Toowoomba’s Medibis receives cultivation licence from Federal Office of Drug Control

This Toowoomba-based medicinal cannabis business has just received a key approval on its way to having a shovel-ready project by early next year. FIND OUT MORE HERE:

Young Cannabis plants are watered using mist irrigation. (Photo by Luke Dray/Getty Images)

In a crucial step forward, Toowoomba medicinal cannabis company Medibis has received its cultivation licence from the Federal Office of Drug Control.

The licence is a key component of plans to build a large scale, state-of-the-art medicinal cannabis facility near Toowoomba that is capable of producing 80-100 tonnes of product annually.

The company is now proceeding to secure capital to build the first stage of their flagship facility.

If everything goes according to plan, the company is expecting to have a shovel-ready project by the end of March 2021.

The facility will generate up to 200 jobs during construction, and approximately 350 ongoing jobs at full capacity.

Medibis managing director Angus Chapel said his team was moving to set up clinical trials and other research projects with the University of Queensland.

“We are bringing targeted corporate expertise on-board, as well as operational staff from a range of disciplines,” he said.

“We are looking both locally and internationally for the right people to join the team but preferably we are seeking experienced people from the greater Toowoomba region first and foremost.

“We are in discussions with key investors and diving into detailed engineering.”

The facility will include high tech environmentally-controlled glasshouses.

“The design incorporates a number of innovative technologies and will be comparable to the best in the world,” he said.

“We believe that some of these technology integration steps represent a first in the medicinal cannabis industry.”

Medibis are bringing their advanced biomanufacturing strategy forward so their business will be fully vertically integrated and will produce medicines that satisfy the highest quality standards.

A development application is expected to be submitted to Toowoomba Regional Council next month.