Marijuana plants at MedPharm Iowa’s grow facility.
The state is looking for another company to produce medical marijuana products.
The manager of the program, Owen Parker, says state law allows for two licenses to produce medical marijuana products. “Iowa Relief was our second manufacturer — but they actually relinquished their license on June 2nd of this year and decided not to renew it for this next licensing period,” Parker says.
MedPharm was the first company to acquire a license to manufacture, and Parker says they will continue to supply dispensaries.
“Medpharm is currently a vertically integrated manufacturer — meaning they have a manufacturing facility and two dispensaries. And we have had no issues with maintaining supply to patients,” he says.
He says they hope to be able to select a second company in November. He says applicants need to submit a letter of intent to apply by October 9th and then have until October 23rd to work on their applications and submit a fee. Parker says it will take around one month to review applications and they hope to award the license on November 20th.
The timeline would have the new medical marijuana business up and running by late next year. “We are hoping that that manufacturer would be up and running by July 21st of 2021,” according to Parker.
Parker is not sure what type of response they may get. He says the first request saw MedPharm as the only applicant and the second round they had six applicants. The medical cannabis program began selling products in Iowa on December 1st of 2018.