THE much-anticipated updating of the UK Public List of Validated CBD Novel Food applications has been underwhelming with the addition of just two new suppliers.
It was late April 2021 when it was last updated and earlier this week the Food Standards Agency’s list was amended to include 19 products from Brains Bioceuticals and a further 15 from Bod Australia.
March 31, 2021, had been the initial publication date for the full list and with the first anniversary of this deadline approaching the FSA is still not able to provide a fixed date for when it will be complete.
This week has also seen some movement on the European Union’s CBD Novel Food process with a handful of companies marketing natural plant CBD products making it through the Validation phase, as reported by BusinessCann earlier.
New Slovenian Hemp Factory
One of these companies is Slovenian firm PharmaHemp and this significant milestone has conceded with the start of work on a new €11m hemp facility in Komenda, north of Ljubljana, reports Total Slovenia News.
The 3,320-square metre hemp factory will be ‘the most modern and technologically-advanced infrastructure for the processing and production of raw materials and products from hemp’, it reports.
It says the investment into production, storage and office premises will ‘enable the company to later expand to the pharmaceutical business of production of active substances suitable to be built into various types of cannabis-based medications’.
The French Government has fired the starting gun on the growth of a domestic medical cannabis cultivation industry by enacting a decree permitting such activity.
The specifications and procedures for this programme were published last week and are due to come into force on March 1.
Portuguese Hemp Confusion
Last year France launched its own domestic medical cannabis trial with product being supplied – gratis – by overseas firms including Tilray and Little Green Pharma.
While the principle of the decree has been welcomed there are some concerns over its nature and its potential to create a monopoly supplier, and this may lead to a possible court challenge, reports Newsweed.
In Portugal Infarmed the Medicine Authority has released an information circular saying the use of CBD extracted from ‘cannabis for industrial purposes’ (hemp) is prohibited, reports CannaReporter.
Citing the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the President of Infarmed, Rui Santos Ivo, says ‘cosmetic products cannot therefore contain the following substances/preparations related to the cannabis plant, regardless of their tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content – ‘which includes (sic) varieties of industrial hemp’.
The report goes on to say that ‘the use of these substances in cosmetics must be analysed on a case-by-case basis and always requires a safety assessment’.
Canapar Optimistic
Colombian firm Clever Leaves Holdings, in partnership with its Ethypharm has exported its first ‘high-CBD pharmaceutical product’ to Germany to be made available for patients in pharmacies under prescription, it says in a press release.
The shipment featured two products – a 100mg CBD with 3mg THC per gram formulation and a 200mg CBD with 6mg THC per gram formulation.
“As the largest medical cannabis market in Europe and one of the most demanding from a pharma-quality perspective, Germany has become one of the most important markets to us.
“This importation illustrates the ability of the Clever Leaves Holding team to manufacture EU-GMP and German Pharmacopoeia compliant products and provide pharmaceutical clients with an asset-light path to market. In addition, this reflects our increasing know-how to comply with complex and sophisticated regulatory and quality frameworks,” said Andrés Fajardo, President of Clever Leaves Holdings.
In a press release focused on its European operations RAMM Pharma, through its 100% ownership of Italian firm Canapar, says it sees a number of ‘positive evolutions beneficial to future development’.
These include the recent French decision to permit the sale of CBD Flowers and Germany’s adult-use ambitions.
“Since our acquisition of Canapar we have made significant operational optimisations and developed our strategy to position RAMM to be a leading participant in the rapidly developing International cannabis market,” said Jack Burnett, Chief Executive Officer, RAMM Pharma Corp in a press release.
