Rua Bioscience Limited (NZX: RUA) Awarded Callaghan Innovation Funding

Tuesday 23rd November 2021

Pharmaceutical company Rua Bioscience Limited (NZX: RUA ) has received milestone funding from Callaghan Innovation to support a transformative research project.

The $376,000 grant will reinforce the company’s projected $1.25m investment into plant science and product development (a requirement of the backing) and fund projects critical to the company’s quest to create superior medicinal cannabis products unique to the market.

Rua Bioscience’s Chief Research Officer, Dr Jessika Nowak, says Rua will deploy Callaghan Innovation’s funding across the company’s value chain.

“The Callaghan Innovation funding will support one project feeding into a range of innovative ventures from cultivation to packaging. Those projects include the identification of high-performing commercial cultivars developed by our world-class cultivation team in Ruatorea; the existing hyperspectral imaging project, which looks to revolutionise crop management practice; advancements in CO2 extraction; packaging innovations to improve the quality and stability of Rua products; and DNA tracking and protection of unique Rua cultivars,” she says.

Rua Bioscience CEO, Rob Mitchell, says the funding will accelerate specific projects he describes as future-focused.

“While we’ll get pharmaceutical-grade product to market as quickly as we can, we are looking at innovations right across the value chain to create exceptional products that prescribers and patients around the world actively seek out,” he says.

“Our relationship with Callaghan Innovation means we can accelerate our bid to create premium-quality Rua branded products for a global market with valuable and defendable points of difference,” he says.

Rua recently received GMP certification and announced the company would have product available for New Zealand patients early next calendar year. The company also expects to export product to Germany by the close of 2022.

In June, Rua launched its ground-breaking, two-year research programme with the University of Waikato to investigate the application of hyperspectral imaging to determine optimal harvest timings, detect pests and diseases and view the chemical profile of living plant matter. The research programme will pave the way for Rua to enter the global cannabis testing industry, expected to be worth $2.5bn (USD$1,806 million) by 2025.

Please see the link below for details

Rua Announces Major Callaghan Innovation Funding

Source: Rua Bioscience Limited

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