Aurora Cannabis, Radient Announce Commercial Delivery of Cannabis Derivatives

Aurora Cannabis Inc. and Radient Technologies Inc. announced that Aurora has taken delivery of Radient's first commercial batch of finished cannabis derivatives from Radient's proprietary extraction platform. With this first batch, Radient said it has proven its enhanced ability to produce cannabinoid derivatives at commercial scale and will continue to scale up production at Radient's cannabis facility in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, reaching an expected eventual annual throughput of approximately 300,000 kilograms (kg) of cannabis biomass at this single location.

The partnership between Radient and Aurora was established in 2017, after the completion of a Research Joint Venture that validated Radient's MAPTM extraction technology was capable of cannabinoid extraction at commercial scale. For Aurora, the relationship with Radient forms an important component of its derivative product strategy, providing a greater return on the biomass allocated for extraction, favorable cost advantage and significantly increased extraction capacity, according to Aurora.

In Radient's deliveries to Aurora, commercial scale batches of dried cannabis biomass were fully processed and refined within a 24-hour period, due mainly to the speed of initial extraction and the unique, continuous flow nature of Radient's platform. Radient's technology platform is designed for high extraction efficiencies and high-volume throughput of cannabinoids available in the plant biomass.

Radient's Hemp facility in Edmonton will have an annual throughput of approximately 3,200,000 kg of hemp biomass. Phase one is expected to be completed in third quarter 2019. 

"Aurora recognized early that high-throughput, high-quality extraction technologies would be a competitive advantage in a rapidly developing cannabis industry," said Terry Booth, CEO of Aurora, in a statement. "Our investment will begin to pay dividends with Radient achieving fully licensed, commercial status. Once scaled up, the addition of Radient's technology will significantly increase our ability to deliver high-value cannabis products at scale, complementing our existing internal extraction capabilities, which will support a full suite of derivative products." 

"Cannabidiol (CBD) derived from hemp requires the level of throughput that Radient's technology and state-of-the-art second facility will provide to existing and future medical, wellness and consumer markets,” added Booth. “We look forward to working with Denis and the Radient team to further our global position in the derivative markets."

"Achieving commercial production and sales is a crucial milestone we are very proud to have achieved,” said Denis Taschuk, CEO of Radient, in a statement. “We have worked diligently over the past two years toward this inflection point, together with our partner Aurora, and we are now very well positioned for accelerated growth going forward. We appreciate the patience our shareholders have shown as we executed on our transformational business plan. Aurora's execution in the global medical cannabis space inspired us with their continued confidence in our technology."