Bedrocan

Bedrocan is the world's oldest and most rigorously pharmaceutical medical cannabis company. Founded in the Netherlands in 1984 by brothers-in-law Tjalling Erkelens and Freerk Bruining, it is today Europe's leading supplier of pharmaceutical-grade, EU GMP-certified cannabis, distributed to pharmacies in several countries on medical prescription.

A converted Dutch farm

Bedrocan began its history in the great Dutch horticultural tradition: a family business specializing in the greenhouse cultivation of chicory, herbs and pot plants in the north of the Netherlands. In the 1990s, the founders gradually pivoted towards a new ambition: to apply the most advanced methods of precision agriculture to the production of standardized cannabis.

Official supplier to the Dutch government since 2003

In 2000, the Dutch Bureau for Medical Cannabis (BMC), set up by Health Minister Els Borst, issued a call for tenders to regulate the production of medical cannabis for prescription distribution in pharmacies. Bedrocan won the tender and was awarded the exclusive production license.

Since 2003, Bedrocan has been the only official producer of medical cannabis in the Netherlands, distributing its products via Dutch pharmacies and exporting to several European countries: Germany, Finland, Italy, Poland and Macedonia.

This year, it will be called Bedrocan, an acronym standing for «Bruining Erkelens dried cannabis», in reference to its founders and the product they produce for patients and pharmaceutical laboratories.

The obsession with pharmaceutical standardization

What fundamentally sets Bedrocan apart from all its competitors is its absolute commitment to standardization. Every strain produced has consistent, guaranteed THC and CBD levels in every batch, a pharmaceutical requirement that almost all cannabis producers are unable to meet.

The Bedrocan catalog includes several varieties with distinct cannabinoid profiles: Bedrocan (22% THC, a Jack Herer), Bedrobinol (13.5% THC), Bediol (6.5% THC and 8% CBD), Bedica (14% THC), Bedrolite (9% CBD, 0.4% THC) and Bedropuur (24% THC). Each variety has different therapeutic indications, prescribed by doctors according to the patient's profile.

World's first EU GMP-certified cannabis producer

Bedrocan was the first therapeutic cannabis producer in the world to obtain EU GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) certification, the highest quality standard for the manufacture of medicines for human use, identical to that imposed on major pharmaceutical laboratories such as Sanofi. This certification confirms that Bedrocan produces cannabis as an industrial medicine, not as a plant.

The Canadian adventure and the withdrawal of Canopy Growth

In 2014, when Canada launched its medical cannabis program, Bedrocan obtained one of the first eight federal licenses and created Bedrocan Canada, which quickly became one of the three leaders in the country. In June 2015, Tweed (which will become Canopy Growth) acquires Bedrocan Canada for $61 million.

The takeover enabled Canopy to acquire Bedrocan's pharmaceutical know-how and reputation, but the two companies quickly diverged on strategy: Bedrocan BV refused to follow Canopy into large-scale recreational cannabis production. A legal agreement prevents Bedrocan from re-entering the Canadian market until January 1, 2020.

Return to Canada and expansion in Denmark

In September 2024, Health Canada granted Bedrocan a new cultivation license, marking its official return to the Canadian market, with the reacquisition of its former production site in Scarborough, Ontario. Production was scheduled to start in early 2025, with the aim of once again supplying Canadian patients with strictly pharmaceutical medical cannabis.

At the same time, Bedrocan announced the opening of a production facility in Denmark to meet growing demand from European patients and strengthen its distribution capacity on the continent.

Bedrocan remains an unlisted family business, run by the second generation of the Erkelens family, Jaap Erkelens having taken over from his father Tjalling. Its model - absolute pharmaceutical quality, exclusive medical circuits, no recreational cannabis - makes it a unique benchmark in a sector dominated by financial and stock market logic.