Sainfort Receives GACP Certification for Cannabis - The Way Forward

The high production quality of our plants was confirmed after a demanding audit procedure on September 8th, 2022 with the new quality seal for hemp producers who work certified according to the GACP quality specifications. The GACP label means "Good Agricultural and Collection Practice", i.e. good practice for the collection and cultivation of medicinal plants. Sainfort has thus created a major prerequisite for being allowed to produce pharmaceutical active ingredients and medicines based on hemp.

For this purpose, a pharmaceutical manufacturing license (operating license) from the competent drug control authority is required in Switzerland as well as in Germany.
In Switzerland, the national therapeutic products institute "Swissmedic" is responsible, which delegates supervision to four regional therapeutic products inspectorates. The cantonal health authorities have joined forces in these.

Website swiso.ch:

What is GACP?

For herbal medicines, the collection or cultivation of the plant material is the first step in the manufacture of medicines. The GACP guideline according to EMA (European Medicines Agency) closes the gap between activities in the field, in the greenhouse or indoors and the industrial processing into medicinal products, which is carried out according to the principles of the GMP guidelines, Good Manufacturing Practice.

scopes

The GACP certification covers 3 areas of application for cannabis:

• Non-medical production of cannabis base flowers THC content greater than 1% for pilot test BAG
• Cannabis flowers or cannabis-based biomass as a raw material for medicinal products
• Cannabis flowers as medicinal products

Table 1: Applicability of GACP, GMP and GDP in the production of medicinal hemp and in the pilot test with recreational cannabis in Switzerland.

"The new SWISO-GACP certification closes a glaring gap in the cannabis industry and will make a very important contribution to creating uniform quality standards for hemp products for medical use. It thus excellently complements the canon for quality standards for the non-medical use of hemp products," says quality manager Fabian von Kaenel, who has already established a seal of quality for hemp products for recreational and cosmetic purposes that is recognized throughout Switzerland with the label Swiss Certified Cannabis (SCC) from IG Hanf has.