London’s Medicinal Cannabis Center Requests Global CBD Company Testing Protocols

The Centre for Medicinal Cannabis (CMC) outlines its strategy to endeavor a comprehensive review of analytical testing for the cannabis industry.

As the CBD based products focused on wellness and medicinal markets are gaining rapid augmentation, new methods for systematic testing and analysis of Cannabinoids and other compounds are also increasing. However, only handful of them has been validated using globally sanctioned parameters.

Moreover, there is a lack of a standardized set of rules and regulations for application at numerous stages of manufacturing, processing, and refinement. CBD products may exhibit varied results depending on who does the testing as different labs undertake different testing methodologies. This can lead to companies shopping around for commendatory testing results that do not truly reflect what the products carry.

CMC is organizing a collaborative research program to address potential impediments to standardize analytical modus operandi in the CBD market. Dr. Parveen Bharatah, CMC’s Regulatory and Compliance Officer will be leading this review.

It recommends a standardized procedure agreement or method equivalence for the labs when testing for the following compounds such as Carcinogen, Heavy Metals, Residual Solvent, Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids, Microbial, Mycotoxins, Pesticides, Terpenes.

Such harmonization is obligatory for this rapidly growing new industry to adhere to international standards criteria, such as EFSA’s Novel Foods applications. All the methods will be validated to the highest analytical standards such as the International Council for Harmonisation.

CMC has outlined the protocols for Analytical Quality by Design (AQbD) and held a testing workshop on 30th September with industry stakeholders and leading chemists.

Dr. Parveen Bhatarah is a leading chemist with more than 20 years of expertise in bulk drug substance and product development and has held numerous directorship roles and patented several innovative technologies in the generic and herbal pharmaceutical field. Most recently, in the Cannabis space, she was significant in the THC project for seed to capsule growth, advancing pre-approval scrutiny by US-FDA.

The London based Center for Medicinal Cannabis (CMC) is the UK’s first and only industry membership firm for stakeholders operating in Cannabis-Based Medicinal Products (CBMPs) and cannabidiol (CBD) wellness markets.