Groundbreaking Pharmaceutical Magic That Changes Lives
CILO CYBIN
Groundbreaking Pharmaceutical Magic That Changes Lives
PRODUCTION: Jamie Waters
Cilo Cybin represents the first entity in South Africa to obtain both medical cannabis cultivation and GMP manufacturing licenses, in 2020 and 2021 respectively, maintaining a focus on cultivating medical-grade cannabis flowers for exportation and further processing. “We are recognised as leaders in the industry in South Africa,” says CEO Gabriel Theron, as his company continues to create history and shift perceptions all while making a genuine difference in the lives of users every day.
CILO CYBIN
INDUSTRY FOCUS: PHARMACEUTICAL
//“Cilo Cybin was established in 2018 with the vision to transform lives through accessible, effective medical cannabis products,” unpacks CEO Gabriel Theron, with the company’s commitment to scientific research, innovation and high-quality standards ensuring that these products make a genuine impact on users while establishing Cilo Cybin as a genuine industry great.
“Cilo Cybin is dedicated to bringing medical cannabis products to markets worldwide, including Australia, Japan, Thailand, and other countries recognising South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) accreditation,” Theron details, of goods known for offering rapid absorption, precise dosing and
targeted relief, to establish them as ideal for various medical applications.
“By adhering to the highest standards of GMP cannabis manufacturing, Cilo Cybin ensures that our medical cannabis products are safe, effective and reliable.”
TARGETING EXPANSION
The company’s core focus is on supplying GMP medical cannabis products, Theron details, to meet the highest standards of quality, effectiveness, care and safety. Two key arms comprise the overall company: state of the art, indoor medical-grade cannabis cultivation in accordance with Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) and extraction of the cannabis flower, trim and kief with a cold ethanol process. “The former is
// CILO CYBIN WAS ESTABLISHED WITH THE VISION TO TRANSFORM LIVES THROUGH ACCESSIBLE, EFFECTIVE MEDICAL CANNABIS PRODUCTS //
on a small scale, and very boutique, with production of around 50-60 kilos per month possible of triple A-grade dried cannabis flower,” Theron says.
“Cilo Cybin’s cultivation facility provides us with the purest and
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Bio Leaf Technologies (PTY)
LTD is honoured to be the licensed distributors of Athena Products within Southern Africa.
It has taken a long time to get to this point, but finally, the product is here, and we have already started off on a very strong footing with a good number of facilities having already fully converted onto the program. Our focus will be to provide a product which is not only fully compliant with strict international standards, but also a product which is cost effective, consistent, easy to use, and that can deliver the quality required for both local and international markets. Athena is not just a nutrient company; it is an entire eco system of support and expertise to all growers of cannabis. It is a program which has been tested vigorously and over thousands of runs to ensure peace of mind to all cultivators that if you follow the program, it will work.
The Athena® program was created out of the need for cultivators to have data-driven, easyto-use, cannabis specific products that drive success, whether for one light or a thousand. Our mission is to combat misinformation and share genuine knowledge, processes, and data based on observations in our grow rooms.
ATHENA® IS NOT A NUTRIENT LINE, IT IS A PROGRAM.
INDUSTRY FOCUS: PHARMACEUTICAL
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most consistent flower, ensuring a medical-grade product that is used both in-house to create our world-class cannabis-derived supplements and medications, as well as internationally. On the extraction side we use both the trim and buy in products to extract, and current capacity is around 100 kilos of biomass per week.
“We are busy with expansion of this ability, and by the end of this calendar year we are aiming to be capable of processing 10 times this amount - a tonne a week.” From this point follows distillation, Theron further expounds, where the crude oil extracted is purified, which is due to be subject to a similar increase from 10 to 100 litres per week. “This will place us as one of the largest on the continent,” Theron reveals.
Various product lines then result from the raw product, including bottling, vaping and an imminent edible range with an accompanying new laboratory, set to multiple this capacity tenfold, too. “Cilo Cybin is also one of the few licensed facilities that is allowed to package finished cannabis products under GMP in South Africa for the local and export markets,” Theron adds.
“We are, today, the only fully vertically integrated cannabis company in the country, meaning that we alone can both cultivate and extract to make final products under one roof. Quality is a further key differentiator for us, due to the regulatory environment associated with South Africa compared to the likes of Colombia, for example, allowing us to compete in the global market.”
The vast majority of Cilo Cybin’s wares are crafted for export, Theron explains, due to the difficulty of selling within South Africa. “Australia is currently one of our largest markets,” he says, “while Europe is central on our radar in terms of our next move.” There has been a definite maturity in the market in the last 12 months, however, Theron perceives, and an uptick in terms of these products landing up in patients’ hands. “We have certainly felt it become easier to operate in, and sell products into, this space - now price and quality become paramount, which suits us perfectly.”
HISTORIC LISTING
Having been the first South African company to win the right to grow, process and package cannabis goods, Cilo Cybin this year racked up another first, this time doing like no-one medical cannabis company ever before it and listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s Alternative Exchange. The move is part of a concerted bid to capitalise on growth in the legal marijuana industry, which is projected, Theron shares, to grow to more than $40 billion by 2032 - from $12.6 billion in 2023.
“As the markets mature, we want to
Gabriel Theron, CEO
be at the forefront of taking advantage of them,” Theron details of the rationale behind the listing, with funds raised set to help the company, “tap into the growing global investor appetite for alternative medicines,” he adds.
“The entity on the Alt-X is Cilo Cybin Holdings,” Theron further unpacks. “The intention is that it will then acquire a 100% stake of Cilo Cybin Pharmaceuticals, in the form of a share swap, resulting in an entity with no debt, funds in the bank and the ability to scale very quickly.”
Following the combination of the entities, Theron explains, the next step is to start clinical trials for product lines in the cannabis stage, including for drug-resistant epilepsy, before pursuing a Nasdaq for Cilo Cybin listing within the next two to three years.
Theron’s vision is broad, with
a keen eye on involvement in psychedelics, but with cannabis always as the starting point, and current priority. “We have some work to do before we can confidently apply our energies elsewhere,” Theron smiles.
“Even our name points to a move to psychedelics as having been in the offing right from the beginning,” he qualifies, taken as it was directly from that of the key ingredient in magic mushrooms. “We adopted it intentionally, in full knowledge that it was cheeky and risqué,” he closes. “We want to play in the pharmaceutical world, but with alternative, edgy things as well, and we can see that the world is moving that way.
“We set out to be a new-age, new-thinking pharmaceutical company,” Theron stipulates, “and this has always been the pathway that
we have seen ourselves following. We are taking a name, and a concept, and declaring loudly and proudly to people that something which was maybe taboo 10 years ago has now been turned on its head.
“This is how we see ourselves: as we apply our capabilities and expertise to ensure the highest standards of quality and compliance, we want to be the ingredient in the pharmaceutical world that makes the magic.”
