It was only in August of last year that Switzerland fully legalized medical cannabis. Now, the first finished products are almost ready. “After finishing the analysis, our products will be packed and available to patients in about two weeks,” says Dr. Claudia Zieres-Nauth, CEO of Medropharm AG. The company has just finished the first harvest of medicinal THC cannabis flowers in Switzerland. “We had two first batches that are now about to be packed. As CBD oil is already well used in Switzerland, we are excited for patients to now have access to medical cannabis as well.” 
Dr. Claudia Zieres-Nauth
A new market
While medical cannabis is now legal in Switzerland, it is a challenging market to enter for most companies, Claudia explains. “You need to apply for a narcotic license in order to start growing cannabis. For us, the process was a bit easier, as we already had a pharma license, and then we added on the narcotic license for the grow. The regulation in Switzerland is that a pharma company has to order a grow, which the growing company with the narcotic license then grows. After the flowers are dried, the material has to immediately go to the pharma company for storing. These regulations are quite challenging for a normal cannabis company to start with.” Yet Claudia mentions that it is actually a good thing that entering the market is not too easy. “The products are used as medicine to treat sick patients, so it’s important that the regulations are very strict.”
"Our unique THC genetic MEDROFARM 17/1 AC (Amnesia Haze CC)"
Claudia does think that there is quite some potential for the Swiss medical cannabis market. “CBD oils are already well used and available here. So I think that there is definitely a market for THC products as well. Of course, our country is smaller than Germany, for example, and we will not attract that kind of attention to our market. But we are very happy that we will now have medical cannabis available for our patients.”
Quality as key
When it comes to Medropharm’s cultivation, they grow in an indoor facility in three different rooms. Throughout everything, quality is the main focus. “We have a complex quality management system, where we control every step from the cutting up to the dried flower. This includes the traceability of each flower as well as complex analysis, which is important to ensure high quality. The patient, in the end, is our focus; they have to get a controlled and safe product.”
In the future, Medropharm would like to continue expanding its business. “We’re already an international company, but we would like to expand our business to all countries where medical use is legal. In addition, we’re focusing on the non-medical field of cannabis. We think it’s very important that we also try to prevent people from sickness. Therefore, we also produce food supplements and food additives for both humans and animals. We would thus like to be a part of the full cycle. Hopefully, people will become healthy again using the medicines, after which prevention becomes important.” While Medropharm is a cannabis company at the moment, they are looking into other products. “We are doing research on other phyto-narcotic products, and of course, psychedelics are of interest as well. As we have a narcotic license, we would love to be able to help people in as many ways as possible.”
For more information:
Medropharm AG
www.medropharm.ch
Dr. Claudia Zieres-Nauth, Medropharm AG: