Curaleaf Launches UK’s First Medical Cannabis Suppositories

Curaleaf Laboratories, the UK manufacturing arm of US-listed cannabis multi-state operator Curaleaf, has begun domestic production of medical cannabis suppositories and pessaries. The Sunderland-based subsidiary said the products are now available on prescription through clinicians on the UK Specialist Register, and described itself as the first licensed UK manufacturer to produce either dosage form for medical cannabis use.

The launch widens the country’s medical cannabis formulary beyond dried flower, oils, vape cartridges and pastilles — the categories that have dominated UK prescriptions since cannabis-based products for medicinal use (CBPMs) were rescheduled in 2018. Suppositories and pessaries are administered rectally and vaginally respectively, and are typically used when patients cannot tolerate oral or inhaled medicines, or when localised delivery is clinically preferred.

Why the new dosage forms matter

Curaleaf Laboratories said the products were developed at the request of doctors on the specialist register and produced under UK Good Manufacturing Practice standards. The company did not disclose pricing or projected volumes.

For UK clinicians, the practical change is access to dosage formats that already exist in mainstream pharmacology — suppository and pessary preparations are routinely prescribed for pain, palliative care, and gynaecological indications — but had not previously been available as cannabis-based medicines in the UK. Patients in palliative care, those with severe nausea or gastrointestinal disease, and patients managing pelvic-pain conditions are the likely initial demographics, alongside multiple sclerosis patients for whom inhaled or oral routes can be impractical.

Richard Hodgson, the subsidiary’s managing director, framed the rollout as a response to clinical demand for more administration routes. Beyond the patient-access argument, the launch is a commercial signal: Curaleaf is using its UK manufacturing footprint to develop specialist formulations rather than simply repackaging imported flower, the pattern that has dominated Britain’s medical cannabis supply since legalisation.

Sunderland’s role in Curaleaf International

Curaleaf Laboratories is the trading name of Rokshaw Ltd, a Sunderland-based pharmaceutical Specials manufacturer that joined the Curaleaf International group in 2019 and rebranded under the Curaleaf name in early 2024. The site is one of Britain’s largest medical cannabis processing facilities, with around 200 staff, and is approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as a Specials manufacturer of unlicensed medicines.

The dosage-form expansion comes as Curaleaf International, the European arm Curaleaf Laboratories sits within, has been consolidating its grip on the European medical-cannabis supply chain. Earlier this month, the parent group completed its buyout of Germany’s Four 20 Pharma, taking full ownership of the German distributor it had partly acquired in earlier deals. Cultivation feeds in from Curaleaf’s Portuguese facility; manufacture and distribution then route through the Sunderland operation and the German distribution stack, with the UK and Germany jointly carrying the bulk of European patient demand.

That vertical integration is the strategic logic behind investing in onshore specialist formulation. Cannabis multistate operators globally have been pursuing similar consolidation strategies; in April, Aurora Cannabis acquired Safari Flower for EU-GMP cultivation capacity (ACB ), and other operators have moved comparable assets into Europe over the past twelve months. UK-side formulation expansion is the downstream end of that same play.

Where the regulatory review fits in

The launch lands as the UK’s medical cannabis framework is under formal review. The Home Office commissioned the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in June 2025 to evaluate whether the 2018 rescheduling of CBPMs has worked as intended and to identify any unintended consequences. The ACMD’s call for evidence closed in October 2025; the broader recommendations form part of a three-year work programme.

UK private-prescription patient counts are estimated in the tens of thousands by year-end 2025 — second only to Germany in Europe — but NHS uptake remains negligible, with most CBPM prescribing concentrated in private specialist clinics. Industry data suggests roughly 180 specialist-register doctors actively prescribe CBPMs, against approximately 100,000 specialist-register physicians legally entitled to. Whether the UK can absorb the new dosage forms at scale depends less on manufacturing capability than on whether the prescriber base widens.

For now, Curaleaf Laboratories has the capability slot to itself. Whether competing UK-licensed Specials manufacturers — and operators currently shipping equivalent EU-GMP formulations from Germany, Portugal, or the Netherlands — follow with their own UK-made suppositories and pessaries will be the cleanest read on whether this is a niche pharmaceutical capability or a meaningful shift in UK supply-chain economics.