Avicanna completes marijuana unit acquisition from Shoppers Drug Mart

Toronto-headquartered Avicanna announced the closing of its acquisition of the Medical Cannabis by Shopper’s Business unit from major Canadian pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart.

The price tag was 2.6 million Canadian dollars ($1.9 million) plus earnout payments based on net revenue for a two-year period.

Avicanna – a biopharmaceutical company focused on cannabinoid-based products – also announced the launch of MyMedi.ca, a medical cannabis care platform, which replaces the platform used by Shoppers.

“We are pleased to have closed the acquisition of the Business from Shoppers Drug Mart and recognize this as a transformational milestone in the life of our company,” Avicanna CEO Aras Azadian said in a statement.

“We are motivated to meet the needs of our new patients through MyMedi.ca and welcome the thousands of patients that have transitioned over from the Medical Cannabis by Shoppers platform.”

The company did not disclose the number of registered patients using the platform.

As of March 2023, Canada had 230,697 active medical cannabis registrations with a federal license holder.

Separately, Avicanna announced that it closed a private placement of 1,455,000 debenture units for aggregate gross proceeds of CA$1.5 million.

The debentures will bear interest at a rate of 18% per year until the maturity date, which is in one year.

Avicanna said it plans to use the proceeds for the ongoing development of its business and “for general working capital purposes, general and administrative expenses, repayment of debt, expenditures related to production and manufacturing, and research and clinical development.”

In May, Avicanna reported a loss of CA$2.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023.

Total revenue was CA$1.2 million in the quarter, up 15% from the same period last year.

Shares of Avicanna are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange as AVCN.

Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/avicanna-completes-marijuana-unit-acquisition-from-shoppers-drug-mart/