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Buds & Duds: Cannabis stocks flatten out but FSD Pharma soars on launch of online ordering system

Published: 11:45 21 Aug 2019 EDT

Isodiol International - Buds & Duds:

Cannabis stocks were broadly flat on Wednesday, after a drop on Tuesday and a rocky few months for the industry. 

The North American Marijuana Index, which tracks the top cannabis stocks in the US and Canada, was up 0.1% at 192.7 points. Elsewhere, the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF was up 0.2% to C$15.22, while the OTCQX Cannabis Index slipped 0.2% at 663.7 points.

Buds

FSD Pharma Inc (CSE:HUGE) (OTCQB:FSDDF) shares were soaring Wednesday after the firm announced the launch of its online ordering system to fill medicinal cannabis prescriptions. 

Shares of FSD were up 15% at C$0.12 in Toronto, up 20% at US$0.09 in New York. 

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, FV Pharma Inc, clients with a prescription from a medical practitioner or a registration number with Health Canada can now place an order online for dried cannabis on FVPharma.com.

In a statement, FSD's CEO Raza Bokhari said the start up of the online ordering portal marks “a very important milestone” for the Cobourg, Ontario-based company.

"Since receipt of our Sale for Medical Purposes license earlier in June, we are now open for registration online to a wider client base and we are pleased that patients have already begun to use our user-friendly website," said Bokhari. 

READ: FSD Pharma launches online ordering system to fill medicinal cannabis prescriptions

Also gaining Wednesday was The Flowr Corporation (CVE:FLWR) (OTCMKTS:FLWPF), which announced yesterday it had completed the acquisition of the remaining 80.2% interest in Holigen Holdings.

Shares of Flowr jumped 5.8% at C$3.12 in Canadian trading, and were up 5.4% at US$2.37 in New York. 

Flowr builds and operates large-scale, GMP-designed facilities that utilize proprietary growing methods to produce high-quality cannabis for recreational and medicinal usage.

"We are excited to complete the acquisition of Holigen and thereby add operations in Portugal and Australia to our existing Canadian platform. The combination of our extensive cannabis cultivation know-how and Holigen's extensive pharmaceutical experience has the potential to create tremendous value. With an expected annual capacity of 500,000 kilograms, the Aljustrel cultivation asset in Portugal should allow us to be a significant producer in the global medical cannabis and active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) markets, initially in Europe and Australia-Asia," said Vinay Tolia, Flowr's CEO.

READ: Flowr finalizes deal with Holigen

Tilray Inc (NASDAQ:TLRY) shares were also on the rise Wednesday after the cannabis cultivation company inked a deal to export its first shipment of medical cannabis from Portugal to Germany.

Tilray shares climbed 4%, at $30.46 in US trading. 

The agreement with Cannamedical Pharma GmbH will see Tilray export a wholesale shipment of US$3.3 million worth of medical cannabis from Portugal to Germany.

“This is a significant milestone for Tilray as we ramp up our capacity to serve international markets and generate revenue from our EU campus through the end of 2019,” said CEO Brendan Kennedy in a statement. “We believe our 2.5 million square feet of cultivation and state-of-the-art processing space in Europe is an important differentiator, which will enable us to reduce costs and improve margins while hedging against regulatory risk.”

Duds

CannTrust Holdings Inc (TSE:TRST) (NYSE:CTST) shares continued to sink Wednesday, two days after the firm released news that the Ontario Cannabis Store returned all of the company's products, as they are deemed to be 'non-comforming product.' The company says the total value of the products is about C$2.9 million.

Shares dropped 5.4% to C$2.46 in Toronto, and were down 5.1% at US$1.86 in New York. 

According to the firm, Health Canada has not ordered a product recall. 

CannTrust has been embroiled in a scandal since early July after Health Canada found it was growing cannabis in unlicensed rooms at its Pelham, Ontario facility and later raised issues about its manufacturing facility in Vaughan, Ontario.

Also lagging Wednesday was CBD manufacturer Isodiol International Inc (CSE:ISOL) (OTCQB:ISOLF), down 12.5% at C$0.42 in Toronto, off 11.5% at US$0.31 in New York, after the firm released its 4Q and fiscal year results showing losses for the period to March 31, 2019. 

Isodiol CEO Marcos Agramont.said: “The majority of losses experienced in FY 2019 are a by-product of our shift in our focus towards higher-margin consumer products vs raw ingredient supply, prevention of massive shareholder dilution and protecting our future cash flows through divestitures.

“Over the last several months we have sharpened our focus significantly, cut costs, curbed shareholder dilution and we believe the company is in a strong position heading into FY2020 and beyond."

Agramont added: “We have just realized our most profitable quarter to date and have reduced our operating expenses considerably, which will be seen in the first quarter of FY2020."

For fiscal 2019, Isodiol reported revenue of $22.25 million, a boost of 16.3% year over year. Its 4Q revenue came in at $9.1 million. 

-- Harriet Mclelland contributed to this report -- 

Contact Katie Lewis at katie@proactiveinvestors.com

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