VIVO Cannabis Inc (CVE:VIVO) Subsidiary Canna Farms Launches Medical Cannabis Website

VIVO Cannabis Inc (CVE:VIVO) (OTCMKTS:VVCIF) (FRA:23Q) CEO Barry Fishman is thrilled with the launch of Canna Farms Limited’s integrated medical cannabis website. Canna Farms is a craft brand that was acquired 6 months ago by VIVO. The integrated medical cannabis website consolidates the company’s brands and products into one store that offers a variety of product presentations and brands, as well as over 40 strains of cannabis. Fishman notes it is integral to provide customers with choice and he believes the variety of offerings available on the website will help secure customer loyalty. In February, VIVO Cannabis subsidiary ABcann Medicinals Inc received its Health Canada sales license for cannabis oil. Fishman stresses participation in the concentrates space is crucial for success and this license helps VIVO enter an integral market.

Transcript:

Narrator: VIVO Cannabis Inc., a Canadian licensed producer of cannabis, is headquartered in Napanee, Ontario. VIVO has a collection of premium brands including Beacon Medical, Fireside, and Lumina.

In August 2018, VIVO acquired Canna Farms, a premium cannabis company based in Hope, British Columbia.

VIVO Cannabis is focused on expanding its production capacity and pursuing partnership and product development opportunities domestically as well as in international markets, including Germany and Australia.

VIVO Cannabis Inc. is listed on the TSX Venture under the ticker symbol VIVO.

Howard Glassman:   What a pleasure – joining us in the studio, the CEO of VIVO Cannabis, with so many stories, with so many insights: Barry Fishman, how are you, sir?

Barry Fishman: Nice to see you.

Howard Glassman:   Nice to see you. Look at you! Working in the cannabis space. You mentioned – before I get to all the questions I was going to ask you, you mentioned that your background was in health care.

Barry Fishman: Yeah. I’ve spent over 30 years in the pharmaceutical world, primarily with two companies: Eli Lilly for about 17 years, and Teva for about 11 years. So I was sort of, my training ground in health care is pharmaceuticals, and it’s sort of a lot of relation between pharma and cannabis, especially when it comes to dealing with doctors and understanding their expectations.

Howard Glassman:   You know, it’s interesting you say that about doctors, because about three, four years ago I went to my GP and I said, you know, heard about the idea – this was before legalization, when it was medical cannabis, and at that time, doctors were uneducated, I think. I want to get your take on this – he didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It’s not that he was against it; at that point, he told me his Association hadn’t really looked into it. And then you fast-forward to now, it’s on everyone’s radar.

Barry Fishman: Well, I’ll tell you: doctors are, they like clinical evidence. They like precise dosing.

Howard Glassman:   Right.

Barry Fishman: They like to be educated before they prescribe any type of medication. And I think our industry is moving along the path of education and clinical experience, and I think that precise dosing is the next major breakthrough in cannabis.

A company like us, VIVO Cannabis, we’re working on products that provide precise dosing: capsules, inhalers, other forms of medication where doctors can feel comfortable prescribing, and I think that will lead more doctors to get on the cannabis medical cannabis bandwagon.

Howard Glassman:   Yeah, because as you said in your opening remarks there, doctors want to have the comfort of knowing that if I’m prescribing for anxiety or anti-inflammation or migraines, you want to know exactly the dose that has been proven to help. Let’s talk about your company, that’s why you’re here today: the announcement with the launch of Canna Farms’ integrated online cannabis medical website. Okay. Why is this significant?

Barry Fishman: Yeah, let me start off with, six months ago, we acquired a company called Canna Farms. Cannafarms is a BC-based cultivator.

Howard Glassman:   Yes.

Barry Fishman: A craft producer, very, very good at what they do, one of the best-known brands in the industry. And when we acquired Canna Farms, we had two separate LPs: ABcann and Canna Farms. And we decided to actually try to leverage the two brands, and we introduced one consolidated store. That consolidated store has over 40 strains. It has over 100 product presentations. And the reason why we did that is because we wanted our customers to have choice.

I think choice is very important.

Howard Glassman:   Absolutely.

Barry Fishman: They go on one site, they could buy a number of different strains in a number of presentations, in dried flower format, in oil format. It just provides choice.

Howard Glassman:   Does – I’m not sure if it says here, what is the actual website? What’s it called?

Barry Fishman: Cannafarms.

Howard Glassman:   Just go on Cannafarms? Cannafarms.com?

Barry Fishman: Exactly.

