By Kefiloe Kajane
Germany is set to receive medical cannabis flower from Lesotho after Medi Grow (MG) Health was confirmed to have met stringent European Union (EU) GMP standards.
This Lesotho based cultivator and manufacturer of medical cannabis flower, extracts and oils, MG Health, has received official confirmation that their stringent manufacturing processes are aligned with EU’s good manufacturing practice standard.
MG chief executive officer Andre Bothma said with fewer than 20 companies worldwide having achieved this certification of trust, this feat positions MG Health as the first manufacturer in Africa to be able to export medical Cannabis flower as an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) to the EU.
He further said that, upheld by all member states of EU, the GMP guidelines state the minimum requirements that a manufacturer must meet to ensure that their products are consistently high in quality, from batch to batch, for their intended use.
He said the recent confirmation of EU GMP compliance for MG Health was granted by the government of the Upper Bavaria district in Germany after a request for importation was made by Drapalin Pharmaceuticals -a licenced importer and distributor based in Munich and the strategic partner of MG Health in Germany.
“What it means is that we have authorisation to export our products as an API into Germany and the wider European market. Compared to other EU nations, Germany is known within the industry to have one of the most stringent pharmaceutical requirements for medical cannabis.
“They treat cannabis in the same manner as pharmaceutical products and narcotics. So it’s not as simple as being licenced and producing your own cannabis with good test result and shipping it in.
“They are one of the strictest regulators. We wanted to find the most stringent standards and make sure that we adhere to those, to generate that global confidence for patients, prescribing doctors and everyone else along the supply chain,” he said.
