Leading Benefit Providers Increasingly Offer Medical Cannabis Coverage
EDMONTON, July 23, 2018 /CNW/ – Aurora Cannabis Inc. (“Aurora” or the “Company”) (TSX: ACB) (OTCQB: ACBFF) (Frankfurt: 21P; WKN: A1C4WM) is proud to announce that effective August 1, 2018, the company will offer a new employee benefits plan that will include coverage for medical cannabis authorized by a physician or nurse practitioner.
The new benefits plan, administered by Sun Life Financial, will allow employees and their dependants to receive coverage for medical cannabis under the Extended Health Care plan.
The speed with which Canada’s largest insurers are moving to cover the costs of medical cannabis reflects the increasing recognition of cannabis-based therapies, and marks a significant milestone for patients across the country.
Debra Wilson, Senior VP of Human Resources
Including medical cannabis in the Company’s benefits plan reflects our position as one of the leading advocates for the availability of medical cannabis, as well as employee health and wellness being major pillars in Aurora’s mission to be the employer of choice in the sector.
Jonathan Zaid, Director of Advocacy and Corporate Social Responsibility, added, “Offering insurance coverage for medical cannabis, and making the reimbursement process easy, is the right thing to do, and Aurora is proud to be a leader in this area. At the same time, we recognize there is still more work to be done to ensure patients across Canada receive coverage for medical cannabis, and we intend to continue supporting advocacy initiatives in this area.”
About Aurora
Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, with funded capacity in excess of 430,000 kg per year and sales and operations in 14 countries across five continents, Aurora is one of the world’s largest and leading cannabis companies. Aurora is vertically integrated and horizontally diversified across every key segment of the value chain, from facility engineering and design to cannabis breeding and genetics research, cannabis and hemp production, derivatives, high value-add product development, home cultivation, wholesale and retail distribution.
Highly differentiated from its peers, Aurora has established a uniquely advanced, consistent and efficient production strategy, based on purpose-built facilities that integrate leading-edge technologies across all processes, defined by extensive automation and customization, resulting in the massive scale production of high quality product at ultra-low costs. Intended to be replicable and scalable globally, these production facilities are designed to produce cannabis of significant scale, with high quality, industry-leading yields, and ultra-low per gram production costs. Each of Aurora’s facilities is built to meet European Union (EU) GMP standards, and both its first production facility and its wholly owned European medical cannabis distributor Pedanios have achieved this level of certification.
In addition to the Company’s rapid organic growth and strong execution on strategic M&A, which to date includes nine companies acquired – CanvasRX, Peloton Pharmaceutical, Pedanios, H2 Biopharma, Urban Cultivator, BC Northern Lights, Larssen, CanniMed Therapeutics, and Anandia Labs – Aurora is distinguished by its reputation as a partner of choice and employer of choice in the global cannabis sector, having invested in and established strategic partnerships with a range of leading innovators, including: The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (TSX: TGOD), Radient Technologies Inc. (TSXV: RTI), Hempco Food and Fiber Inc. (TSXV: HEMP), Cann Group Ltd. (ASX: CAN), Micron Waste Technologies Inc. (CSE: MWM), Choom Holdings Inc. (CSE: CHOO), Namaste Technologies Inc. (TSXV: N), Evio Beauty Group (private), Wagner Dimas (private), CTT Pharmaceuticals (OTCC: CTTH), and Alcanna Inc. (TSX: CLIQ).
Aurora’s Common Shares trade on the TSX under the symbol “ACB”, and are a constituent of the S&P/TSX Composite Index.
For more information about Aurora, please visit our investor website investor.auroramj.com.
