Any company holding a valid cannabis licence, whether in South Africa or in another country, can contact Karoo Bioscience about buying product. We export worldwide.
Approximately 10% of the original Series A shares remain unsold. If you are seriously interested in investing you may write to us. We do not have a minimum investment level. We reserve the right not to accept any investment.
Look out for jobs posted by Karoo Bioscience on LinkedIn. You need to be someone who wants to live away from city life, in a fairly isolated rural setting – it’s amazing, but not for everyone. We aren’t just interested in people with horticultural or pharmaceutical training; we also hire people with backgrounds in engineering, technology, law, computer science, mathematics, the sciences, logistics, finance and project management. It’s unlikely we will respond to unsolicited job applications but there is no harm in writing to us.
Karoo Bioscience is located in the Western Cape province of South Africa, in a region known as the Little Karoo. Contact us if you need our exact location.
Two of our founders were already established farmers in the Little Karoo, so it just happened that way. But there are real advantages to the location. The air is the cleanest in the country, the humidity is low and the skies are clear most of the time, which is great for light-hungry cannabis plants and for generating solar power. We also happen to be situated on one of the very few mountain aquifers in the entire Karoo.
The board of directors consists of Dr Bernie Fanaroff (chairperson), Dr Jack Lewis, Dr Tanya Abrahamse, Katlego Motene, Johan Nel, Omar Burjaq and Doron Isaacs.
Under a licence issued by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) in terms of Section 22C(1)(b) of the Medicines Act. The company also holds a GMP Certificate issued by SAHPRA and a cannabis import permit.
Medicinal or medical cannabis is cannabis which is used for medicinal purposes and which is produced according to medicinal (i.e. pharmaceutical) standards. In countries such as Germany and Australia, a doctor’s prescription is required before cannabis is accessed for medicinal purposes. In countries such as Canada and some US states, like California, a doctor’s prescription is no longer a requirement. Pharmaceutical production standards, like those applied at Karoo Bioscience, mean that the principles of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) are applied. GMP sets standards for facility design, equipment qualification, process validation, hygiene practices, risk management, record-keeping and various other areas. The outcome is a product which is consistent, free of contaminants (as confirmed for each batch by independent third-party laboratory tests) and of known chemical composition. This consistency, safety and quality, combined with the use of the cannabis for medicinal purposes, is what defines medicinal cannabis. For more see ‘What is Cannabis?’
Karoo Bioscience gives priority to black people (broadly defined) and women when recruiting, although all qualified applicants are welcome. All staff, after a year of employment, become shareholders in the company. Development of local talent is important, as is recruitment of diverse individuals from across the country. Karoo Bioscience is a registered Level 4 B-BBEE company with Certificate Number 9358246259.
All rain falling on the facility is captured and all water used in the facility is recaptured. Most power utilised in production is solar generated. Our large battery allows the use of solar-generated power even at night. The growing medium we use is an entirely renewable resource. A limited amount of Spekboom, an indigenous plant renowned for its carbon sequestrating abilities, has been planted on the surrounding land – something we hope to increase in future.
With a combination of large-scale solar and battery storage (and a generator which is almost never used but available just in case) Karoo Bioscience does not experience power interruptions (even momentary ones) due to loadshedding.
A wide range of security measures are in place including electrified fencing, alarms, access control, camera monitoring, motion-detecting lights, 24-hour guarding, vault storage and secure transport arrangements, among other measures.