The UK’s first fully-licensed EU-GMP medical cannabis cultivation facility has opened its doors to doctors, as its first products were made available on prescription for patients earlier this month.
After five years and over £10 million in investment, Dalgety has become the first facility in the UK with a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) licence to cultivate, manufacture and supply medical cannabis from a single location.
Over the last few weeks, prescribing doctors have been touring the 30,000ft indoor facility, located on a ‘top secret’ site in the Midlands, as its first products were shipped to patients at the beginning of February.
Currently only half of the site is in operation, with the aim of producing enough plants to fulfil up to 4,000 prescriptions a month. By 2026, when the company expands to full capacity, the site is projected to produce 2,600 kg of cannabis per year.
Dalgety has undergone four audits by the Home Office and MHRA before being granted its Schedule I Controlled Drug license and later an EU-GMP Cannabis API manufacturing license. According to Leavesley in total it has undergone 700 analytical tests, with two years of fine tuning, and nine batches grown during validation work.
Until now almost all of the products prescribed in the UK have been imported, but there is growing demand for a domestic supply.
Dalgety CEO, James Leavesley, believes the company can help address some of the main challenges facing patients including stock issues, concerns over consistency and quality, and delays in receiving their prescription.
“Being located in the UK has its huge advantages,” he says. “Once it’s finished processing here it is sent off to the lab for tests and can be in the patients’ hands within two weeks.”
He continues: “The level of control that you see here, the quality of the product at the end of it, and the quick delivery, are what makes us different from what’s currently on the market.”
Dalgety CEO, James Leavesley. Picture by Shaun Fellows / Shine Pix Ltd
Highly controlled conditions and cutting-edge technology
The facility is specifically designed to grow cannabis under highly controlled conditions, using energy efficient lighting and cutting-edge hydroponic systems.
Everything is tightly monitored, from the climate in the cultivation rooms—to the nearest 0.5 ̊C and 1% humidity— to the selective use of air pressure in critical areas to optimise plant health.
Those entering the cultivation rooms are required to wear full protective clothing with sunglasses provided to protect against the LED lighting.
Head grower, Brady Green, relocated from Canada where he was at the forefront of the country’s medical market, leading a team of 450 growers at a 13 acre facility.
He makes his own fertiliser and uses supplementary CO2 feeding to aid growth, with yields estimated to be 82% higher than that of the top 1% of cultivators worldwide.
Once the products have been dried, cured and trimmed (by hand) they are treated with E-Beam irradiation at the ‘lowest dose possible’ to ensure they meet the safety thresholds for microbial count, as required by UK regulators.
“Instead of using a radioactive source, we use electricity to generate a single electron that will hit the cell wall of the bacteria and damage it so it can’t reproduce,” Green explains.
“We can be very uniform and use a very small dose so we’re not damaging its DNA or infrastructure.”
Head Grower, Brady Green, relocated from Canada. Picture by Shaun Fellows / Shine Pix Ltd
Meeting market demand
Dalgety has been working closely with clinics and doctors to understand current prescribing trends and market demands.
“We had to pick a variety that was going to be commercially viable, that would yield well, that would be good for flower and extract, and we knew that potency was going to be important for people,” says Green.
The first strain to launch contains between 25-30% THC, with five new strains selected for further testing and market launch in 2025.
Leavesley adds: “We understand the importance of offering a variety of medical cannabis options to UK doctors and patients. While having too many choices can be overwhelming, our goal is to provide a focused selection of high-quality strains with the necessary certificates of analysis to simplify the prescribing process.”
Its first product is priced at £8 per gram and will be distributed through pharmaceutical company Grow Pharma and its licensed JV partner IPS Pharma.
Being based in the UK does have its drawbacks, Leavesley admits, including higher energy and staffing costs. But he has no interest in what he describes as a “race to the bottom”.
“We can’t compete on price with £5 a gram, but I don’t think we should either, because that would impact the quality,” he says. “We just have to justify having a higher market price.”
Five new strains selected for further testing and market launch in 2025. Picture by Shaun Fellows / Shine Pix Ltd
Empowering doctors with education
While MHRA rules prohibit Dalgety from promoting its products directly to patients, the facility has welcomed a number of prescribers and private clinics through the doors to educate them on the cultivation process and the quality control measures in place.
Many said they felt reassured by this and felt more comfortable prescribing as a result.
“The general consensus from doctors is that they have been amazed at the level of control that is possible,” Leavesley says.
“That education and awareness empowers doctors to make more informed decisions.”
Following a tour of the facility, pain management expert and medical cannabis prescriber, Dr Simon Tordoff, admitted his previous “ignorance”.
“It’s ironic that in 40 years of practice as a doctor, I’ve never been to a facility that manufactures the medications that we prescribe,” he said.
“All of a sudden, with the advent of cannabis medicine, I’ve been educated about the regulations, production and delivery of the medicines that I am prescribing. It’s really valuable and interesting information that I can pass on first hand to my patients.”
The facility is specifically designed to grow cannabis under highly controlled conditions. Photo: Sarah Sinclair
A “turning point” for the industry
It has been a long (and costly) journey to get to this point, but Leavesley is optimistic that the market will continue to grow — and Dalgety is ready to meet the demand when it does.
“Hopefully this is a turning point,” he says. “We’ve got the foundation to grow Dalgety in terms of our EU-GMP license. We need to be able to react quickly and respond to changes in market demand.”
Mike Morgan-Giles, CEO of the UK Cannabis Industry Council, congratulated Dalgety on reaching what he described as a “milestone” for the UK sector.
“The development of a comprehensive UK medical cannabis supply chain remains paramount for expanding patient access,” he said. “As well as delivering jobs and economic growth.”
Meanwhile, Pierre van Weperen, CEO of Grow Pharma, said he was confident that Dalgety recognised the importance of “meeting patient needs in terms of supply chain stability, quality and strain choices”.
He added: “Grow is proud to be able to bring these UK-grown medicines to the medical market.”
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Author: Sarah Sinclair
