A new medical cannabis venture on the East Coast will create around 120 new jobs.

Hikurangi Cannabis has become the first company in New Zealand to secure a licence to grow medical cannabis.

Chief executive Manu Caddie hopes New Zealand-made cannabis products will rival medicines such as Sativex.

"We've got great medical researchers in New Zealand, we can prove the effectiveness and safety of products and we can certainly provide it much cheaper than Sativex."