Agbiotech Evogene Starts Med Cannabis Unit, CEO Sees ‘Significant Impact’

It’s not unusual these days to see agri-tech and biotech stocks jumping on the cannabis bandwagon to capitalize on the opportunity presented by the geographically expanding legalization of pot.

What Happened

Israeli biotech Evogene Ltd NASDAQEVGN, which is engaged in research and development for improving crop quality and productivity, announced a new subsidiary Wednesday in a foray into the medical cannabis market: Canonic Ltd.

The company said it will initially focus on creating improved cannabis varieties by tackling problems surrounding yield, stability and specific metabolite composition.

Evogene said the development will be based on the utilization of its Computational Predictive Biology, or CPB, platform.

Why It’s Important

Evogene, with its CPB platform and leadership position in the area of plant genomics, has a significant competitive advantage for the development of next-gen products that address limitations in cannabis cultivation and production, the company said in the Wednesday release.

“Evogene’s cutting-edge genomic technology, alongside our multidisciplinary team of professionals, uniquely positions Canonic to bring to market the most advanced, stable and consistent next-generation medical cannabis products, and I am confident we can make a significant impact in the world of medical grade cannabis,” Canonic CEO Arnon Heyman said in a statement.

What’s Next

Canonic, according to Evogene, will focus on three main product types: high metabolite yield cannabis varieties, stable varieties with consistent metabolite performance and cannabis varieties with a unique metabolite profile tailored to specific medical indications such as post-traumatic stress disorder, severe chronic pain and cancer.

https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cannabis/19/04/13479179/agribiotech-evogene-launches-medical-cannabis-subsidiary-ceo-expects-significant-impact-in-secto