Biotechnology company and cannabis clinical trial applicant Medlab Clinical has made a lacklustre debut on the Australian stock market.
Shares in the nutritional pharmaceutical company hit the boards at 20.5 cents when they started trading at 1100 AEST and climbed as high as 21.5 cents.
But despite the wider market rising nearly two per cent, Medlab shares closed flat at 20 cents, the same price as investors paid during the company's $6.17 million initial public offering.
The company is awaiting NSW government approval to commence cannabis clinical trials and has earmarked around $250,000 for cannabis pain management research.
Chief executive Sean Hall said the company had invested two-and-a-half years of research into the burgeoning field.
"We're not yet approved going through to what we hope is the final stages, so while waiting on final licences we're working on dosages, delivery and what uptake will look like," he said.
While unable to specify a time frame for final licence approval from the Baird government, Mr Hall said the company was getting close.
Mr Hall said the bulk of the company's research into depression, obesity and chronic kidney disease had advanced to final stages with Medlab hoping to have its first medicine registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in 2016.
The company has developed five bacteria-based nutraceutical products including probiotics and other food-based medical supplements.
Medlab is not the only publicly listed company with an eye on clinical cannabis trials, with Perth-based medical marijuana company Phytotech making its stock market debut earlier this year.
Canberra's Capital Mining was the first ASX-listed company to hold a direct stake in a licensed grower, manufacturer and distributor of medical marijuana after it entered into an agreement with a Canadian company.
The NSW government announced in June it would build a $12 million cannabis research centre in addition to state sponsored trials which are underway for terminally ill adults, chemotherapy patients and children with severe epilepsy.
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