VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 29, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – EnWave Corporation (TSX-V:ENW | FSE:E4U) reports today that, following its April 26, 2019 joint news release with Aurora Cannabis Inc. (“Aurora”) (TSX: ACB) (NYSE: ACB), a global leader in the cannabis industry, that Aurora has exercised its option and that the companies signed an exclusive, royalty-bearing commercial license agreement with sub-licensing rights (the “Agreement”) for the use by Aurora of EnWave’s proprietary Radiant Energy Vacuum (“REV™”) dehydration technology for the drying of cannabis in South America (excluding Peru).
Aurora will hold the exclusive master license for the drying of cannabis using REV™ in the South American license territory and will work with EnWave to pursue additional sub-licensing opportunities. Aurora will receive an undisclosed share of royalties derived from any cannabis product dried with REV™ technology by sub-licensees in the South American license territory. This is the third such agreement signed by Aurora and EnWave.
Equipment Purchase Agreement Signed
Aurora has also signed an equipment purchase agreement for a large-scale 60kW commercial REV™ machine for its operations in South America. The REV™ dehydration machines purchased will be used to increase throughput of THC and CBD extraction for the manufacture of derivative cannabis products.
On April 26, 2019, EnWave and Aurora announced that the companies had entered into a royalty-bearing commercial license agreement with sub-licensing rights, providing Aurora with the exclusive rights to EnWave’s patented REV™ drying technology for the production of cannabis materials in the European Union, excluding Portugal (the “European License”). Aurora announced its intention to purchase an additional 120kW REV™ machine for its European operations. Additionally, Aurora secured a non-exclusive sub-license to use REV™ technology in Canada, signed an intellectual property agreement with the Company and made a $10 million strategic investment into EnWave.
Aurora’s exercise of its South American license option reflects Aurora’s global footprint and its intention to pursue widespread adoption of the REV™ technology throughout its global derivative manufacturing operations. Aurora continues to hold an exclusive option to license REV™ technology for cannabis in Australia.
Benefits of REV™ Technology in the Cannabis Industry
EnWave’s patented REV™ technology is a rapid, low temperature, continuous drying method that maintains the optimal terpene profile, flavour, as well as other product attributes during the drying process. The company’s vacuum-microwave technology enables uniform drying with flexible moisture content, unattainable with freeze drying or air drying.
In the cannabis industry, REV™ technology provides for capital expenditure savings on drying space (smaller footprint) and related HVAC investments, as well as the ability to free up space, which can be repurposed to increase the economic output of each facility. Furthermore, EnWave’s REV™ technology reduces drying time from 5-7 days to less than two hours, resulting in significant working capital savings and speed to market of product. The technology has certain additional benefits, including the support of industrial scale flow-though, accelerating the ability for large-scale processing of cannabis and CBD-rich biomass into intermediate or finished product.
About EnWave
EnWave Corporation, a Vancouver-based advanced technology company, has developed Radiant Energy Vacuum (“REV™”) – an innovative, proprietary method for the precise dehydration of organic materials. EnWave has further developed patent-pending methods for uniformly drying and decontaminating cannabis through the use of REV™ technology, shortening the time from harvest to marketable cannabis products.
REV™ technology’s commercial viability has been demonstrated and is growing rapidly across several market verticals in the food, and pharmaceutical sectors including legal cannabis. EnWave’s strategy is to sign royalty-bearing commercial licenses with industry leaders in multiple verticals for the use of REV™ technology. The company has signed over twenty royalty-bearing licenses to date, opening up nine distinct market sectors for commercialization of new and innovative products. In addition to these licenses, EnWave has formed a Limited Liability Corporation, NutraDried Food Company, LLC, to develop, manufacture, market and sell all-natural cheese snack products in the United States under the Moon Cheese® brand.
EnWave has introduced REV™ as the new dehydration standard in the food and biological material sectors: faster and cheaper than freeze drying, with better end product quality than air drying or spray drying. EnWave currently has three commercial REV™ platforms:
- nutraREV® which is used in the food industry to dry food products quickly and at low-cost, while maintaining high levels of nutrition, taste, texture and colour;
- powderREV® which is used for the bulk dehydration of food cultures, probiotics and fine biochemicals such as enzymes below the freezing point, and
- quantaREV® which is used for continuous, high-volume low-temperature drying.
An additional platform, freezeREV®, is being developed as a new method to stabilize and dehydrate biopharmaceuticals such as vaccines and antibodies. More information about EnWave is available at www.enwave.net.