UK medical cannabis cultivator Glass Pharms has partnered with leading clinic Releaf to bring cannabis containing meaningful levels of THCV (Tetrahydrocannabivarin), a cannabinoid linked to reduced appetite in emerging research, to patients in the UK for the first time since 1973.
Releaf has now secured Glass Pharms’ entire initial supply of 100kg, available to eligible Releaf patients until the end of 2026.
The deal builds on an existing supply arrangement first struck in June 2024, when Releaf became one of the first UK clinics to distribute Glass Pharms’ products.
Its new THCV product offers something different from its inaugural product range, which itself marked the first UK-grown cannabis to be made available to domestic patients.
THC, cannabis’s primary active compound, is known for increasing appetite through activation of CB1 receptors in the brain, which play a role in regulating hunger. THCV acts on the same receptors, but at lower doses appears to block them rather than activate them, which researchers believe underpins its potential appetite-related effects.
“We know that conventional approaches to weight management don’t work for everyone, and many people are left without the results they were hoping for,” Graham Woodward, Chief Medical Officer at Releaf, said.
“What makes THCV particularly interesting is that it opens up the clinical conversation around medical cannabis into areas like metabolic health, where research is only just beginning. We are always looking to make sure our patients have access to clinically appropriate, evidence-informed options, and this gives our clinicians another one to consider, case by case.”
As Glass Pharms CEO James Duckenfield explained in Business of Cannabis recently, the cannabinoid is a neutral CB1 antagonist at low doses and a partial agonist at higher ones. He pointed to a 90-day human study of 44 participants on a THCV and CBD combination as among the small set of clinical signals currently available.
“For decades, cannabis has been judged on how much THC it contains,” Duckenfield said in a recent announcement. “The next step is cannabinoid precision: medicines with clear, repeatable profiles, so clinicians know exactly what they’re prescribing. THCV is a good example of that. The emerging science is genuinely exciting, but promise isn’t the same as proof, which is why real-world data from UK patients will be so important.”
THCV is found in most cannabis plants, but usually only in trace amounts. The plant needs specific genetics to produce it, which the companies said makes consistent cultivation at meaningful levels technically challenging.
Glass Pharms operates a 2.4-hectare glasshouse facility in Wiltshire, while Releaf, launched in 2024, operates a prescriber network of more than 50 NHS-experienced specialists.
The compound has not been available to UK patients in half a century. Until 1973, UK doctors could prescribe ‘Tincture of Cannabis’, made from cannabis grown in Pakistan and imported under licence.
When Oxford pharmacologists analysed the tincture in the early 1970s, their work helped lead to the identification of THCV. The tincture’s licence was not renewed in 1973, and cannabis medicines, THCV among them, disappeared from UK prescriptions until medical cannabis became legal to prescribe again in 2018. Products available since then have contained only trace levels of THCV.
