EXMceuticals is an up and coming player on the market with high ambitions and the potential of becoming the lowest cost producer of high-grade cannabis and hemp ingredients in the world.
EXMceuticals is a Canadian company focussed on providing the right ingredients to consumer goods infused products, capsules and oils for the medicinal and wellness industry.
EXMceuticals Operations around the world
The Green Fund – as global recognition of the benefits of medical cannabis increases, and the end of the ‘prohibition era’ for cannabis beckons, there is a burgeoning need for high-quality cannabis products with known components, cultivated at large scale for consistent, reliable supply to health users.1
EXMceuticals Farming operations
EXMceuticals has one of the largest agricultural footprints for cannabis and hemp cultivation in the world with access to 7000ha of fertile land in the equatorial region of Africa and growing on 75ha. With locations strategically chosen on the equator, 12 hour days, ideal temperatures and an abundance of rainwater and fertile soil allow for a high margin strategy with low operating and production costs.
EXMceuticals owns full import, cultivation, transformation and export licences in Uganda, the Republic of Congo (DRC), and a pilot licence in Malawi. EXMceuticals has also submitted applications and undertaken negotiations with local governments and partners in Ethiopia, Malawi, Zambia, Eswatini and Burundi, to obtain licences to permit the cultivation of cannabis and hemp, as well as the processing, transformation and export of psychotropic and non-psychotropic cannabinoid ingredients.
EXMceuticals has recently agreed to acquire MM (Operations) Ltd. (Malawi Mangoes) and is imminently closing this transaction. Malawi Mangoes is a sizeable, operational and fully staffed agro processing business in Malawi which possesses the following:
• USD $2M (~€1.789m) in Annual revenue from mangoes alone;
• 280ha (682 acre) of fully drip-irrigated farmland, planted with mangoes;
• State of the art 4ha (10 acre) greenhouse nursery capable of growing up to 750,000 cannabis plant;
• Over 200 employees; and
• Modern 10,000 m2 (107,640 ft2) processing facility and factory
This farm alone allows EXMceuticals to use an entire full-scale industrial facility with a proven track record as well as a fully operational and efficient supply chain from seed to sale.
Study – According to the Green Fund study published in March 2019 – it costs approximately 80% less to produce cannabis in South America. With similar growing conditions in Africa, production costs are forecast to be in the same range.
Extraction
Once the plants are harvested and dried, EXMceuticals sends its biomass to an extraction facility built during the summer of 2019. This facility is fully operational, tested and capable of extracting crude oil at a rate of 90 000kg a year, scalable to more than 300 000. An actual inventory of crude oil is waiting to be shipped to EXMceuticals facility for further processing. A similar, but larger extraction facility in Malawi is in the pipeline as soon as licensing is allowed.
The EXMceuticals team has extensive hands-on experience doing business in Africa and developing countries. These experiences, coupled with those of local farming partners bring the capability to produce high quality crude oil at a commercial scale, ready to ship to Portugal for refining.
Social responsibilities
EXMceuticals provides equal opportunity for women to work at their farm with equal pay and help with family needs. The majority of farmworkers are women, almost all of whom have never had a job before. Once cash flow is attained, plans are to form a foundation in each country and give back 2% of revenue for local projects chosen by locals. EXMceuticals buys locally, hires locals and ensures the local economy thrives.
Innovation in refining and next-generation product drive our advantage in Portugal
The enthusiasm for Portugal is something real in the medical cannabis industry, and it exists for a reason. In recent years, several companies have established their activities in the country to take advantage of the many benefits it offers in terms of government incentives, development and innovation opportunities.
Considering the company processes are truly research driven and innovation is key, Portugal is the heart of EXMceuticals. It is where most of the activities are taking place from advanced R&D, collaboration within the industry with its strategic partners, the construction of a refining facility which will comply with the European Union’s GMP Standards, formulation, testing and a distribution centre.
