terpenes and cannabinoids that provide the therapeutic benefits," he said. "Those benefits can be lost through other drying and curing methods because the plant begins to degrade as soon as it's harvested. Freeze drying enables us to keep all those attributes, all those qualities. And we are one of the few companies in the world who are doing this."
Some estimates suggest freeze-dried buds can be up to 15% more potent than those from the same harvest processed through traditional drying and curing methods.
Live rosin is derived from trichomes, the crystal-like vesicles that coat buds and sugar leaves. Maintaining the cold chain throughout, trichomes detach from the flower during the cryo-sieve phase to produce live sift — known as live kief in recreational contexts.
MedTEC also produces solventless bubble hash through ice water separation, after which the live bubble hash is freeze dried.
To isolate the cannabinoids and other compounds from the trichomes, the bubble hash is pressed through filter bags to yield live rosin, which is then used in the production of live rosin vapes and live rosin pastilles.
In keeping with MedTEC's flower products, the freeze-dried nature of the live rosin range — combined with the solventless separation method — means they retain their full pre-harvest compound content.
"What was originally in the plant will sit in the end product with all the minor terpenes and cannabinoids," Beelen said. "It's the original soup, the original blend that was created by the plants."
MedTEC also points to the advantage of being able to respond to market demand with products that have not begun to degrade.
When frozen cannabis is stored correctly, it is understood to remain viable for many months or potentially years with minimal deterioration.
Beelen said the company is focused on building a consistent and dependable product supply.
"Stock outs is one of the biggest frustrations for patients and doctors and we will ensure that does not happen," he said, adding that the company will distribute freeze-dried fruit from its booth at UIC bearing a "no stock outs" message.
MedTEC managing director Brad Gallard said in an interview that the company's emphasis on freeze-dried products is a substantial departure from its original direction.
Like "every other cannabis company in 2019", its plan had been to concentrate on oils.
"The market changed and we had to pivot," Gallard explained. "We listened to the market, we listened to doctors, pharmacists and, of course, patients, and switched our focus to a range of products that we believe is unique for an Australian company, using Australian-grown cannabis."
The company will continue producing oil and traditionally dried flower products where demand exists — MedTEC launched in August last year with three oils and five flowers — while progressively scaling up its freeze-dried medicine output.
Also in development is a high-CBD dried flower, from which CBD live rosin vapes and CBD live rosin gummies will be produced.
Breathe Life Sciences (BLS) has been contracted to handle GMP packaging of MedTEC products at its Brisbane facility.
