Acquisition Target Winter Garden Biosciences Appoints Global Experts to Technical Team
Perth, May 20, 2015 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Uruguay-based biosciences and pharmaceutical company Winter Garden Biosciences (WG) has further enhanced its well credentialed technical team with a number of key appointments, ensuring WG is fast assembling a team capable of meeting all necessary regulatory and technical requirements of its business in-house.
Australian based company International Goldfields (
ASX:IGS) recently announced it had agreed to acquire 85% of WG, which is focused on the production and sale of high-potency cannabinoid extracts.
IGS has reported today that Winter Garden has outlined senior management appointments which will create a "one-stop-shop" structure, enabling the business to control every aspect from research and testing through to the production of an export-ready final product.
In addition Winter Garden has secured the opportunity to assist the Uruguay cannabis and hemp research industry by conducting trials for formulation and drug delivery with "internationally recognised lab service partners".
WG will be involved in the stabilisation and genetic registration of valuable cultivars, which leads to patents and expand the knowledge of marijuana research worldwide. This opportunity will position WG as an industry leader and innovator.
WG founder and medical marijuana pioneer Julian Strauss will lead the management team. Daniel Sztern, who has held senior positions within the Uruguayan Government, including National Director of Environment, will assume the role as inter-regulatory cooperation liaison.
Chemist Dr Nils Rehmann will head the pharmacology and toxicology division, Biochemist Daniel Carbo has been appointed the head Nano systems engineer and Oscar Florencio Caputi Vázquez is the lead agronomic engineer.
Rounding off the team, Helena Pardo will lend her expertise in extraction technology as a project manager within the labs, with Dr Sabina Vidal focussed on genetic sequencing and research at the state-of-the-art facility.
High-potency Cannabidiol extracts (CBD) are derived from non-synthetic cannabis and are reported to be in high-demand, due to an increase in appreciation for the potential health and therapeutic benefits.
Uruguay has a competitive advantage as, unlike Western countries, it has fully legalised under its federal regulatory system the cultivation, research, development and sale of cannabinoids and heirloom hemp.
WG indicates that it can extract Cannabidiol from non-synthetic cannabis at average concentrations of 30% CBD by weight. This results in an estimated 50% increase in CBD yield when compared to North American producers that average less than 20% CBD by weight due to using synthetic cannabis.
The funding received through the proposed IGS acquisition will be used to immediate begin cultivating heirloom non-synthetic cannabis on over 20 hectares of company owned land.
Annual yields from two growing seasons in Uruguay have resulted in over 100 kilograms per hectare, with non-synthetic Cannabidiol fetching a price point of approximately US$100,000 per kilogram in US and European markets.
With a global market that is able to absorb new cannabidiol product supply quickly, Winter Garden could start realising revenues later this year.
About International Goldfields Limited
International Goldfields Limited (ASX:IGS) is a Perth based precious metals explorer with assets located in emerging mineralised provinces of Western Australia and Brazil. IGS is a focused Brazilian explorer advancing several recent gold discoveries at the Ouro Paz Gold Project to Maiden Resource estimation in 2013 with 700koz Au contained in 3.4Mt Measured and Indicated averaging 2.55g/t Au and 5.1Mt Inferred averaging 2.48g/t Au.
