Glass Pharms
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Farming |
| Founded | November 27, 2020 in Richmond, London |
Key people |
|
| Products | Medical cannabis |
| Website | glasspharms |
Glass Pharms is a British company that grows cannabis for medical use. Incorporated in 2020,[1] it is the first Home Office-licensed supplier of MHRA grade cannabis flower in the UK, and a member of the UK's Cannabis Industry Council.[2][3] The company was established to improve - in terms of localisation, quality, and dependability - the supply chain for medical cannabis in the UK, which had previously relied on imports.[4][5]
The company engaged KUBO Group, a Dutch manufacturer of greenhouses, to build its 2.4 hectares (5.9 acres) greenhouse in Wiltshire in 2022, at a cost of c. £26.5m.[2][6] Physical security at the greenhouse site is tight because of Home Office requirements, and biosecurity.[5] A co-located anaerobic digestion system supplies power and heat to the greenhouse, and the company hopes that, in the future, the carbon dioxide produced by the anaerobic digester may be used as input to the cannabis cultivation process.[4]
The growing operation is divided into five zones. In the early spring zone, cuttings are taken from a mother plant and propagated. Using cloned plants like this guarantees genetically identical plants and helps keep the growing and production environment free of diseases. The plants then move through the late spring, summer, and autumn pre-harvest zones as they grow, and are finally picked and dried in the harvest zone. It takes twelve weeks to complete the speeded-up growing cycle, and the production process is continuous: on a weekly basis, new clones are created at the start of the production cycle and cannabis flowers harvested at the end. The cannabis plants are fed a low nitrate plant food in order to minimise green bushy growth, and maximise bud production. Considerable use is made of automation and artificial intelligence to monitor and control the growing cycle. This helps to minimise human interaction in the process and thereby reduce the risk of accidental contamination, and also to standardise the product.[2][5]
Glass Pharms' first products, released in partnership with Releaf, were shipped to patients in June 2024. [2]
References
- ^ "GLASS PHARMS LTD filing history". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Companies House. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
- ^ a b c d Menzies, Venetia (8 June 2024). "Legal cannabis by post: inside the farm behind a British first". The Times. Archived from the original on 9 June 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
- ^ "Glass Pharms". Cannabis Industry Council. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
- ^ a b Gayle, Damien (17 February 2024). "A greener weed: the UK firm growing carbon-neutral cannabis". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 January 2025. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
- ^ a b c "BBC Radio 4 | On Your Farm | Growing cannabis for medicine". BBC. 23 March 2025. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
- ^ Poulter, Rory (25 September 2022). "Richmond company secures millions for UK cannabis production". Teddington Nub News. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
External links