Next Green Wave achieves operational milestones for Intrexon's Botticelli cannabis plantlet production

Next Green Wave Holdings Inc (CSE:NGW) (OTCMKTS:NXGWF) said Tuesday that it has completed the installation and activation of its research and innovation laboratory under license from biotech leader Intrexon Corp (NASDAQ:XON).

In a statement, the Vancouver-based cannabis company said this will advance Intrexon’s Botticelli next-generation non-GMO propagation platform and begin the rapid optimization and production of Next Green Wave‘s proprietary cannabis cultivars.

READ: Next Green Wave hits key milestone with successful cannabis harvest

In line with a deal announced on March 22, Intrexon and Next Green Wave have now achieved the following milestones:

• Optimization of the Botticelli protocol for Next Green Wave’s hemp CBD strains; and

• Achieved the completion of a tissue culture lab at a Next Green Wave production site to begin Botticelli optimization of the cannabis company’s proprietary nursery stock

In a statement, Next Green Wave CEO Michael Jennings said the opening of the research facility is a “huge milestone” in the company’s path to establishing “a world-class” cannabis nursery.

“Combining Intrexon’s proprietary Botticelli tissue culture platform with Next Green Wave’s proprietary stock and cultivation team, we aim to push the limits of the current cannabis performance paradigm,” said Jennings.

“After a successful optimization phase, we will begin the Botticelli plantlet production for our own internal cultivation and also supply our industry leading plantlets to other licensed cultivators in California,” he added.

The company noted that in the US market, legal cannabis revenue is projected to exceed $31.3 billion by 2022, with California representing around a third of that market. Current cannabis cultivation is predominantly dependent on clonal propagation by using cuttings of mother plants. This creates barriers to meeting product demand and also the risk of disease susceptibility. In addition, plants derived from repeated cuttings lose their vigor in performance.

Given these drawbacks, the company noted that Botticelli offers the potential for a “sustainable, scalable, and more economical solution” than conventional clones.

“We are excited to have achieved optimization of Botticelli protocol for hemp CBD strains, as a proxy for cannabis, and feel confident about the potential of our platform for cannabis cultivation,” said Sekhar Boddupalli, president of Intrexon’s Ag Bio Division.

“We are looking forward to seeing the Botticelli platform enabled and integrated with Next Green Wave’s production, validating its value-add for the cannabis industry,” he added.

Nursery production

On a separate note, Next Green Wave announced that its current nursery production, derived using traditional cloning methods, has reached inventory levels sufficient to begin sales to other retail and licensed producers.

The nursery has the capacity to produce up to 80,000 plantlets per month to fulfill both internal use and external sales. Additionally, the company has now completed its second harvest of a variety of premium cannabis flower and entered a perpetual cycle to harvest two rooms every 10-to-14 days.

Operating in California, the world’s largest cannabis market, the Vancouver-based company has an ace in its back pocket that many don’t – it is fully-licensed to conduct operations across the entire value chain: nursery, cultivation, extraction and distribution.

Next Green Wave’s indoor cannabis facility in Coalinga, California is nestled about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The company is currently expanding operations on its cannabis zoned property. It has a seed library of over 120 strains and is developing its nursery cloning operations with biotech leader Intrexon.

— Adds company and nursery production details — 

Contact Uttara Choudhury at [email protected]

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive 

Story by ProactiveInvestors