A sweet smell wafts through the air as two men move through the small room, densely packed with cannabis plants growing high above their shoulders in a bay of intoxicating flora. This is not yet another illegal weed factory, but one of the first licensed medical marijuana laboratories in the UK.
With a quantum sensor, microscope and leaf barometer to check the 180 plants that grow up to 1.5 meters tall from waist-high hydroponic planters, the two men are agronomists – experts in crop science – at the plant , owned by the West Midlands by Celadon Pharmaceuticals.
They want to provide optimal levels of light, oxygen, water and nutrients and collect flowers after about nine weeks, from which cannabinoids are extracted and placed in vials.
Cannabis grown for medical purposes is under strictly controlled conditions that ensure consistency and high quality in batches in a secret location by a start-up company set up in 2018, the year Sajid Javid, then UK Home Secretary, authorized the use. mu.
Celadon uses an indoor laboratory, not greenhouses
Celadon is one of the few companies that grows medical cannabis in the United Kingdom, but, unlike others, uses an indoor laboratory instead of greenhouses. That means it can produce five to six crops each year and a much higher yield, they say, although the indoor lab is more expensive to operate.
The company is following in the footsteps of GW Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer who developed the first cannabis-based drug to be licensed in the UK in 2010, Sativex for multiple sclerosis, which costs around £ 2,000 a year. However, the prescribing of NHS mouth spray remains very limited and varies across the country.
Javid’s decision to legalize medical cannabis in 2018 came after a lengthy campaign by parents of children diagnosed with severe epilepsy who said cannabis oil had helped their condition. However, medical cannabis can only be prescribed by medical professionals, patients often pay for it themselves and cannot be imported until a prescription is issued based on the patient’s name.
James Short, the 54-year-old founder and CEO of Celadon, was skeptical at first. “In early 2018, my son approached me and asked me if I wanted to invest in the medical cannabis sector? I said it wasn’t for me, “he said. “When the government legalized it, he came back to me and I said, ‘Let’s look at it.’ I’ve talked to many patients who have used medical cannabis, especially for chronic pain, and it was these patients who convinced me that it’s not snake oil – it really works and has changed their lives. “
Celadon Pharmaceuticals founder James Short was not initially interested in investing in the medical cannabis sector. Photo: Fabio De Paola / Guardian
Robin Davison, a biotechnology analyst at Equity Development, said: “Many people find that they get relief from long-term pain, such as back pain. [from medical cannabis]and want to avoid opioid use. ”Other promising areas include anxiety, especially in Alzheimer’s patients, which rival pharmaceutical firm MGC is studying.
Celadon is believed to be one of the first pharmaceutical companies in the UK to receive a home office license to grow medical cannabis high in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and will initially focus on treating chronic pain. He is working with partners to study the potential of cannabinoids in other areas, including autism and diabetes.
The cannabis plant has hundreds of different natural compounds or cannabinoids. The two best known are THC, which at the wrong levels can cause “high” but pain relief, and CBD, which is anti-inflammatory and moderately psychoactive in nature.
The company is growing some cannabis test batches to get approval from the UK’s health regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency, and is working to increase production. At full capacity, it can grow by 10 to 15 tonnes a year and deliver up to 50,000 patients, generating £ 90 million in annual revenue. Short has ambitions to open more sites.
Construction work at the Celadon Pharmaceuticals site. Photo: Fabio De Paola / Guardian
Until now, large pharmaceutical companies have stayed away from a fast-growing market that can be profitable for smaller players. The industrial group Prohibition Partners estimates that unlicensed medical cannabis worth about 354 million euros will be sold in Europe this year and predicts that it will rise to 2.3 billion euros (2 billion British pounds) by 2026. Other analysts believe that these forecasts are too high, but say growth will still be impressive.
Celadon has taken a majority stake in London’s private pain clinic LVL Health, which tests medical cannabis in 100 patients with non-cancerous chronic pain in a feasibility study before a larger study of up to 5,000 people, the only such study in the UK to have conditional regulatory approval. They receive an inhaler that uses ground cannabis color in a cartridge, which is a smart device that is connected to a dose control application.
Short, from Preston, is a former real estate developer who later switched to generating energy from waste and then began investing in data companies. He had bought a one-story data center worth £ 30 million, which now serves as the site of Celadon’s 100,000-square-foot, high-security cannabis medical laboratory.
An agronomist from Celadon is testing the power of artificial light with a quantum sensor in a growing room where cannabis plants are grown. Photo: Fabio De Paola / Guardian
The Ministry of Health estimates that 8 million people in the UK suffer from a form of chronic pain, of which 3 million may be eligible for cannabinoid medicines when other treatments have failed. Approximately 1.4 million people buy cannabis products on the black market for self-medication.
While the use of cannabis for medical purposes dates back thousands of years, the United Kingdom lags behind other countries such as Canada and Germany and has called on the government to allow GPs to prescribe medical cannabis.
Short’s biggest disappointment is the lack of cost recovery, and he says it’s short-sighted. “I talk regularly to patients who can’t work and are in terrible pain every day, who don’t want to take opioids. Some have to pay hundreds of pounds each month for medical cannabis. It really works. ”
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