Never mind that everyone calls him Groovy, or that the company he oversees — Bright Green — is preparing to grow cannabis and opium poppies inside greenhouses on the high desert of New Mexico. Gurvinder Singh would like it known that his business is a rigorous scientific enterprise.
Mr. Singh spends much of his time straining to dislodge the assumption that his company is part of the wave of retail marijuana shops popping up in many communities in the wake of legalization in many states. His 70-acre farm will be centered on producing raw materials for pharmaceuticals that use cannabis, opioids and additional medicinal plants to treat pain, depression and anxiety.
Bright Green has secured a rare license from the Drug Enforcement Administration to grow otherwise-illegal crops for use in research and the manufacture of federally approved medicines. The company, which hopes to start operating by early next year, has positioned itself to bolster American self-sufficiency in an age of growing concern over the vulnerability of critical supply chains.
Just as the Biden administration has subsidized the construction of computer chip and electric vehicle factories to limit dependence on foreign suppliers, it has focused on increasing domestic production of the ingredients needed to make pharmaceuticals. President Biden included that objective as a matter of national security in a 2021 executive order aimed at protecting Americans from shortages of crucial products.
Gurvinder Singh, also known as Groovy, the chief executive of Bright Green, expects to secure $15 million to plant the company’s first crop of cannabis and poppies inside green houses.Credit…Brad Trone for The New York Times
“It’s kind of scary to think that all your medicines, the active ingredients come from so many different countries,” Mr. Singh, 47, said. “We want to be able to bring the supply chain back to the United States.”
For now, Mr. Singh, who joined the company as chief executive last year, is mostly focused on wooing investors to make his company operational. With no revenue, Bright Green’s stock has been trading below 30 cents a share this year — a drop of more than 95 percent since its initial public offering in 2022. It was recently taken off the Nasdaq exchange.
Mr. Singh expects to secure $15 million, a sum that would allow Bright Green to plant its first crop of cannabis and poppies inside the green houses constructed at what was previously a tomato farm in the small town of Grants, about 80 miles west of Albuquerque.
The company has announced an agreement to supply marijuana extracts and other plant-based elements to Benuvia Operations, a Texas company that makes tinctures used by cancer patients to alleviate the nausea associated with chemotherapy.
H/T: www.nytimes.com
