HortaPharm B.V. was a cannabis research business headquartered in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

History

The business was founded by the late American, David Watson, in the early 1990s, with seeds he created for his company, Sacred Seeds in California. David W. Pate and Robert C. Clarke were employed by the company. From September 1994 until September 1997 HortaPharm had a permit from the Dutch Ministry of Health for scientific research of cannabis; this permit was rescinded due to compliance issues. In 1998, HortaPharm B.V. began work with

GW Pharmaceuticals GW Pharmaceuticals Limited is a British pharmaceutics company known for its multiple sclerosis treatment product nabiximols (brand name, Sativex) which was the first natural cannabis plant derivative to gain market approval in any country. Ano ...

to develop cannabis strains for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.

Research

HortaPharm B.V. has used selective breeding and production for research of cannabis strains, with a focus on the isolation of

tetrahydrocannabinol Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is a cannabinoid found in cannabis. It is the principal psychoactive constituent of ''Cannabis'' and one of at least 113 total cannabinoids identified on the plant. Although the chemical formula for THC (C21H30O2) de ...

cannabidiol Cannabidiol (CBD) is a phytocannabinoid, one of 113 identified cannabinoids in ''Cannabis'', along with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and accounts for up to 40% of the plant's extract. Medically, it is an anticonvulsant used to treat multiple f ...

. GW Pharmaceuticals has exclusive rights to all genetics produced by HortaPharm B.V with the goal of producing one-off sterile female plants to control supply. Lab Supervisor, David Pate, gave a lecture at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D. C. on February 24, 1998, as part of the Institute of Medicine study to evaluate the therapeutic value of marijuana and its chemical components.

Patents

In March of 2000, HortaPharm B.V. filed a patent for a vaporizer with enhanced isolation chambers for ascending-steam extraction, with the invention attributed to David Pate. GW Pharmecuticals have filed multiple patents based on their work with HortaPham B.V.

References

Cannabis research Cannabis in the Netherlands {{med-company-stub