Bedrocan, Europe's largest and longest-standing supplier of pharmaceutical and medical cannabis, has announced plans to commercialize a new high-CBD cannabis strain, Bedrolina.
With this launch, the company will significantly expand its operations in Denmark, launching a brand new indoor production facility in the country and starting outdoor cultivation for the first time in its history.
The European expansion comes as the company also aims to expand across the Atlantic, announcing it will return to Canada for the first time since 2016, when it sold the business to Canopy Growth.
Varun Arora, Bedrocan's commercial director, told Business of Cannabis: “Fundamentally, we see ourselves as a contract manufacturing organization (CMO), having worked with the Dutch government for over 20 years and now aiming to offer similar services to the pharmaceutical industry.
“We have always specialized in standardized cannabis cultivation.While there are many growers in Europe and other regions, we have been profitable for over 20 years and have set ourselves apart. I am.”
Bedrolina
Last month, Bedrocan announced plans to “commercialize” Bedrolina, a type of cannabis that contains about 14% CBD and less than 1% THC.
This is reportedly in response to the growing demand for high-CBD strains of cannabis, with the majority currently on the market being grown in open fields, resulting in lower CBD content and potential for medicinal purposes. It is not suitable for
Bedrocan has therefore built a dedicated production facility in Denmark, which is expected to be operational by the first quarter of next year.
Arora said locating the facility in Denmark will allow the company to operate without interference from the Dutch government in its home country.
The Opium Act (Opiumwet) is the main law in the Netherlands regulating the control and classification of narcotics.
The Netherlands has introduced an exemption to its Opium Act since 2003 to allow the production, prescription and sale of medical cannabis, but medical cannabis is still considered a “List II” substance and is highly regulated.
Bedrocan has been operating as a government-licensed cannabis producer domestically for some time, supplying pharmaceutical-grade products to patients through pharmacies, but is now looking to expand further overseas.
“Based on the framework agreement, the government allows us to produce only five varieties without modification of the product format. Basically, we can only grow one customer: the Dutch government's Medical Cannabis Agency. However, we are allowed to undertake research and development activities such as exploring other strains and product forms, which is what we are doing with Bedrocan and other companies in the ecosystem,” Arora said. I explained.
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He continued that Bedrocan decided to look for a third high-CBD strain (the others being Bediol, which has a ratio of 6.3% THC and 8% CBD; (Bedrolite). There are two reasons for this.
First, finding strains with high CBD content is “very difficult” because increasing CBD levels often also increases THC levels.
“Most hemp plants remain below the 0.3% THC threshold and we do not test for CBD above 4-5%. After extensive research, we have found that genetic diversity is particularly attractive to extractors. succeeded in stabilizing it.”
For less potent strains like Bedrolite, “large amounts of material” are required to produce the extract.
“The research and development of this new strain took several years and we stabilized it about two and a half years ago. Unfortunately, due to Dutch regulations we were not able to do much. The goal was to create a variety with a higher cannabinoid content to make the extraction more efficient compared to the current process where it is compounded in pharmacies.”
Denmark
Bedrocan's products have been available in Denmark since 2018, when it was registered by CanGross Aps in the country's first medical cannabis pilot scheme, which is scheduled to run until 2025.
This pilot program allows all doctors in Denmark to prescribe without the need for specialized knowledge, special training, or special qualifications. Bedrocan, through OMC, currently offers three separate SKUs within this scheme. These are classified as “herbal teas” and are sold in 5-gram packages.
However, as it expands its foothold in the market, Bedrocan hopes to benefit from the greater freedom granted by Denmark's regulatory system, giving it “more control over[its]operations.”
Bedrocan has been able to reliably export 3.4 to 3.8 tonnes of product annually from the Netherlands (including 1.7 to 2.1 tonnes in Germany), but supply chain bottlenecks and patchy regulations on imports mean that medical This means that the cannabis market is significantly stagnant.
“We had been expecting a change in policy in the Netherlands, especially since the government hired a consulting firm to make recommendations in 2020, but this is the same as what many in the industry have been saying for years. It was.
“However, we decided that we needed more control over our business and Denmark was the ideal choice. It offers more regulatory freedom than the Netherlands, while still maintaining a strict regulatory regime for controlled substances. The Danish regulatory regime was attractive to us, as were the operational considerations.”
After beginning its search for a production location in 2022 and choosing to build its own location to accommodate its rigorous cultivation methods, the facility is now “close to operation” and its first products will be this It is scheduled to be shipped from the facility “around the end of 2020.” First quarter of 2025.
“Thanks to Denmark, we have more flexibility with different varieties and are open to potential partners who want us to produce varieties. Some of the things we couldn't do in the Netherlands For example, under this more flexible system we will be able to produce especially varieties like Bedrolina.”
Bedrocan also plans to launch its first outdoor cultivation operation with outdoor biomass, primarily targeting the cosmetics industry.
This is also due to the inclusion of naturally occurring cannabidiol in the Cosing (Common Cosmetic Ingredients) database, which lists all substances approved in cosmetics, aimed at meeting the growing demand for CBD. I'm here.
Because CBD used in cosmetics is “a highly processed product, sometimes over 99% pure,” Arora suggests there is “value in growing it outdoors for less.” .
But he wants to make clear that this is a “completely different project” than the indoor business, which focuses solely on the medical market.
