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While the overall cannabis industry continues to struggle post-legalization, licensed producers and pharmaceutical companies are still looking for new ways to draw in additional customers and turn a profit before the next wave of products arrives.

Today MediPharm Labs Corp. (TSX: LABS; OTCQX: MEDIF; FSE: MLZ) acquired a new Cannabis Research Licence via the company’s subsidiary MediPharm Labs Inc.

With that licence in hand, MediPharm can begin a first round of quality assurance testing at the company’s facility in Barrie, Ontario.

When testing is complete, human sensory evaluation trials will officially begin involving taste and smell for a range of cannabis substances from edibles and distillates to topicals and extracts.

Those tests will seek to quantify the specifics of how cannabis affects the human body while MediPharm develops more options to meet consumer demands for additional product varieties.

Discussing the importance of consumer choice and using the new license for testing terpenes to gauge reactions, CEO Pat McCutcheon commented:

This is a game-changer for our R&D and the timing, which coincides with the Canadian legalization of edibles, beverage-infused drinks and topicals, enables MediPharm Labs to perfect our products for human consumption. Scientific study and testing of sensory properties gives us a competitive edge, one that we know consumer-packaged goods companies selling to retail will value and employ. 

As stock prices are down nearly across the board and other licensed producers are frequently culling staff, initiating insider private placements to remain afloat, or re-pricing acquisitions, the arrival of new value-added products is seen as a lifeline for the industry.

Final regulations for edibles and vapes were handed down by Health Canada earlier this year, and those “cannabis 2.0” products are expected to start arriving on shelves in December. The new batch of legalized product types also notably includes infused beverages, which have long been forecast as a game changer in overall cannabis sales.

While MediPharm Labs stock has remained higher than many other companies in the Canadian cannabis industry, it has still seen an overall downward trend since the summer. MEDIF is currently trading at $3.50 this morning, down from a high of $5.40 back in early August.

About Author

Ty Arthur

Ty Arthur

Ty Arthur has spent the last decade of his journalism career covering everything from cutting-edge tech to local news through outlets such as the Houston Chronicle. He has focused on the counterculture aspects of society, from marijuana legalization to underground music through Metalunderground.com and rapidly changing trends in the entertainment industry. He lives in the cold, dark north with his wife and son.

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