Business Central December 2021

52 | Medicinal cannabis pioneers recognised T Richard Loader Rob Mitchell, CEO of Kiwi pharmaceutical company Rua Bioscience. Tairawhiti Awards: Rua Bioscience REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AUCKLAND Level 33, Vero Centre, 48 Shortland Street PO Box 105-384 Auckland 1010 CHRISTCHURCH Level 4, 70 Gloucester Street PO Box 13-804, Christchurch 8011 CORPORATE FIINANCE INVESTMENT BANKING I I AGRICAPITAL I I www.northington.co.nz T aking home the Manufacturing and Technology Excellence Award along with becoming a Supreme Award Final- ist at this year’s Westpac Tairawhiti Business Excellence Awards is a grand recognition of the mahi put in by the team at Rua Biosci- ence and the support of the community and investors. Operating in the research, cultivation, extraction and manufacturing parts of the medicinal cannabis supply chain, Rua is a Kiwi pharmaceutical company that aims to be a leading producer of cannabinoid derived medicines. CEO Rob Mitchell says the company felt a strong alignment with the idea and purpose of the business awards, which celebrates suc- cessful and resilient businesses in the region. He says the lengthy application process required a deep dive into all aspects of the business including leadership, people man- agement and their development, strategy, planning and execution, market focus, seg- mentation and branding. “We had to examine pretty much everything relating to running a successful business. One of the benefits was a third party review of what we were doing, were we doing all the right things and all the things that we should have been doing. We were up against some pretty good companies and on the night we were proud of what we achieved.” A pioneer in the New Zealand medicinal cannabis sector, Rua’s journey started in 2017 when its taproots were put down by Manu Caddie and Panapa Ehau with a vision to support local economic development in Te Tairāwhiti (the East Coast region). “I’m told that the last factory built in Rua- toria was the butter factory a hundred years ago. So to do something like we’ve done I think is really key. It’s about the people and the region and that’s what drives us towards our future.” In 2020 Rua signed a binding sales agree- ment with a German wholesaler and distrib- utor. Outside of North America, Germany is the biggest and fastest growing GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) medicinal cannabis market in the world. “While New Zealand is a key market, alone it is too small, so we’re currently focused on Europe. At the end of last year we commenced our GMP Certification process, which we need to manufacture and sell medicines.” Last October Rua listed on the NZX raising $20 million of additional capital through an ‘Initial Public Offering’. “We have three centres of excellence; firstly, our fully controlled indoor cultivation facility in Mangaoporo, near Ruatorea. This is both an indoor and outdoor cultivation site as well as on-site post-harvest facility for drying and milling cannabis flower. Rua also has the option to expand its operations over a further 66,000sqm of adjacent land on the same site.” In the short to medium term Rua will work with grower partners to scale its cultivation capacity. Rob envisions there may be potential to create a cultivation partner network where a range of independent entities hold an exclusive supply relationship with Rua and contracted to grow medicinal cannabis under a proprietary licence from Rua. “That way we can create opportunities on the coast, and work with other growers throughout the country.” Rua’s corporate office and manufacturing and extraction facility is located in Gisborne where dried flowers are packaged ready for export, and cannabis oils extracted from dried flowers which can be further refined. “These active pharmaceutical ingredients can be sold as wholesale products or formu- lated into finished medicines. We also have a small research and product development laboratory on site.” Ultimately Rua aims to develop proprietary medicine formulations for targeted ailments, with product sales supported by the develop- ment of appropriate brands. Rua became the first company in New Zea- land to obtain a licence to cultivate cannabis for research purposes. While the success of any trial is unknown, Rua believes the East Coast region could pro- vide a number of environmental benefits that increase the likelihood of achieving sustaina- ble outdoor production. “Ultimately pharmaceutical companies look to the natural world for a lot of its products and this is no different, it’s just that cannabis has been an illegal drug for a very long time and there hasn’t been a lot of real research from a robust scientific perspective — though they are starting to be done now,” says Rob. “The medical world, and doctors in particu- lar, look for very robust scientific data and that data is starting to gain momentum, par- ticularly in respect to areas like pain, anxiety and sleep disorders. A search of clinicaltrials.govt using the terms ‘cannabis’ and ‘pain’ brings up 102 studies that are either recruiting, active or completed. Some conditions for which can- nabis is not currently widely used are being investigated in late stage trials such as ocular conditions, dermal conditions and behavioural conditions such as a Tourette syndrome. Rua is intending to undertake clinical stud- ies to further build regulator, prescriber and patient confidence in the safety and efficacy of both the active ingredients and finished medicines. “In my opinion and the opinion of many oth- er people, medicinal cannabis is on the verge of taking off as an alternative to a number of ailments and already we are seeing the big pharmaceutical companies getting more and more involved, and its no surprise.”