Medicinal cannabis outfit Cronos rebrands to Vitura, eyes pets and other drugs as it expands digital health offering

Cronos will become Vitura Health as the medicinal cannabis group seeks to become an integrated healthcare company and is looking at capitalising on the lucrative pet market.

Cronos – the first Australian medicinal cannabis stock to pay a dividend – is changing its name to Vitura Health as it branches deeper into digital health and potentially other drugs and patients, including pets.

The $284m company’s name change will take effect from Wednesday and follows its merger with CDA Health, which owns pharmacy-to-doctor online portal CanView as well as medical clinics.

Chief executive Rodney Cocks says the move reflected its ambition to become a more integrated company and potentially diversify from medicinal cannabis to other drugs like psychedelics. It comes as Cronos is on track to hit more than $100m in revenue for the first time this financial year.

“Clearly, we are deeply involved in medicinal cannabis but really we’re coming to the market as a healthcare business and we’re excited about that,” he said.

“We’ve got deep experience in not just unregistered medicines but also in digital health and nationwide distribution. We look forward to continuing to grow under the new Vitura Health brand and delivering on our strategic objectives for our patients, prescribers, pharmacists, suppliers and shareholders”.

Mr Cocks said he was also looking at expanding into the lucrative pet market to capitalise on the humanisation of dogs, cats and other animals. Already, pet owners have been getting prescriptions for antidepressants from veterinarians for their dogs and medicinal cannabis has been touted as another treatment for anxiety in animals.

Cannabis medications have been touted as a treatment for pets.

“It’s another part of the industry we continue to watch. It’s something we see as a potential opportunity in the future,” Mr Cocks said.

“Other international jurisdictions have seen widespread take-up of veterinary cannabinoid therapies and we can also see the potential that we could see that in the market here.”

Mr Cocks also welcomed the Medical Board of Australia’s proposed changes to telehealth, which include banning doctors from prescribing medication without a consultation. In the past, medicinal cannabis clinics have attracted controversy by prescribing medication based on a questionnaire rather than a doctor meeting a patient, a practice that the Medical Board is aiming to quash.

Mr Cocks said Cronos now offers 100 per cent telehealth consultations and does not prescribe medications based solely on a questionnaire.

“We remain committed to a compliant operation, which underpins patient safety and that’s also reflected in our recent changes we’ve made to our clinical operations.

“We consult with patients either via video link or by telephone link to provide good quality, patient outcomes and care which are compliant with the regulator but also in line with patient preferences so that we are able to fit those consults into their busy lives each day.”

It comes after Cronos was also embroiled in a spat with former chief medical officer Benjamin Jansen – who was sacked in September for “his repeated pattern of inappropriate behaviour, lack of judgment and poor performance”.

Dr Jansen’s cousin Matua Jansen subsequently sought to remove Mr Cocks and executive director Guy Headley from Cronos’s board at its annual meeting in November. Other shareholders rejected the resolutions, with Mr Cocks and Mr Headley receiving 87.6 and 88 per cent of votes cast in their favour.

Ahead of the meeting, the company said it had reached a resolution with Dr Jansen and his wife, Elizabeth, who planned to use her 23.4 per cent stake to support all the board’s recommendations – including voting against the resolution to remove Mr Cocks and Mr Headley.

They have since brokered a peace resolution – of sorts. “The company and Benjamin Jansen acknowledge that their previous statements may have caused offence to each other, and both parties regret that the relationship between them had started to erode,” Cronos said in a statement to the ASX.

“Cronos Australia and Benjamin Jansen are committed to seeing the company develop and grow into a global leader in the medicinal cannabis industry … the company wishes Benjamin and Elizabeth Jansen the very best in their future endeavours.”

In December, Cronos released unaudited accounts showing that its revenue for the November surged to $10.7m or $128.4m on an annualised basis. This compares with annual revenue of $67m last year.

It also breached a million medicinal sales for the first time on its CanView marketplace, and is on track to double that figure in coming months.

Cronos shares have soared 74.2 per cent to 54c since August when it announced its maiden dividend of 1c a share.

But the company has traded largely sideways since mid-­November since falling from its record high of $1.04 in October. In December it released 407 million shares – more than 73 per cent of its total issued capital – from voluntary escrow.

“There will be no further shares in the company that are subject to escrow,” Cronos said.

Cronos shares closed flat at 54c in a slightly lower market.