Aleafia Health’s (ALEF.T) subsidiary, Emblem Germany GmbH, has submitted its application to German regulators for European Union good manufacturing practice certification (EU-GMP) for their Paris facility buildout.

The company’s newly licensed facility in Paris was built to meet with EU-GMP certification requirements, which will provide wide access to global markets. If the application is successful, it would give the Paris facility the ability to produce and export cannabis throughout the EU.

“The near completion of our international cannabis distribution center along with Emblem’s Paris Facility Phase II expansion licence are breakthrough milestones toward our goal to achieve a EU-GMP Licence and receiving Emblem-produced cannabis oil products in Germany,” said Maximillian Claudel, Acnos co-owner and managing director of Emblem Germany.

The company commenced operations three days after they received their amended Health Canada license, on May 6, 2020, at the Paris facility Phase II expansion.

“The phase II expansion, our crown jewel, permits an exponential increase in our ability to produce and sell high-margin cannabis health and wellness products in the medical, adult-use and international markets. The Paris facility’s state-of-the-art expansion, purpose built to meet EU-GMP standards, creates a unique competitive advantage with significant barriers to entry. Coupled with our ultralow-cost outdoor cultivation, it sets us apart in the cannabis industry. This means greater breadth of formats, greater scale and automation, and ultimately higher margins as we utilize cannabis grown outdoors through our integrated production ecosystem,” said Aleafia Health chief executive officer Geoffrey Benic.

The expansion allows the company to process and package all the flower it’s cultivated at its Port Perry, Ontario, outdoor cultivation site, and from its Niagara facility. The expanded production facility increases the company’s operating space for extraction, packaging and processing, from 2,500 square feet to 20,000 square feet, and includes multiple automated packaging lines and rooms dedicated to the production of new product formats, along with in-house quality control analytical testing and research and development.

Phase II includes:

• 30,000-square-foot expansion entirely dedicated to the extraction, production, packaging and distribution of finished cannabis products;
• Accelerates cannabis 2.0 product strategy while exponentially increasing company’s extraction, production and packaging capacity;
• Facility purpose built to meet European Union-good-manufacturing-practice certification requirements.

Aleafia Health indirectly owns 60% of Emblem Germany by way of a joint venture with Emblem and German pharmaceutical wholesaler and logistics company, Acnos Pharma GmbH. Aleafia Health and Acnos’ senior management are overseeing the effort, and each have previously led the development, certification and operation of multiple EU-GMP facilities in The Netherlands, Germany and North America.

Later this month, Acnos expects to complete a new pharmaceutical production and supply chain facility in Aachen Brand, Germany. It has a dedicated cannabis distribution hub owned by Acnos, but which will be operated by Emblem Germany, giving the company the opportunity to commence sales when they get the necessary German export and import permits.

“This breakthrough also accelerates our cannabis 2.0 strategy and will allow us to produce new differentiated product formats. We have been preparing for months and have ordered equipment, completed formulations and have built up a large inventory of cannabis extracts to be used as input material for new formats for immediate use in the new facility. Now it’s time for execution,” said Benic.

—Joseph Morton