Owners of the giant marijuana greenhouse on zero avenue near 264 Street in Aldergrove are making a big bet on medical marijuana for the European market, closing a deal that will see the company research new products and import cannabis-based medicines into the United Kingdom.
A (Oct. 15) press release by Canopy Growth Corporation said the company has acquired all outstanding shares in Beckley Canopy Therapeutics, including a joint commercial venture Spectrum Biomedical UK.
Both will be folded into Canopy’s Spectrum Therapeutics organization “to increase the breadth of the clinical research being pursued under the Spectrum banner and to combine continental European and United Kingdom commercial teams,” the announcement said.
Spectrum sells a range of cannabis-related products and has spent “millions of dollars toward cutting edge, commercializable research,” the release stated.
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An expanded Spectrum will be run by two executives with plenty of previous experience in pharmaceutical research, Paul Steckler and Steven Wooding, who will be co-managing directors in charge of all European operations.
Steckler was described as a “seasoned pharmaceutical executive” with over 20 years’ experience in commercial roles, while Wooding has 27 years with Janssen, the pharmaceutical arm of the Johnson & Johnson company.
Canopy Growth CEO Mark Zekulin, said the acquisition comes at a time when commercial opportunities across Europe are “ramping up.”
Spectrum Biomedical has “completed all necessary approvals to import cannabis into the UK market and is proud to facilitate patient access to safe cannabinoid-based medicines there,” Zekulin went on to say.
Canopy Growth has operations in over a dozen countries across five continents.
It operates 11 licensed cannabis production sites with over 4.7 million square feet of production capacity, including over one million square feet of GMP certified production space.
In Aldergrove, the Canopy greenhouse has generated complaints from some residents about the grow lights, odours and noise emanating from the 30-acre operation.