Malta will officially start producing and exporting medical cannabis products within a year and a half, with cultivation of the plant on Maltese soil set to begin within nine to 10 months.

MGC Pharma, the first company to sign an agreement with Malta Enterprise officially allowing them to begin medical cannabis operations on the island, said they plan to focus on conditions such as dementia, epilepsy and cancer through clinical trials on the island, and have hopes to make Malta their base of operations over the next few years.

The company, which is currently based in Australia, will also be investing €11 million of its own money into the Maltese project and expected to hire 27 new full-time employees.

MGC Pharma is a ‘seed-to-pharma’ company composed of Israeli medical cannabis experts

The founders have already identified certain conditions that they are focused on.

“Our main work worldwide is on dementia, epilepsy, and we will work on different cancers as well as pain management. But over here we will probably be more on the cancer side, oncological, and neurological as well,” Nativ Segev, the founder and director of MGC Pharma, said to Lovin Malta.

Economy Minister Chris Cardona welcomed the partnership between Malta Enterprise and MGC Pharma, saying the company had “the right criteria” to open up in Malta

“MGC is one of a chain of companies approved by Malta Enterprise. There were 50 applications put in front of Malta Enterprise, 20 of those applications were approved, and MGC Pharma is one of them,” Cardona told Lovin Malta.

He noted the importance of research and development within these medical cannabis companies.

“Much of what follows will depend completely on research and clinical trials,” Cardona said. “This has a humanitarian aspect to it all as well, because we all know that medicinal cannabis can help a lot of people who have or are passing through mental sicknesses, oncology difficulties, cancer patients, those who have had a history of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other related issues, and hopefully Malta will put its name a jurisdictions where these things are happening.”

When asked about any plans to legalise recreational cannabis in Malta, Cardona said his ministry deals with medical cannabis, and not recreational

“As a government, there are consultations taking place in the case of recreational,” he said. “We are not bound by a pledge on the manifesto and it doesn’t fall within my remit. However, in the Ministry of the Economy we focus on medical and not recreational.”

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