These days, when it comes to cannabis, you can smoke it, eat it, and drink it. But now there's a new way to consume cannabis: strips that dissolve in the mouth.
This is thanks to top Canadian marijuana stock Aurora Cannabis (ACB -2.49%), which announced Tuesday that it has launched cannabinoid-infused "sublingual wafers" -- i.e., thin strips meant to be held under the tongue until they dissolve to nothing. The strips are aimed at medical cannabis users and will be sold on the Canadian market.
Image source: Getty Images.
In the press release for the somewhat unimaginatively brand-named Dissolve Strips, Aurora said that it is the first of its kind. Dissolve Strips were developed by Aurora in conjunction with fellow Canadian company CTT Pharmaceutical Holdings.
Aurora, incidentally, holds an approximate 9% stake in CTT, one of various minor shareholdings it has in other companies. Aurora also owns warrants that would allow it to boost this figure significantly, to 42%.
According to Aurora, the new offering "adds yet another innovative offering to our growing portfolio of high quality, medical products that we offer our patient base, and is testament to our industry leading ability to work with technology partners and regulators to bring new form factors to market rapidly."
The company titles this particular form factor Orally Dissolvable Thin Film Wafers, which are made of polymer film.
Image source: Aurora Cannabis.
Aurora claims the strips have several advantages over other means of ingestion. Among these are quick consumption (five to 15 seconds, the company says) and the ability to be taken orally without having to drink water or to swallow. Such features make Dissolve Strips appropriate for patients who have difficulty taking medicine in traditional ways.
In the press release, Aurora gave no indication of the potential size of the market for Dissolve Strips. It also did not mention any possibility of rolling out or modifying the product for the recreational consumer market, which has been lively in Canada following the legalization of that type of consumption almost one year ago.
Regardless, Aurora stock closed marginally higher on the day the announcement was made, bucking the general downward trend of the stock market. The price has generally been on a decline since March, however, and so far in 2019, it's down by 16%. In fact, it has lately been bouncing around lows not seen in over a year.
