Western Australia’s Little Green Pharma (ASX:LGP) has achieved what it says is another Australian first – exporting medical cannabis products destined for use by patients in the UK.
Little Green Pharma says the products are to be distributed in the UK by Astral Health and were part of a purchase agreement between LGP and Astral Health noted back in February. The agreement covers the company’s current medicinal cannabis product range (LGP Classic 10:10, LGP Classic 20:5, and LGP Classic 1:20) and has a five-year term.
LGP Managing Director Fleta Solomon said Little Green Pharma was one of few companies with GMP-produced cannabinoid medicines available in the UK. GMP stands for Good Manufacturing Process, which require a quality approach to manufacturing.
News of the UK shipment received a thumbs-up from Australia’s Federal Minister for Health, Greg Hunt.
“This first export of Australian-produced medicinal cannabis oils to the UK marks an important step in fulfilling Australia’s vision of building a global medicinal cannabis industry capable of supplying quality medicinal cannabis products to both Australian and overseas patients,” said Minister Hunt.
The UK medical cannabis market is a lucrative one – forecast to grow to US$1.3 billion by 2024. However, as we recently mentioned the legal cannabis market close to home isn’t looking shabby either – with the Oceania region expected to be worth US$1.55 billion by 2024.
In other recent news from Little Green Pharma, the company announced in late March it had completed commissioning of its cultivation facility expansion on time and on budget. The expansion will enable production of up to 110,000 bottles of medicinal cannabis oil annually, which is approximately 10 times its previous capacity – and given its progress to date it looks as though it will need it.
The expansion included nine new flowering rooms featuring automated technologies such as rolling benches, computer-timed LED lighting, climate control and irrigation control systems.
However, the expansion hasn’t reached prime time yet – it was still subject to final regulatory approval and the securing of an expanded permit. The latter came last month, along with a manufacturing licence. LGP hopes to have the expansion operational sometime this quarter.