The Portugal refinery hub is designed to purify the extracts produced by EXMFarming and will serve as the gateway to distribute manufactured materials in Europe and North America.
EXMceuticals Portugal obtained the authorisation for cannabis research and development from INFARMED (the Portuguese National Authority of Medicines and Health Products) in November 2019. This licence allows EXMceuticals to take a huge step forward in its European operations by being able to import, research and refine cannabinoids and cannabis-based ingredients.
EXMceuticals’s fully operational R&D laboratory in Portugal will now develop cannabis-based formulations for products and operate as a pilot scale refinery for the transformation of cannabis-based ingredients.
To be optimal in research and development, EXMceuticals hired some of the most preeminent scientists in analytic and organic chemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology for its extraction and formulation operations. Exmceuticals is very active in partnerships, particularly with university research chairs, including Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Universidade Lusofona de Humanidades e Tecnologias and Nova.id.FCT and with companies from several sectors ranging from wellness to pharmaceutical.
In addition, EXMceuticals has an up and running research and development centre in Lisbon, Portugal in TecLabs, a well-recognised startup incubator from Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa. This facility is fully equipped and staffed by experienced scientists (microbiologists, biochemists and geneticists). At the moment, the lab is submitting two main research projects focusing on cannabis-based therapeutics and cannabinoid extraction and purification processes. These projects are supported by Portugal 2020, a framework programme between Portugal and the European Commission that brings together five European structural and investment funds. EXMceuticals intends to monetise some of the IP created.
EXMceuticals Portugal is targeting to be best in class in cannabis extraction, purification, testing, formulation, product development and manufacturing.
The expertise of our researchers and the quality of the products
After obtaining its most recent licence, EXMceuticals has already begun the construction and fit out of an industrial scale refining facility which will comply with the European Union’s GMP Standards in Portugal. This industrial-scale facility will import large quantities of cannabis and hemp crude oil from EXMceuticals farms in Africa, and then refine it on site to client’s demands. The new industrial-scale facility will allow EXMceuticals to export a very large volume of highest purity refined cannabis products to the European Union and the US. As EXMceuticals moves towards industrial scale production and increases the number and scope of the R&D projects undertaken, the company anticipates creating more than 80 highly qualified technical & scientific research jobs in Portugal.
EXMceuticals is driven to provide high-quality ingredients and innovation. Cannabis is a phenomenal plant and the research community have only just begun to scratch the surface of its therapeutic potential.
Accelerating into the global market
With the most recent authorisation in Portugal, things are already starting to accelerate. “It’s really exciting to see what’s coming for EXMceuticals and to see how fast the company grows” said Jonathan Summers, CEO and Chairman of EXMceuticalsceuticals Inc board.
Prohibition Partners, a leading provider of market insights and strategic consultancy specialised in cannabis, forecast that Europe will gradually open up over the next three years to become the largest legal cannabis market in the world.
Momentum is building rapidly on the global cannabis market. Cannabis and hemp are quickly becoming a commodity, EXMceuticals approach to innovation through research, its capacity to produce high-quality ingredients in great quantity, and its extraction and refining capacity will allow targeting the two largest medical and wellness markets in the world.
The future of cannabis is bright, and innovation will trigger new methods, new formulations, more precise dosing and more understanding of how the plant can be consumed. As medical cannabis markets evolve across Europe and the world, EXMceuticals is positioned to create an impact on the market.
The combination of EXMceuticals industrial scale production capability combined with the exponential market growth puts EXMceuticals in a position to capture a sizable share of the cannabis and hemp markets in the world.
References
1 The Global Cannabis Industry by Mark Bernberg, The Green Fund
Jonathan Summers
Executive Chairman of the board
EXMceuticals Inc
jonathan@exmceuticals.com
Tweet @EXMceuticals
exmceuticals.com/
This article will appear in the first issue of Medical Cannabis Network which will be out in January. Click here to subscribe.
