British Sugar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Associated British Foods (ABF) since 1991, announced it is converting 18 hectares of greenhouse space that currently produces tomatoes in eastern England to the production of cannabis beginning in 2017.
Prompting the decision to enter into the cannabis production space, British Sugar secured a long-term contract with U.S.-based GW Pharmaceuticals to supply the company with a certain variety of non-psychoactive cannabis to be used as the key ingredient in Epidiolex, a new prescription medicine developed to treat Lennox-Gastaut syndrome – a rare but serious form of pediatric epilepsy. The glasshouse space will be sufficient to produce enough of a crop to supply 40,000 children with the new drug.
“Our glasshouse is very well-suited for growing that particular variety of the cannabis plant family and it’s fair to say that the return will be better than on tomatoes. We’re confident of decent yields,” said Paul Kenward, managing partner of British Sugar.
British Sugar has invested in special lights and shading equipment in preparation of its first planting scheduled to take place in January, to be followed by its first harvest in April. The electricity, heat, steam and fertilizer needed for production will be supplied as by-products from the company’s sugar production at its nearby factory. Meanwhile, GW Pharmaceuticals has been building its U.S. sales team and will be filing a marketing application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first half of next year to gain clearance to sell Epidiolex on the U.S. market.
“Every year we try to work out the best commercial assets for the glasshouse,” said Paul Kenward, managing director of British Sugar. “We had always been interested in looking at pharmaceutical crops but never quite found the right partner. We recently did in GW.”
GW Pharmaceuticals has released the results of its third phase of trials showing that Epidolex significantly reduced seizures in children affected by Lennox-Gastaut syndrome – promising results that could accelerate the company’s regulatory approval. Once clearance is received, the company states that its medication could be for sale as early as the end of 2017.
“By growing this crop we are indirectly helping sick children and doing something socially worthwhile,” said Kenward.
He added, “This new era for our horticultural business uses all we have learned to date to further build this value stream for British Sugar and to benefit the pharmaceutical industry. “Furthermore, we are extremely proud that our new crop will make a worthwhile contribution to the control of such a debilitating childhood disease.”
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Lynda Kiernan