UK based pharmaceutical company Celadon is celebrating a major milestone in its cannabis licensing.
While the UK is the largest producer of medical cannabis in the world, pretty much all legal products consumed there are imported. This means UK patients often face lengthy delays and high costs for their medications.
But things are slowly changing. Celadon Pharmaceuticals Plc announced earlier this week its current Home Office licence has been updated to allow the commercial sale of its high Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) product within the UK.
This follows Celadon’s recent registration as a Good Manufacturing Practices (“GMP”) manufacturer by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (“MHRA”).
According to the firm, the GMP registration is believed to be the first such registration of a UK pharmaceutical facility for high THC cannabis active pharmaceutical ingredient (“API”) since the legalisation of medical cannabis in 2018.
Through the licence change, Celadon says it is in a prime position to address issues currently faced by medical cannabis patients in the UK.
“It has been a great start to 2023 for Celadon and we continue to work hard to get our products to market and, most importantly, to the patients that need our medicines most,” said Celadon CEO James Short.
Celadon’s 100,000 sq ft UK facility has capabilities to address all aspects of the cultivation process; from seeds and tissue culture, to vegetation and flowering, to harvest, through to processing to active pharmaceutical ingredients. The new licensing will enable the firm to sell its high-THC API into the manufacturing market for use in the development of pharmaceutical medicines.
Among the company’s other activities, Celadon is also engaged in developing novel cannabis-based prescription medicines that can be administered in clinical trials. It’s a majority shareholder of LVL Health, which has has an approved clinical trial in the UK for chronic pain using cannabis-based medicines (CBMPs).
On a related note, ahead of the UK Budget released this week, an organisation representing the nation’s cannabis industry urged Treasury to unlock the “very significant economic potential” of cannabis. According to the Cannabis Industry Council (CIC), domestic medical cannabis, hemp and CBD could provide a £2 billion boost to the UK’s economy if supported with better policies.
