ASX-LISTED cannabis company MMJ PhytoTech has announced a $1 million investment for a 16.7% ownership stake in Biologics Research Institute, the owner of Cannabis Access, an online portal for medicinal cannabis access in Australia.
Cannabis Access supports Australian healthcare professionals seeking to access the appropriate type of medical cannabis for their patients within the current regulatory environment by making the process faster and easier.
The portal showcases the products locally available and the conditions they are best suited to treat, along with research details.
Doctors need to obtain both TGA and state approvals (apart from in NSW where the procedures have been simplified (PD 02 Mar)), and the portal prepopulates the forms necessary for doctors to undertake the application processes.
Cannabis Access says 500 Australian doctors and pharmacists have signed up to the service and the company expects this to "grow rapidly over the next few years".
Cannabis Access executive chairman Giles Craig said, "We are delighted to have the support of MMJ as we roll out our strategy to work with doctors throughout Australia and make it easier for them to prescribe medical cannabis.
"This investment is an endorsement of our strategy and provides us with the capital needed to accelerate our program," he said.
"Based on mature markets for medical cannabis access such as California, we estimate the addressable market in Australia to be around 500,000 patients.
"Currently, there are only 500 patients who are legally using medical cannabis in Australia at a time when we understand up to 100,000 patients are accessing it through other means," he added.
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