WOBURN, Mass., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Courtagen Life Sciences Inc. announced today that the company will be shifting the core focus of its business to medicinal cannabis genetics and testing. As the company reorients its business to respond to the growing opportunities in the medicinal cannabis industry, the company has made the decision to wind down its diagnostic neurology testing division. The company’s decision to transition out of its diagnostic business was based in part on many challenging industry dynamics, such as a poor regulatory and reimbursement landscape for genetic testing, that have made the goal of achieving long term profitability in the diagnostic space extremely difficult. Despite significant scientific advancements, the current financial status and incentive structures of the U.S. healthcare system are not aligned with optimizing such scientific advancements to ensure patients are receiving the highest quality of care.
“We made a very difficult yet prudent business decision to exit the diagnostic business, and refocus our business strategy on our cannabis science business called Medicinal Genomics Corp (MGC),” said Brian McKernan, Courtagen’s Chief Executive Officer. “We stand proud of our accomplishments and of the work we did to help thousands of sick children. Furthermore, we are deeply honored to have had the opportunity to work with so many amazing and talented individuals during our time building Courtagen’s diagnostic division. Of particular importance, we would like to recognize our employees and thank them for their great attitudes, friendship, dedication, perseverance and drive to change the world for the better.”
The cannabis industry is currently the fastest growing industry in the U.S., with 30% compounded annual growth rates. The market is expected to expand significantly in the coming years as more states and countries legalize cannabis for medical and recreational purposes. The rapidly increasing applications of cannabis in mainstream medicine is poised to increase demand for high quality, consistent, and safe medicinal cannabis for patients.
MGC is a commercial stage company focused on helping growers and scientists to identify desirable genetic traits of interest and to detect harmful microbes; the end result of utilizing MGC’s technologies is greater crop yields, increased sustainable productivity and safer cannabis for patients and consumers.
Medicinal Genomics is the industry leader in sequencing the cannabis genome and the genomes of the most destructive cannabis pests known to date, such as Powdery Mildew and Russet Mites. MGC’s proprietary platform has enabled the rapid development of field portable genomic tests, an innovative Cannabis genotyping notarization service utilizing the blockchain and a marker assisted selection service providing Intellectual property management through MGC’s cannabis information portal Kannapedia.net.
Committed to advancing the cannabis industry, MGC has created an information sharing platform to highlight these technologies and those of worldwide medical and scientific leaders, through the annual CannMed conference series. CannMed gathers the greatest minds in medical cannabis research, where they focus on the intersection of clinical application, medical research, Cannabis based therapeutics, cannabis safety and production.
About Medicinal Genomics Corporation
Medicinal Genomics Corporation applies state-of-the-art life science technology to cannabis plant genetics, and was the first company to sequence the cannabis genome. Our products, based on Next Generation DNA Sequencing technology, help growers, dispensaries, and safety testing laboratories characterize and understand the quality of medicinal cannabis. For more information, please visit http://www.medicinalgenomics.com/.
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SOURCE Courtagen Life Sciences
