Jersey medicinal cannabis business plans stock exchange launch

Friday 12 February 2021

A Jersey medicinal cannabis company is aiming to raise £5m in private funding ahead of a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Having secured a licence to cultivate hemp in 2019, Tamba Park-based Northern Leaf became only the second company to receive a growing licence in the British Isles in December last year.

According to Reuters, it is now “close” to hiring a lead broker before its initial public offering.

London-based venture capital firm Chrystal Capital Partners has helped Northern Leaf raise £3m to date, which has helped it acquire greenhouses for its cultivation and processing facility.

The facility itself benefits from humidity, light exposure and nutrition controls to help produce pharmaceutical-grade flowers and oils. 

Chief Executive Campbell Dunlop told the FT earlier this year that Northern Leaf’s first shipment was expected to reach half-a-tonne and that it hopes to supply drugmakers in the UK, Denmark, Germany, Spain and Portugal by the end of this year.  

European demand for medicinal cannabis is seeing annual patient growth rates of 60% in Germany and Italy, and it’s forecasted that the European market could reach $3.9bn per year by 2025. 

Jersey’s Government, which is facilitating the industry’s growth locally, is hoping the island’s proximity to Europe - where 20 countries have approved the use of medicinal cannabis - will mean it is ideally placed to take advantage of this growth.

Pictured: The European medicinal cannabis market could reach $3.9bn per year by 2025.

A cross-Governmental team has been set up to develop regulations, while Economic Development Minister Senator Lyndon Farnham has established a group of international and Jersey-based industry representatives called the ‘Jersey Cannabis Services Advisory Group’.

Locally, demand is also soaring for such products, which have been used to treat a range of ailments, spanning the side-effects of chemotherapy for cancer patients to pain relief among those with fibromyalgia and even mental health concerns such as anxiety.

In August 2020, Express revealed how hundreds of islanders were flocking to the UK to secure prescriptions.

In Autumn, a number of medicinal cannabis clinics were set up locally, and have since reported an “incredible response.”

Pictured top: The Northern Leaf website.