Canadian medical cannabis biotech firm to get CA$4 million infusion

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CannaRoyalty Corp., a marijuana-focused Canadian investment company, plans to pay 4 million in Canadian dollars ($3.03 million) for a 20% stake in Anandia Laboratories, a biotech firm that breeds and tests cannabis plants.

Anandia, of Vancouver, British Columbia, also recently received a “dealers license” from Health Canada that permits it to cultivate cannabis for breeding and strain improvement, as well as to extract and analyze cannabis, according to Business in Vancouver.

Anandia hopes it can turn some of that research and development into saleable products. The company is especially interested in creating pest-resistant strains, Business in Vancouver reported.

“We have elected to partner with CannaRoyalty given their expertise in extraction, post-processing and the development of proprietary formulations,” Anandia co-founder Jonathan Page said of its Ottawa, Ontario-based investor.

In recent months, experts have predicted that 2017 would be a year of mergers and consolidation in the Canadian cannabis sector.

Last fall, Anandia received CA$500,000 (almost $379,000) from Genome BC, a Canadian life sciences research company, according to Business in Vancouver.