Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/992522
7 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 JUNE 2018 Traffic diversion for closing Church Street, Paceville on Thursday 14 th June and Friday 15 th June 2018 Works in Church Street Paceville are to be carried out between 6:00am and 23:00pm. Traffic will be allowed to pass in the remaining hours. Police Officers and Wardens will assist the traffic Drivers are kindly asked to follow the temporary traffic signs. Shuttle service is being provided to cover all bus stops for routes 14 and 120. Drivers are encouraged to avoid the area in these days For further information you are kindly requested to call on 22981221 We apologise for any inconvenient caused. next five years. This may in- crease uncertainty if Muscat does stay on as leader. On the other hand, the advent of a new Labour leader may well disconnect Labour from Panamagate. This would have a disarming effect on the Op- position. Another variable would be the scale of Labour's victory in next year's MEP elections and whether Adrian De- lia will stay on as PN leader subsequently. Delia himself does not know who he will be facing in the next general election. Ironically one of the advantages of this uncertainty in the Labour camp is that of leaving the PN guessing on what kind of leader it will be facing in 2022. The MEP election will give both parties a hint of how Delia will fare against Mus- cat. But it remains a mystery whether the two leaders will face each other in 2022. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt MATTHEW VELLA MALTA'S legislative frame- work for medical cannabis is not yet in place, however global interest by market leaders seek- ing a foothold is already big. Earlier last month, Canadian medical cannabis producer Maricann announced it was planning to acquire a Maltese start-up for $10 million. But the Maltese company was only formed in March 2018 and is still not in posses- sion of a letter of intent (LOI) from Malta Enterprise. A gov- ernment source asked about the company announcement told MaltaToday that the state investment arm would only deal directly with companies directly involved in cannabis production. Maricann's stock exchange announcement said it had inked a non-binding agree- ment for Medican Holdings, which is primarily owned by Norwegian interests. The transaction is for $7.6m in shares and $2.35m in cash. Maricann, which has facili- ties in Germany and Canada, said it plans to use Malta for its finished dose products. The transaction is subject to Medi- can obtaining regulatory ap- proval. "If completed, the acquisi- tion of Medican is expected to advance the company's efforts in the import of raw materials and whole plant extracts from Canada to Malta for… manu- facture into finished dose products using its proprietary VesiSorb drug delivery tech- nology," Maricann said in its announcement. Medican is owned by Cosign Swift Holdings and Result- ing Channel Holdings, both registered in Malta. Cosign is in turn owned by Norwegian firms Lommeboken AS and Okamo AS, while Resulting Channel is owned by the expe- rienced finance entrepreneur Lars Christian Beitnes, who has founded several financial services companies and chairs various listed companies. Malta Enterprise is currently issuing LOIs to medical canna- bis companies, subject to over 20 conditions, but the LOIs are only valid once the law regu- lating medical cannabis manu- facturing is enacted. The LOI can only be converted into an executable contract, through the signing of the lease agree- ment with Malta Industrial Parks, once the law is enacted. Maricann CEO Ben Ward said in the company state- ment that his company was transitioning its pharmaceu- tical business to Europe, and saw Malta as having "key tal- ent who are trained in finished dose manufacturing, and an existing base of pharmaceu- tical production that we will expect to engage as we move forward." Canadian cannabis producer planning Malta foothold