Celadon Pharmaceuticals
LSE-listed Celadon Pharmaceuticals announced that it had signed a new commercial sales contract set to be worth £1.2m with an unnamed UK pharmaceutical company.
Its new supply deal, set to run over three years, is expected to see Celadon make its first shipment of cannabis products in Q4 this year, with both parties having the opportunity to extend for a further two years.
This marks the second such supply deal Celadon has signed this year, after announcing in May that it had signed its inaugural contract worth at least £3m over the next three years.
Both are now due to see Celadon begin delivering products before the end of the year, and the company says it ‘continues to receive further expressions of interest in the supply of its pharmaceutical-grade cannabis product’, and is working to convert these into commercial contracts.
These should help the company boost its revenues, which in 2022 came in at £24k and were made exclusively from its Harley Street Limited clinical study.
Following the announcement on Tuesday, Celadon’s stock jumped by around 4.5%.
Celadon’s CEO James Short said: “We are very happy to have signed a second sales contract with a new customer so soon after the first. Demand for our product continues to grow, and converting this interest into commercial sales remains our top priority.
“Customers are choosing to come to Celadon as a trusted provider of UK-produced, high-quality product. Many businesses are facing regulatory and logistical challenges when trying to import medicinal cannabis product into the UK, and therefore are willing to pay premium prices to secure Celadon’s domestically produced product.”
Intercure
Israel’s largest cannabis company has posted record revenues for the seventh consecutive half year growth, seeing a further 14% uptick on the previous period.
In its half year results for the six months to June 30, 2023, Intercure reported sales of NIS 209m (C$75m), including NIS 102m (C$36m) in the second quarter, representing an annualised run rate of NIS 417m (C$149m).
Its profits also improved, seeing gross profits come in at 33% of revenue at NIS 68m (C$24m) for the first half, while EBITDA for the period came in at NIS 30m (C$11m), or 14% of revenues.
The company also said it managed to pay off NIS 86m (C$31m) of loans during the period, and as of June 30 2023 had cash and financial assets of NIS 116m (C$42m) and NIS 71m (C$25m) respectively.
It came just weeks after Israel made some significant changes to its medical cannabis programme, which is anticipated to significantly expand the Israeli market.
However, this may already have started, with Israel Cannabis Magazine reporting the over the last two months alone the number of cannabis patients in Israel jumped by about 3000, breaking stagnation and even decline which has lasted since 2021.
The news also came just weeks after Intercure announced plans to delist its stock from the Toronto Stock Exchange, stating that ‘the trading volume on the TSX is insufficient to justify the continued listing’.
It’s stocks remain on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, as well as on NASDAQ, seeing its shares on the latter jump over 5% following the publication of its results.
Intercure’s CEO Alexander Rabinovich said: “We are encouraged from the new regulations in Israel and Germany as pharmaceutical cannabis becoming a world standard across Europe and many other territories.
“We are also keeping an open eye on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services scientific and medical evaluation, supporting cannabis to be classified as a Schedule III drug by the DEA and the opportunities it may generate to Intercure.”
Chill Brands
CBD retailer Chill Brands Group has announced the launch of its UK sales operation, seeing its products added to 120 ‘independent retailers, vapour category specialist stores, bars and nightclubs’.
Chill Brands’ ‘nicotine-free vapour products’ reportedly began sales in the UK on August 7, 2023, and the company says it is continuing to activate additional outlets with the support of its UK sales and marketing partners, The Vaping Group.
Furthermore, Chill says it has recorded a ‘significant increase’ to traffic on its UK website, Chill.com, since launching online sales of its nicotine free vape products on August 10, 2023.
The company also says it has seen success in the US after launching the same products earlier this year.
Its pilot programme has reportedly ‘delivered encouraging results’, and seen the activation of select stores in Colorado, Arizona, Florida and Texas.
Chill Brands CEO Callum Sommerton said: “The Chill Zero range of nicotine-free vape products is off to a great start. A successful entry into the UK and positive results from our US pilot stores reaffirm that this is a category with significant growth potential.
“There is a clear opportunity for Chill Brands to become a market leader in this space, particularly as we begin to market and sell the products to major national retailers. These conversations are progressing well and I look forward to updating our shareholders further as our plans come to fruition.”
