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ARTICLE · 23 MAY 2019

Health Canada Changes Cannabis Licensing Process

On the market side, private cannabis companies are driving up cannabis M&A activities.

CanadaFood, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences

On May 8, 2019, Health Canada announced that it is introducing changes to its cannabis licensing process, effective immediately. Before the change, an applicant can apply for a cannabis license by submitting paper application to Health Canada without having to build a facility first. Now, a new applicant for licence to cultivate, process or sell cannabis for medical purposes must have fully built a cannabis facility that meets all the regulatory requirements under the Cannabis Regulations at the time of submitting an application.

This change came about after Health Canada reviewed its existing licensing regime, which revealed that a major amount of resources were spent on reviewing applications from companies that were not ready to begin operations, thereby prolonging the wait time and preventing more mature applicants from entering into the market sooner. For instance, Health Canada identified that more than 70 per cent of the applicants who successfully passed the

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