Bouncing out of a loss-making year and a share value slump, medicinal cannabis company Rua Bioscience has started the new financial year with two new international deals and a vision to expand Tairawhiti residents’ access to subsidised medical cannabis products. Andrew Ashton asks chief executive Paul Naske how confident he is in the company’s new strategic direction.

At the end of August Tairawhiti-based medical cannabis company Rua Bioscience posted a loss before tax for the year to June 30, 2023 of $5.96m (compared with $7.49m for the financial year ending June 2022) but since then, Rua has entered into a supply agreement with Schroll Medical of Denmark to cultivate, manufacture and supply medicinal cannabis products, and earlier this month announced its official entry into the dynamic Australian medicinal cannabis market.

The latest deal will see Rua team up with Anspec, a leading pharmaceutical