Last week the Government quietly rolled out a 6-month extension to the transition period for existing Medical Cannabis suppliers, to ensure the continuity of supply for patients as the new Cannabis scheme stumbles in part due to COVID19.
This has been a pragmatic response to the unforeseen difficulties posed by COVID-19, which have made the pursuit of the new Quality standards harder to progress when working with offshore partners. To date, no product has been approved against the standard, demonstrating how stringent these standards have been set, in order to give our prescribers as much confidence as possible.
“We welcome the decision by the government to provide a degree certainty for suppliers such as ourselves, and more importantly those patients that have come to rely on us. We recognise, with the governments focus being deservedly focused on the COVID response, that the Ministry, and Government managed to respond in a nimble and pragmatic manner to avoid adverse outcomes in the scheme”.
“The challenges posed by COVID19 have been immense. Medleaf has a signed contract with deposits paid on a deal with an enormous potential to drive down costs to patients, this was hamstrung by needing an NZ GMP Audit for an offshore manufacturer. Naturally, due to COVID19, this deal has been frozen pending the lifting of travel restrictions.”
“Fortunately, our strong market position means that Medleaf has found new suppliers in a short time frame, and we expect to have Quality Standards Assessments submitted within the next 2 weeks for multiple formulations that we believe are better than anything NZ has seen so far.”
“We are excited at the prospect of bringing a degree of choice patients and prescribers have never seen in New Zealand, and we vow to continue offering the best value possible to patients because our success is based on patients wanting, and affording our products.” Says Medleaf Director Courtney Letica.
Courtney Letica, Founder and Director of Medleaf, looks forward to an exciting period as multiple products from multiple suppliers are submitted for assessment.
As of May 2020, Medleaf has exceeded 30% of all CBD prescribed legally in New Zealand for several months, and is now the number one New Zealand Medical Cannabis brand by volume. Medleaf intends to seek investment in the near future to propel growth further with its new partnerships, and to commit to expanding into Australia to capture an explosive new market in low dose CBD products that is tipped to be worth $200 Million per anum in the coming years. Unlike vertical producers with enormous capital costs and overheads, Medleaf has focused on the most important part of the supply chain, that is getting the products into the hands of prescribers and their patients. Medleaf was the first NZ company to supply CBD legaly, and has been on the market for well over 1 year now, with our extensive background in logistics, Medleaf has proven a reliable supplier, ensuring an excellent experience for patients and prescribers, allowing Medleaf to compete successfully with corporate giants in the Medical Cannabis space.
