Australian medicinal cannabis company Australian Natural Therapeutic Group (ANTG) and Canadian Asterion Cannabis, through its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Asterion, will develop one of the largest renewable-powered medicinal cannabis growing, manufacturing and R&D facilities in the world.
The two companies will merge their businesses to construct a $400 million, 75-hectare facility in the Darling Downs, near Toowoomba, which will produce more than 500,000 kg of medicinal cannabis a year and create some 1000 regional jobs.
According to Asterion’s statement, the first 10ha glasshouse and manufacturing facility is due to be operational by the end of next year, with construction to commence in the coming months.
ANTG CEO Matt Cantelo said the agreement represents ‘a golden opportunity’ for Australia to fulfil its full potential in growing and cultivating medicinal cannabis and serving the domestic and export markets.
“We see Australia becoming the global leader in medicinal cannabis production,” Mr Cantelo said.
“We have the gold standard in regulatory framework, depth of research and climate for growing excellent produce – but what we haven’t had to date is the option of scale.
“Once we get the scale we need, we will be working to ensure medicinal cannabis is more accessible to Australians.”
Stephen Van Deventer, CEO of Asterion said the merger of Asterion and ANTG was in line with both companies’ short and long term strategies.
“This provides early revenue for Asterion and scalability to ANTG. We are extremely excited with this merger as both companies have the same vision, priorities and mindset,” Mr Van Deventer concluded.