Howard Glassman:   Okay. And, and, so this, I can see why it’s significant, the announcement that you guys have done this. What does it mean for the consumers? I know you talked a little bit about choice; you know, oils especially being available is a bit of a breakthrough. It’s not always available, so the consumer will have more choice. What else will it be for you?

Barry Fishman: I guess the, when I say choice, I mean, they’ll have a variety of different product presentations, a variety of strains, and a variety of brands. So they’ll have the Beacon medical brand, they’ll have the Canna Farms brand, and we will bring on other brands from other licensed producers as long as they meet our quality standards.

Howard Glassman:   Okay. Last month you announced the appointment of Gary McMullen as Vice President, the Napanee operations; he’s assumed his position, I guess, just this week. I want to talk about him because I find it fascinating, the idea that we don’t even know the variations of cannabis-infused products. Now, he was, his background’s in the Muskoka brewery. Does that have anything to do with why you hired him?

Barry Fishman: Well, we hired Gary because he is a fantastic entrepreneur. He’s got a proven track record of building a business, and we believe what he learned at Muskoka breweries can be leveraged in the cannabis business. So we’re super excited Gary’s on his fourth day on the job.

Howard Glassman:   Wow, that’s right.

Barry Fishman: And we’re tremendously excited to having somebody of his talent and calibre –

Howard Glassman:   Now I mean, if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine, but is there some thought – again, using someone like Gary’s expertise – because I know from some other companies I’ve done some research with, and there’s a whole world of cannabis-infused beverages coming. I know that some companies are working on it; is that something you guys are interested in?

Barry Fishman: Yeah. So one of our top priorities is product development, for both the medical side and the adult use side. In our pipeline, we have products that are more suited to physician prescribing; we also have products that will be launched in the beverage and edible category.

Howard Glassman:   Nice.

Barry Fishman: But we don’t want ‘me too’ products; we want to introduce our products with something unique and different, something that customers will say, boy, I’m going to stay loyal to VIVO’s products, because they provide a great experience for me.

Howard Glassman:   Yeah, you know, it’s going to be a crowded marketplace, and best-in-class and best in product is going to be something that companies like yours I can see are going to want to establish. Because you know, no one remembers who’s number two, you know? And it’ll be interesting to see, and again I look forward to it – you know, for instance, I obviously was looking here that in February you announced the subsidiary ABcann Medicinals Inc. you received approval for allowing the sale of cannabis oil, which as I mentioned, wasn’t always around. I think Health Canada hesitated or delayed only because they weren’t sure about the efficacy of the product.

Barry Fishman: Yeah. So we think it’s imperative to be involved in the concentrate part of the market.

Howard Glassman:   Right.

Barry Fishman: You know, we started off as a seller of a dried flower cannabis, just like everybody else.

Howard Glassman:   Right, just like everyone did, exactly.

Barry Fishman: But the market on the medical side, and eventually with beverages and edibles, it will be necessary to have capabilities in the areas of oils and concentrates, and extraction.

So we’re building internal capabilities to do that, because we think the trend is towards those kind of products.

Howard Glassman:   Well, it is. It’s a fascinating world. I was talking to Barry a little bit prior to us starting; you know, you’re a gentleman; you’re 61 years old. I’m 59 years old, and we’re both, you know, in the 70s and the early 80s, I was living in California, you know, and never have imagined a world where a guy with your background or some of the people I’ve met this week, it’s hard to get your head around these conversations we’re having.

Barry Fishman: You know, Howard, 10 years ago we would have met each other, and you said, one day of you running a licensed producer making cannabis and selling cannabis? I would have said the chances of that are slim to none, you know.

Howard Glassman:   It’s got to be mind-blowing to a guy like you, especially all of the background in Big Pharma and Eli Lilly and all those things. And like I said, even four or five years ago, when I started getting interested in medical marijuana and how that was being proposed, again, I couldn’t have imagined a guy like you talking about, yeah, I got some cannabis oil. It’s good for you.

But I think the Baby Boomers, as we age, our later stages of life are going to be different than our parents’ and our grandparents’, because of this. I do believe that.

Barry Fishman: Absolutely. I can just say in my 35 year career, roughly, the last 17 months has been the most fascinating 17 months that I’ve had.

Howard Glassman:   I can’t even imagine.

Barry Fishman: It’s just incredible.

Howard Glassman:   Well, you’re a lovely person.

Barry Fishman: Thank you very much.

Howard Glassman:   Barry Fishman, everybody!

Original article: VIVO Cannabis Inc (CVE:VIVO) Subsidiary Canna Farms Launches Medical Cannabis Website

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