Fintech
Cantourage kick-starts business in growing UK medical cannabis market with award of pharmaceutical licences and CQC registration to prescribe to patients
European medical cannabis company Cantourage has received two British government licences that authorise the company to import medical cannabis into the UK. The company has also received the required regulatory registration to prescribe medical cannabis products to clients via a new facility, Cantourage Clinic.
The company’s subsidiary Cantourage UK, formed in January 2021, has now been awarded a WDA(H) (Wholesaler Dealer’s Authorisation) licence from Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The licence allows Cantourage UK to import and distribute medicinal products for human use. Cantourage UK was awarded the licence on 10th December 2021 following inspection by the MHRA, an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Cantourage UK is now also in receipt of the necessary narcotics licence from the Home Office to handle cannabis-based products for medicinal use, under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001.
Tele-healthcare clinic launches today
In addition, Cantourage UK received regulatory registration for “Cantourage Clinic“, a private tele-healthcare clinic specialised in medical cannabis. The registration by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a non-departmental public body of DHSC and independent regulator of all healthcare services in England, will allow Cantourage UK to provide patients and prescribers with an alternative to the existing UK medical cannabis clinics.
The clinic’s first product arrived in the UK this week. Manufactured and processed in Germany, the high-THC medical cannabis product is now available for prescription to patients via Cantourage Clinic.
Increasing the availability and range of medical cannabis products in the UK
These three licences position Cantourage in the UK medicinal cannabis market, which is forecast to reach approximately US $1.3 billion with almost 400,000 patients by 2024[1].
They enable London-based Cantourage UK to import all of its EU Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-certified products[2] from the Cantourage facility in Germany into the UK and prescribe to patients. This includes the full range of dried flower and extract products, significantly increasing the availability and range of medical cannabis products available to patients throughout the UK and Channel Islands.
Cantourage’s extensive global network of partner producers via the fast-track access platform, will enable the company to address UK supply issues, importing and distributing medical cannabis products into the UK from as far afield as Uganda, Jamaica and Canada. Cantourage’s products are all treated with a unique microbiological reduction process that reduces the products’ contaminants without the use of irradiation. This ensures that the profile of the terpenes, the aromatic compound that creates the characteristic scent of many plants, stays intact.
Gabriel Newman, CEO of Cantourage UK, said: “We have been working closely with Cantourage for two years, collating what we feel to be the best producers of medical cannabis from around the world. Last year, we formed a formal joint venture with Cantourage and helped to launch the ‘Fast Track Access’ platform, built to give patients and prescribers in Europe a wider array of medicines to help treat eligible illnesses.”
“The UK experienced promising growth in terms of patient numbers and prescriptions over the course of 2021 and we believe we will be a catalyst for further growth. We aim to instil patients with confidence in supply consistency of high quality CBPMs, launching Cantourage manufactured, non-irradiated cannabis supply chains into the market. Our strategy in the UK has been built to improve patient access and care; we are committed to paving the way for more patients to reliably access medical cannabis safely and securely. As of today, patients will be able to directly access our unique portfolio of products via our patient-centric CQC-registered clinic.”
Philip Schetter, CEO of Cantourage GmbH, said: “We are delighted to have formed Cantourage UK and received the necessary pharmaceutical licences to import medical cannabis products into the UK and supply patients there with high-quality products from all over the world. Given the high levels of demand we are witnessing in the UK, we are confident that this year will see significant growth and we are looking forward to a number of exciting milestones. We are grateful to our team in London for the excellent contribution they have made so far in what is one of Europe’s most promising cannabis markets.”
Cantourage UK believes consistency of supply of quality cannabis flowers to be a key challenge in Britain, which the company intends to focus on tackling in 2022, following the grant of the two pharmaceutical licences and clinic registration.
Cantourage UK was formed on 20th January 2021, as a joint venture between Berlin-based European medical cannabis leader Cantourage GmbH and NICE Partners, a London-based cannabis company that specialises in developing strategic alliances, supply relationships, business development and compliance in the European cannabis market.