Aurora Pastilles Grew in Australia After Demand Turned

Aurora Cannabis listed three new medical cannabis pastilles in Australia on February 20, 2025, and said patient interest was rising. Andre Jerome, executive vice president of global business development, tied the SKUs to demand in a market the company still described as expanding.

By the second half of 2025, sponsor-reported units supplied to patients had fallen for the first time in the TGA series. On February 20, 2026, one year to the day after the launch, the same regulator said the unapproved path those pastilles ride was not built for a market of this size. Pack volume in the pastille aisle still went up.

Three Pastilles Arrived in a Market Aurora Called Expanding

The Edmonton company, listed as ACB on the Nasdaq and the TSX, put the new chews through its Australian medical arm and presented them as a premium oral option rather than another flower cultivar. Jerome said the launch showed Aurora could bring high quality product into a key market as patient interest increased, and he pointed to global manufacturing plus the company’s record of working through national rules.

The notice named three 30-count packs and nothing else.

THE THREE SKUS AURORA ADDED

• Pomegranate Berry: Aurora Pastilles, 10mg THC, 30 pack.
• Pineapple balanced: Aurora Pastilles, 10:10 THC to CBD, 30 pack.
• Acai Berry CBD: Aurora Pastilles, 25mg CBD, 30 pack.

Aurora also repeated a standing claim that it is the largest global medical cannabis company operating in nationally legal markets, and it promised more pipeline products in the months after the launch. A original three Aurora pastilles still listed in MedReleaf Australia’s 2025 portfolio, alongside extra flavours such as Peach, Yuzu Lemon and Watermelon, which means the February SKUs were a door, not a one-off.

Why Pastilles Looked Like the Medical Format to Back

The company sold the format on three practical points: patients can swallow a counted dose, effects last after digestion, and a small pack is easier to carry than a flower tin or a vaporiser. That is the language of a clinic product, not a party sweet, and it matches how Australian prescribers already write oils for people who will not inhale.

Oral cannabis is slower to start than flower and longer to fade, which is the trade patients accept when they want a measured evening dose rather than a session. A pastille also looks like a lozenge a pharmacist already knows how to label, which matters in a system where almost every cannabis medicine still sits outside the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.

The TGA has been blunt with clinicians that most medicinal cannabis products are unapproved, reached only through the Special Access Scheme or the Authorised Prescriber pathway, and have not been assessed for quality, safety or efficacy. A counted oral piece is easier to explain in that setting than a 25 percent flower jar, which is why a medical exporter would rather show up with pastilles than with another high-THC cultivar alone.

The Only Format That Grew While Units Fell

The Therapeutic Goods Administration’s sponsor-supply series, released under FOI 26-3221 and compiled by Cannamonitor, shows eight straight half-year increases in units, from about half a million in the second half of 2021 to 3.72 million in the second half of 2024. The ninth period broke it. Cannamonitor’s read of that file is units supplied falling 28.6 percent in the second half of 2025, from 3.72 million to 2.65 million. The series counts sponsor units under SAS and AP, not unique patients and not till receipts.

Every major format lost pack volume except one.

UNITS SUPPLIED BY FORMAT, 2025

Flower still dominates, but its share of units slipped from 78.6 percent at the late-2024 peak to 72.0 percent. Vapes and pastilles together took about 16 percent of units, up from 9 percent a year earlier. On a piece count, pastilles went from 3.7 million individual sweets in the second half of 2024 to 9.3 million in the second half of 2025, which is the opposite of a fading novelty line.

They also got stronger. 81 percent of pastille packs now carry 10mg or more of THC per piece, and 37 percent carry 20mg or more, up from under 5 percent at that dose a year earlier. The gentle CBD entry pack Aurora put on the shelf in February 2025 is not the centre of gravity of the category that grew.

AUSTRALIA’S 2025 FLOWER PILE

• Imports: A record 81.1 tonnes of flower landed in 2025, with Canada’s share down from about 80 percent to 61 percent as volumes fell from 62.1 tonnes to 49.1 tonnes.
• Thailand: Shipments jumped from 1.1 tonnes to 20.7 tonnes and took 25 percent of the import market in a single year.
• Home grow: Domestic flower hit 55.3 tonnes, up 30 percent, so new supply totalled 136.4 tonnes against about 57 tonnes supplied to patients and 6.8 tonnes exported.
• Stock: Inventories closed at 50.8 tonnes, 29.4 domestic and 21.4 imported, close to a year of demand at the second-half run rate.

Canadian flower exporters lost share in a market that was already long. An oral finished dose is one of the few Australian SKUs a Canadian medical company can still widen without competing head-on with Thai CUMCS flower on price.

Submissions Put Candy-Like Doses in the Safety File

On July 9, 2025, AHPRA and the National Boards issued prescribing guidance and confirmed action against 57 practitioners, with 60 more under investigation, after data flagged eight prescribers who had written more than 10,000 scripts in six months and one who had written more than 17,000. In August 2025 the TGA opened a consultation on unapproved medicinal cannabis. It closed on October 7, 2025.

