CannTrust Licenses Reinstated for Vaughan Manufacturing Facility
CannTrust Holdings has announced the reinstatement of its licenses for the Vaughan Manufacturing Facility as of August 6, 2020. This decision follows the company's year-long efforts to address regulatory deficiencies. Manufacturing operations are expected to restart immediately, with cannabis products anticipated to be available in Q4 2020. The CEO emphasized significant improvements in regulatory compliance, while the company remains under CCAA protection to resolve civil litigation issues and strategic alternatives. CannTrust continues to face challenges, including a cease-trade order from the Ontario Securities Commission.
- Licenses reinstated for Vaughan Manufacturing Facility.
- Immediate restart of manufacturing operations planned.
- Products expected to be available in Q4 2020.
- Company remains under CCAA protection, indicating ongoing financial distress.
- Termination or layoff of a significant portion of workforce.
- No meaningful revenues reported.
- Cease-trade order from the Ontario Securities Commission due to disclosure failures.
Company Expects Products to be Available in Q4 2020
VAUGHAN, ON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - CannTrust Holdings Inc. ("CannTrust" or the "Company") announced today that it has received notice from Health Canada that the Company's licenses for its Vaughan Manufacturing Facility (the "Vaughan facility") have been reinstated, effective immediately.
Over the past 12 months, CannTrust has been working diligently to resolve regulatory deficiencies within its business. On May 29, 2020, the Company confirmed it had received notice of license reinstatement for its Fenwick Perpetual Harvest Facility and immediately recommenced cultivation operations at this location, which are proceeding as planned.
"Our license reinstatement is the result of an enormous amount of hard work by the CannTrust team," said Greg Guyatt, Chief Executive Officer at CannTrust. "Today marks the beginning of the next chapter in CannTrust's history. We have used the last 12 months to improve every aspect of our business, placing a determined focus on regulatory compliance as we remediated, restructured, and evolved. We are excited to return to work with our partners to provide our consumers and patients with high-quality cannabis products."
CannTrust will restart manufacturing operations at its Vaughan facility imminently. With all licenses now reinstated, the Company expects to have cannabis products available during the fourth quarter of 2020.
"CannTrust has undergone significant organizational and operational changes as part of our remediation activities," said Dr. Ilana Platt, the Company's Chief Regulatory Officer. "Regulatory compliance, risk management, and effective oversight are integral to everything we do."
CannTrust remains under CCAA protection to facilitate the Company's efforts to resolve its civil litigation exposures and complete its review of strategic alternatives. These efforts are ongoing, and the Company is unable to predict either their timing or their outcome. In the meantime, the Company remains without meaningful revenues and has terminated or laid-off a significant portion of its workforce. CannTrust plans to begin operations at its Vaughan facility immediately following today's announcement as an important next step towards rebuilding stakeholder trust and delivering high-quality, innovative products to its patients and customers.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian Securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other applicable United States safe harbor laws, and such statements are based upon CannTrust's current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs and views of future events.
Forward-looking information and forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes", "expect", "likely", "may", "will", "should", "intend", "anticipate", "potential", "proposed", "estimate" and other similar words, including negative and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may", "would" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy.
The forward-looking information and statements in this news release include statements relating to the planned restart of manufacturing operations and the expectation that CannTrust's cannabis product will be available in the Canadian medical and recreational markets in Q4 2020. Forward-looking information and statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation: the outcome of the Company's contingent liabilities; the impact of potential regulatory investigations; the Company's review of strategic alternatives; risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; loss of markets; future legislative and regulatory developments in Canada, the United States and elsewhere; the cannabis industry in Canada generally; the ability of CannTrust to effectively resume its cannabis growing, process and packaging operations, the ability of CannTrust to implement its business strategies, and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on CannTrust's customers and patients, the financial viability of the Company, and general economic conditions.
Any forward-looking information and statements reflect management's current beliefs, are based on information currently available to management and, except as required by law, CannTrust does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for CannTrust to predict all such factors. When considering these forward-looking information and statements, readers should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in CannTrust's Annual Information Form dated March 28, 2019 (the "AIF") and filed with the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and filed as an exhibit to CannTrust's Form 40-F annual report under the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR at www.sec.gov (the "March 2019 Form 40-F"). The risk factors and other factors noted in the AIF could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking information or statements. Readers are also reminded that CannTrust remains in default of its periodic disclosure requirements under applicable securities laws and stock exchange requirements, that its most recent AIF, Form 40-F and other disclosures do not reflect all risk factors that currently face the Company, and that the Company has not completed or filed the restatements of the financial statements included in the AIF or the March 2019 Form 40-F or otherwise filed an amendment to such Form 40-F, and that the Company has determined not to correct its prior filings or make any further filings in respect of periodic disclosure requirements under applicable securities laws and stock exchange requirements. None of the Company's securities is listed for trading on any stock exchange in any jurisdiction and, in Canada, trading in the Company's securities is subject to a cease-trade order issued on April 13, 2020 by the Ontario Securities Commission for CannTrust's failure to comply with its disclosure obligations under applicable securities laws.
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SOURCE CannTrust Holdings Inc.
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