Healthcare Technology Featured Article

December 15, 2022

As the Medical Cannabis Industry Grows, a Precision Horticulture Facility is Launched


According to a recent report by Grand View Research, the global legal marijuana market size was valued at $13.2 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 25.5% from 2022 to 2030.

"The growing demand for legal marijuana has been a primary factor in the growth of the market. Recently, a large number of countries have legalized the use of medical marijuana for treating various ailments. A number of studies carried out show that medical marijuana and its derivatives can be used to treat symptoms of various diseases; e.g., it has been successfully used to treat patients with chronic pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other neurological diseases."

Given the rapidly increasing demand for cannabis-based pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, Grand View also reported that "The FDA and other such associations have now started accepting the marijuana derivatives for the prescription of diseases in which it has proven to be useful. This is another factor for the quick turnaround of its legal status in a lot of countries. North America (the U.S. and Canada) has gone a step further and has sanctioned the use of recreational marijuana as well, and more than two-thirds of the U.S. states have legalized marijuana."

Today, a company that specializes in cultivating extremely high-quality cannabis, based on the standards provided by researchers, academics, scientists, pharma companies running clinical trials, and others, announced they have formally opened a super high-tech facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The site is operated using a unique set of sensors connected to a local network and distributed cloud that makes it possible to monitor and automate cultivation and harvesting.

PharmCloud announced that its facility is "the first ever to deploy EwE technology that brings the highest quality, most consistent and customizable cannabis crops to brands, academic and research organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and the nutraceutical industry. It leverages the most advanced and automated horticulture technologies and science to deliver consistently pure, customizable cannabis crops, available in small to large quantities for a variety of applications."

Privately held and funded by local investors, PharmCloud's facility includes a propagation lab, vertical cultivation space, automated precision horticulture capabilities, sensor-based closed-loop management, and more.

With a fundamental commitment to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), the company is bringing clean, green, and high-tech job opportunities to the community as "Cloud One," the first in a planned series of similar facilities in the U.S. and globally.

The company also launched the world's first "Grow as a Service" offering, which gives cannabis consumer brands, academic and pharmaceutical researchers, and supplement, food, and beverages companies in the nutraceutical industry access to their own bespoke crops, which are cultivated, grown, and harvested within the PharmCloud operation.

"We are applying industry 4.0 revolution technologies to the global cannabis industry using automated and autonomous cultivation techniques," said Dr. Yaron Penn, Co-Founder and Board member, PharmCloud. "Our proprietary technology includes full stack edge computing that is connected to dozens of sensors that control small or large batches of uniquely grown plants within a closed loop vertical farming operation. This enables consistently superior cannabis with chemical profiles, which our A.I. platform monitors and controls 24/7."

Led by a team of highly experienced horticulture experts and cannabis researchers, and scientists, PharmCloud believes diversity is the key to perfection.

"Every human being is unique, born with different genetics, in different locations, with different ethnic origins," Dr. Penn said. More people are adopting personalized diets and lifestyles and choosing different medical options. The same goes for cannabis plants and the broad repertoire of genotypes, phenotypes, and phytochemical profiles."

For purveyors of cannabis products to consumers, PharmCloud brings unique blends to the market with premium aromas and experiences. Brands can market uniquely packaged products to attract consumers, just as fashion, cosmetics, food, supplements, whisky, wine, and cigar brands do.

PharmCloud is the first company in the world to promise and deliver consistent quality, aroma, and experience for consumers in every state, making it possible for brands to expand, knowing all requirements are met through their GaaS system.  PharmCloud says the system can simultaneously customize, manufacture, and supply dozens of consistent, repeatable, and fully traceable small batches of different strains – a tremendous value to Medical Cannabis developers in the pharmaceutical industry.

Rooted in academia and pharma, PharmCloud was built from the top down to comply with the requirements necessary for clinical trials and disease or patient personalization. The first facility in Tulsa is driven to become the first FDA\GMP grow facility in the U.S. The technology drives PharmCloud facility enables the company to offer a variety of profiles in consistent, repeatable, safe, "Beyond Organic" stable, and traceable small batches.

PharmCloud provides the cleanest, most consistent cannabis as an ingredient for nutraceutical companies who are creating supplements, including cannabis, food that includes cannabis, and beverages infused with cannabis. Rather than having to build their own labs and facilities, nutraceutical brands count on PharmCloud's GaaS to power up new products and to accelerate the time to market for those products.

By leveraging automated monitoring using hundreds of sensors that track everything from moisture to nutrients and can predict when plants are ready for harvesting and drying, PharmCloud is able to offer personalized, pure, chemical-free consumer grow service for legal recreational and medical cannabis users.

David Lechner, Director of Operations and Safety, said, "Our state-of-the-art facility upholds the ultimate in security standards, both outside and inside the location, and our commitment to the highest standards for cleanliness and worker safety is unmatched in the cannabis cultivation industry."

"Whether you are seeking one artisanal quality, flavor, and experience for your product, or you wish to offer a range of completely unique and 100% pure and consistent cannabis-based products, PharmCloud's operation can help you develop and grow your own," Dr. Penn said. "Our operation is carbon-neutral, sustainably operated, and run with expertise, transparency at all levels, and exclusive analytic methods. We provide consistently superior quality control and assurance and a new level of partnership with our customers who have been instrumental in the development of our mission and roadmap."

Continuous research and development efforts are focused on PharmCloud's goal to deliver universal, predictable, and profitable crops, enhanced through sensors and software systems which include artificial intelligence (A.I.), autonomous actions, and natural genetic reproduction.

PharmCloud has partnered with Hortica cloud and has adopted the Hortica Environment Within an Environment (EwE) cultivation system, which includes A.I. and automation and is the most advanced in the precision cultivation industry.


Juhi Fadia is an engineer, analyst, researcher and writer covering advanced and emerging technologies.

Edited by Erik Linask
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