CROP17 is pleased to announce Woodley BioReg as a member of its turnkey solution for planning, building and operating cannabis facilities. As a CROP17 partner, Woodley BioReg will provide pharmaceutical regulatory affairs and quality assurance support for its cannabis clients, including process design and validation, QMS and MHRA licensing.   

Woodley BioReg joins global real estate services provider, Savills, horticultural engineering and construction leaders Cambridge HOK, specialist security service provider, Subrosa Group, and commercial cannabis sector experts Hanway Associates in the CROP17 partnership to form a leading service offering for medical cannabis cultivation. 

Growing cannabis legally in the UK is a complex undertaking, with extensive barriers to entry guarding attractive opportunities in the medical cannabis sector. CROP17 greatly reduces the risks involved in developing a commercial cultivation operation, by providing skills and expertise throughout the process, from ideation to operations.  

The European medical cannabis market is set to be worth more than €350m in 2022 and to exceed €1.4bn by 2025. Prescriptions in the UK medical cannabis market increased by nearly 900% over the course of 2021, and the market is projected to exceed half a billion euros by 2026.  

UK medical cannabis has begun to attract mainstream attention from investors in sectors such as food security, infrastructure and agriculture. This year, JLEN Environmental Assets Group, the FTSE250 listed environmental infrastructure fund, invested £26.7m into a British greenhouse operator with a cannabis license.  

The CROP17 partnership brings together experienced organizations with a proven track record of delivering cannabis, agricultural, pharmaceutical and property sector consultancy, with construction and licensing expertise. The group delivers incisive and cost-effective services to ensure that a clients’ cannabis cultivation project is compliant, feasible and profitable. 

Ash Ramzan, Principal Consultant at Woodley BioReg said: “As the yew tree was for Taxol, the foxglove was for digitalis and the poppy has been for pain relief, the pharmaceutical industry is starting to recognise the potential wide range of medical uses of the cannabis plant.  

“We’re excited to be working to help to develop cannabis medicinal treatments for currently under-served medical conditions. Already active in the quality and regulatory development of medicinal cannabis, joining the highly experienced colleagues at CROP17 will enable us to provide our current and future clients with a complete business solution.” 

Patrick Harte, Joint Managing Director & Shareholder of Cambridge HOK: “We are delighted that we can continue to strengthen the knowledge base and technical knowledge within CROP17. Having now built and commissioned licensed facilities, we believe that CROP17 can be at the forefront of European Cannabis expansion.” 

Charlotte Bowyer, Head of Advisory at Hanway Associates:  The domestic UK medical cannabis market is on the cusp of real momentum. Over 1.7 million Brits are using black market cannabis for a medical condition, underscoring the immense scale of opportunity for safe, regulated and accessible medicinal cannabis in the UK.  

We’re delighted to welcome Woodley Bioreg’s expertise into CROP17 to help build capacity in this vital sector, and look forward to working closely with them to bring high-quality medical and pharmaceutical cannabis ventures to life.”  

Alex Braggs, Director of Food and Farming at Savills: “Depth of knowledge and expertise is key to the success of any service provision to clients, particularly in a highly complex and regulated industry. Savills are delighted to continue to work alongside a growing team of advisors within this emerging sector.” 

Niall Burns, Managing Director at Subrosa: “It is great to have Woodley Bio Reg join the CROP 17 conglomerate. Having worked with the Woodley BioReg team on a recent project it was evident that there is cross over between security risk policies and procedures with QMS and MHRA compliance. It is important to unify or cross reference these policies and procedures where required. This partnership is of great benefit to CROP 17 clients, making their operations secure, compliant, effective and efficient.” 

CROP17 partners are actively involved in multiple projects related to cannabis facility planning, construction, licensing and operation within the UK and Europe.  


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