The regulator answered on February 20, 2026, after 790 submissions. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners told the TGA that missing ARTG processes left Australians open to unsafe products and devices, and it criticised cannabis-only clinics. The TGA’s own summary went further than flower and vapes.

There was agreement across stakeholder groups that the current access framework, used for exceptional clinical circumstances, is not fit-for-purpose and not proportionate to the potential safety and quality risks associated with unapproved medicinal cannabis products.

Therapeutic Goods Administration, consultation response, February 20, 2026

That access framework is not fit-for-purpose line is the sentence every sponsor now has to plan around. The same write-up recorded safety worries about high-THC products, about dried herb and concentrated extracts, and about confectionary-like pastilles and gummies, including accidental ingestion by children. The format Aurora had just called discreet and convenient is also the format that looks most like lolly.

Short-term TGA work has been education: tell patients these goods were never evaluated as registered medicines. Medium-term talk has included quality standards, labelling, plain packaging and a look at high-THC access. That is not a ban. It is a warning light over the exact aisle that was still adding lines, 171 pastille SKUs in a half-year when demand was falling.

Then Came the 20mg and 32mg Packs

Aurora did not pull back. On June 5, 2025 it added IndiMed TEMPO 22, a 22 percent THC flower line through MedReleaf Australia, and Jerome called IndiMed one of the most prescribed medical cannabis brands for patients in the country. That launch sat in the value flower aisle the FOI series later showed shrinking hardest at the low-potency end.

On April 28, 2026, with the TGA review already public, the company put two larger pastille packs on the Australian list and described them as discreet, precisely dosed and long-lasting. Lana Culley, vice president of innovation and international operations, said the global medical business was still growing and that new SKUs were a reply to patient and prescriber demand at local standards.

The new Australian chews were Black Raspberry and Blood Orange pastilles in 60-count packs, due on shelves between that announcement and June 2026. Black Raspberry carries 20mg THC, 20mg CBD and 30mg CBN per piece. Blood Orange carries 32mg THC, 32mg CBD, 32mg CBG and 10mg CBC. Those doses sit in the band Cannamonitor found taking over the pastille aisle, not in the 10mg starter row from February 2025.

Other Canadian medical exporters followed the same oral door. Organigram said on February 24, 2026 that it was putting Edison and BOXHOT medical vapes and pastilles into Australia. The copycat pattern is the tell: when flower is oversupplied and Thai import prices set the floor, a counted chew is the SKU you can still launch without adding another jar to a 50.8-tonne pile.

Brisbane Starts Making Oils for Aurora

On April 1, 2026, Bioxyne told the ASX that its subsidiary Breathe Life Sciences had signed a manufacturing agreement with Aurora. Initial work is GMP medicinal cannabis oils for Australia, with first deliveries already done, then GMP vapes for Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany. The term is 12 months rolling, cancellable on six months’ notice.

Sam Watson, Bioxyne’s chief executive, called the deal a test of BLS’s pharmaceutical manufacturing. Alex Miller, Aurora’s executive vice president of operations and supply chain, said the company wanted a resilient, high quality supply chain in key international markets and that BLS’s GMP work sat beside Aurora’s scale and regulatory scrutiny. Local oil and vape make is a hedge if import rules tighten, which is the lever the TGA has already put on the table.

AURORA’S AUSTRALIA CALENDAR

1. February 20, 2025: Three 30-count Aurora pastilles listed for Australian medical patients.
2. June 5, 2025: IndiMed TEMPO 22 flower, 22 percent THC, added through MedReleaf Australia.
3. July 9, 2025: AHPRA confirms action against 57 practitioners and investigations of 60 more.
4. August 2025 to October 7, 2025: TGA consultation on unapproved medicinal cannabis opens and closes.
5. February 20, 2026: TGA, after 790 submissions, calls the exceptional-use framework unfit for purpose.
6. April 1, 2026: BLS begins GMP oil manufacturing for Aurora in Australia, with vapes next.
7. April 28, 2026: 60-count Black Raspberry and Blood Orange pastilles, 20mg and 32mg THC, slated through June 2026.

Later company results have kept international medical cannabis at the centre of Aurora’s story, with Australia named among the markets in that book, even as Canadian medical volume has been softer. The pastille line is a small slice of that book. It is also the slice that still grew when Australian unit supply turned.

The TGA’s product lists for January to June 2026, updated on September 17, 2026, still read like a pastille catalogue: CBD and mixed oral pieces from a long row of sponsors, not a format in retreat. The irony is sitting in plain view. Aurora went looking for a medical chew in a market it called expanding, then kept raising the dose after the unit count fell and after Canberra put candy-like pastilles in the safety file. The packs are still on the shelf.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of company notices, TGA papers and sponsor-supply data. It is informational only and is not medical advice, a dosing guide, or a recommendation to start, stop or change any cannabis medicine. Readers who are patients or carers should speak with a qualified doctor or pharmacist who can prescribe under Australian rules before acting on any product name or milligram figure here. Product lists, unit counts and regulatory next steps reflect the notices and data sets named above and can change as sponsors file new reports or as the TGA moves from education into new rules.