Drake and Canopy Growth announced the end of their partnership this week, according to a CTV News report.
In November 2019, Drake and Canopy Growth announced the More Life Growth cannabis brand, of which Canopy owned 40 percent while Drake held the remaining 60 percent stake. Financial documents filed by Canopy Growth reveal the company took a $10.3 million loss in the deal and “de-recognized” another $33.7 million in future royalty payments to More Life. It was unclear why the divestment occurred, according to the report.
At the time the deal was announced in 2019, Drake — full name Aubrey Drake Graham — was identified as the new venture’s founder.
“The opportunity to partner with a world-class company like Canopy Growth on a global scale is really exciting. The idea of being able to build something special in an industry that is ever growing has been inspiring.” — Drake, in a 2019 press release
According to Investors.com, More Life Growth is licensed to produce and process cannabis in Ontario, Canada. Under the deal, CGC kept the facility and the rights to distribute cannabis.
Drake is just one celebrity with whom Canopy Growth has partnered — other such celebrities include Snoop Dog, Martha Stewart, and Seth Rogen, Fast Company reports. David Klein, whose mission was to make Canopy Growth an international consumer packaged goods corporation, said last year about their focus on celebrity-backed brands: “One of our differentiators has to be knowing the consumer better than anyone, and we’re going to be applying our science to do that.
“We’ve been doing it in all kinds of pharma pursuits, but we have human affect scientists [who] tell us that when you try a product, what it does physiologically, how you feel, that’s their job to optimize for that,” Klein told Fast Company. “So my view is, if we know what that consumer wants, we can use our human affects guys to help us figure out how to get that experience for the consumer, then package it underneath our brands and bring it to our consumers in a safe and effective way.”
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