Creso Pharma to sell cannabis-based lozenges in Australia

Days after teaming up with China-based hemp producer Zhejiang Kingdom Creative, Creso Pharma (ASX: CPH) has inked a deal with Australia-based Health House International, which will import and distribute the company’s medicinal-cannabis pain management lozenges to pharmacies throughout Australia.

The product cannaQIX®50 is scheduled to hit the Australian market early next year and will be distributed under Australia’s medicinal cannabis regulations.

The cannaQIX®50 is sold as a lozenge based on a buccally cannabidiol (CBD) formulation to ease chronic pain. Each lozenge contains 50mg of CBD as well as various vitamins including B6, B12, C and zinc. The lozenges come in packs of 30.

Creso claims its proprietary absorption formula and the lozenge form allow the medicine to be dissolved in the mouth and enter the blood stream directly, which creates a faster and more effective delivery than tablets or capsules.

“There is a considerable unmet patient need for innovative and more patient-friendly CBD products in Australia and our cannaQIX®50 will provide patients with a pharmaceutical grade, process-certified and proprietary standardised formulation product,” said Creso chief executive officer and co-founder Dr Miri Halperin Wernli.

According to Creso, the cannaQIX®50 lozenges will be available to Australian patients through the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s Special Access Scheme.

The scheme allows medical practitioners to apply for approval to prescribe the products.

All states apart from Queensland and Tasmania only need to apply to Therapeutic Goods Administration for authorisation. However, practitioners in Queensland and Tasmania are required to seek consent from their respective state health bodies.

Health House International director Paul Mavor said up to one in five Australians suffer from chronic pain, which has a huge cost to patients’ quality of life, families and friends. Additionally, it has a big financial cost to Australia’s health system.

“Products like cannaQIX®50 are a game changer for Creso and Health House International,” Mr Mavor said.

“It’s pharmaceutically sophisticated dosage form meets a current unmet need in CBD products and I believe it will be very successful with prescribers, patients and pharmacists alike, because it doesn’t require the need to calculate non-standardised drops for oil-based CBD products,” he added.

Creso is in discussions with other parties to distribute its cannaQIX®50 in Canada, Latin America, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Shares in Creso soared more than 25% in early morning trade to peak at A$1.59 before hovering at A$1.50 at the time of writing.