Althea has finalised the $1 million sale of its medicinal cannabis assets to Tasmanian Botanics — first announced in May — and will proceed to shut down the business through voluntary administration.
Although Althea retains ownership of the division — Althea Company — the company said there are no remaining assets to justify keeping it operational.
The closure is not anticipated to have any impact on Althea's North American operations, where the company continues to grow its THC beverage business through Peak Processing Solutions.
Argent Biopharma
Argent Biopharma has commenced supplying its cannabinoid-based active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) to the paediatric clinic at University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia's largest hospital.
The development follows a successful pilot and signals the beginning of ongoing clinical use under protocols developed by neurologists.
Produced to EU-GMP standards, the API is being administered to children and adolescents diagnosed with drug-resistant epilepsy.
Argent collaborated with Slovenian health authorities, contributing technical data and clinical evidence to help shape national guidelines for hospital compounding of cannabis-based medicines.
The hospital's senior consultant neurologist Dr David Neubauer said the formulation gave clinicians "an evidence-based option for the most complex epilepsy cases".
"Early results were encouraging, and we have developed strategies to use the cannabinoid formulation to treat the most resistant epilepsies and encephalopathies in children and adolescents," he said.
ECS Botanics
ECS Botanics will provide its 10mg THC capsules — Avani THC10 — for a University of Western Australia clinical trial examining medicinal cannabis as a potential treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea.
The randomised, double-blind study will evaluate how THC influences the severity of the condition, the underlying physiological mechanisms involved, and participants' cognitive performance the following day.
Enrolment of 24 participants is expected to get underway this month.
ECS Botanics managing director Nan-Maree Schoerie said clinical trials remain essential to building the evidence base that informs prescribing decisions.
"We are proud to support academic and medical research that helps explore the therapeutic potential of medicinal cannabis," she said.
