West Midlands Mayor visits Celadon's cannabis factory

Published by

Peter Davison

Celadon Pharmaceuticals – the first UK cannabis-based medicine group to win the right to sell cannabis to the pharmaceutical industry – welcomed Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, for a tour of its Rugby cultivation and manufacturing facility.

During his tour around Celadon's 100,000 sq ft facility, the Mayor was shown the company's cutting-edge indoor hydroponic cultivation area, its R&D laboratory, and its planned future expansion areas.

He also outlined his support for plans to make the West Midlands region a leading hub for the manufacturing and R&D of cannabis-based medicines. At full capacity, Celadon's facility is expected to produce medicines for around 50,000 UK patients, bringing hundreds of high-skilled jobs to the West Midlands region, in areas such as pharmaceutical R&D and agronomy.

Among those present to meet the Mayor were members of Celadon's senior management team, including James Short (Chief Executive Officer); Arthur Wakeley (Managing Director); and Iqbal Gill (Chief Scientific Officer).

Future expansion plans were discussed, with Celadon emphasising its desire to expand in the West Midlands region and create the UK's centre of excellence for cannabis-based medicines.

Celadon is part of the West Midlands' £6.5bn full-service healthcare and life sciences economy. The region's diverse population of 4.7 million potential trial participants, combined with excellent connectivity and valuable medtech assets (including eight local hospitals and 35 regional centres of clinical research excellence), make the region an ideal location for Celadon's operations.

In addition, the new powers and £1.5bn of funding recently secured as part of the Deeper Devolution Deal, agreed between the West Midlands Combined Authority and the UK government, will help the region to realise its potential as home to the future of cutting-edge life science innovation.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: "We know just how important the healthcare and life sciences sector is to the future prosperity of the West Midlands' economy, which is why we've made it one of the key clusters to focus on as part of our Plan for Growth.

"I was delighted therefore to have the opportunity to visit Celadon, which really is at the cutting edge of cannabis-based medicines and has a key role to play in our future plans.

"The UK may already have an established golden pharmaceutical triangle of London, Oxford, and Cambridge - but Celadon's investment and expansion plans show just how rapidly the West Midlands is becoming a key player in this sector. I look forward to continuing to work with them and growing in partnership."

James Short, Chief Executive Officer of Celadon, commented: "We are proud members of the West Midlands' burgeoning life science community, supported by leading institutions, such as Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Birmingham Medical School, and underpinned by the wide-ranging Deeper Devolution Deal.

"Being located in the West Midlands means that we are never more than a few hours away from ninety per cent of the UK, making it an ideal location. We are hugely excited to be part of this regional growth story and remain immensely grateful to Andy and the West Midlands Growth Company team for being such supportive partners for our - and the West Midlands' - journey to life-science leadership."

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.