GESLABS: GESLabs Achieves Science-Backed Growth
Ambitious and forward-thinking GESLabs from Cape Town is helping to drive quality and compliance in the pharmaceutical space as it drives medicinal cannabis products through a tried and tested development pathway. Founder Peter Nel tells Enterprise Africa more about the journey so far.
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South Africa’s cannabis sector has been described as one of the country’s most exciting untapped industries, capable of driving economic development and creating jobs across agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare.
Recent figures from Euromonitor show South Africa’s CBD and medical cannabis market reaching ZAR 470 million in 2024, with forecasts suggesting expansion to ZAR 11 billion by 2028—if regulatory barriers ease. Meanwhile, the cannabis extract industry alone is expected to surge from USD$268 million in 2023 to USD$2.56 billion by 2030.
GESLabs, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company based in Cape Town, is one of the businesses proving that potential can become reality. Founded in 2018 by chemical engineer Peter Nel, the company has grown from just four employees to 58, with multimillion dollar revenue in the last financial year. With export channels already established into Europe and Australia, and clinical trials on the horizon, GESLabs is positioning itself as a critical player in South Africa’s pharmaceutical future.
“We are a contract manufacturer,” Nel tells Enterprise Africa. “We sell to wholesalers and distributors in Australia, Germany, and the UK, and a small amount into Switzerland. We sell to those wholesalers in two ways. Firstly, they come to us as wholesaling pharmaceutical companies who want to develop a branded range of products aimed at chronic pain or similar. This is then marketed to doctors and pharmacies to be distributed through scripts.”
The second route, he says, involves full end-to-end manufacturing. “We have onboarded 15 cultivation partners in SA, Zimbabwe and Lesotho – and we provide the artwork for the packaging, including droppers, bottles, cartons etc. They brand the product and we print and deliver a finished product to their warehouse. If they don’t have a brand, we can develop a generic brand that is not linked to GES, but is an active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) that can be sold to hospitals or similar.”
QUALITY SCIENCE
The cannabis industry is often described in terms of potential, but companies like GESLabs are showing that rigorous science and a structured business model can translate that promise into measurable progress. Nel is quick to highlight the company’s technical capabilities.
“We have two types of extraction technology in the company – cold ethanol, which produces highly purified products for treating chronic pain; and solventless production, which is more tailored to full spectrum product development,” he says. “We have a very strong R&D facility in the company, and customers come to us with a lot of ideas and concepts. The core strength of ours is the R&D facility which is linked to our test laboratory. We can develop a product, test it, and run stability studies. This means we meet client specifications and ensure the product is shelf stable, and that we can develop products at a rapid pace and launch them much faster than anyone else.”
South Africa’s wider pharmaceutical sector has proven capacity, with global firms like Aspen Pharmacare and Adcock Ingram supplying into both local and international markets. GESLabs is part of that ecosystem, but focuses tightly on the opportunities in medical cannabis. Nel founded the company directly after studying chemical engineering at Stellenbosch University. “In the early stages it was about equipment before growing into consultancy. It has always been science backed, and always focused on creating the best processes,” he recalls.
That scientific mindset feeds into a clear long-term roadmap. “The vision for the company has not changed and we want to be a generics pharma business with registered products. We have our own wholesaling and distribution businesses in Germany, and our goal is to have in-country distribution in Germany, Australia, and the UK. We want to have our low-cost base manufacturing and intellectual development in South Africa, and over time our vision is to commercialize African botanical APIs.”
STRATEGIC GROWING
GESLabs is already planning its next phase of international expansion. The business will undergo a major audit in early 2026, something Nel says is crucial to opening new markets. “In January 2026, we are being audited by the European authority and the Cologne State of Germany,” he explains, noting that the accreditation would unlock opportunities in Poland, Czechia, Spain, and Italy.
The preparation reflects how far the company has come since its early days. When it launched in 2018, just four people were on the payroll; today, the team has grown to 58. That trajectory, Nel says, was helped by South Africa’s competitiveness. “We had an early peak which we attribute to taking market share from high-cost manufacturing environments such as Canada and Australia and the UK; and the market grew in general. Now, we are seeing the market grow and we are growing with it, so the growth is steady.”
For Nel, though, expansion is about more than scaling numbers. He is pushing the business to move beyond the current model of unregistered cannabis medicines into fully registered pharmaceutical products supported by clinical data. “We are putting a lot of emphasis on a longer-term strategy,” he says. “Medical cannabis is sold as an unregistered medicine. Going forward, clinical trials will result in moving from unregistered medical product to a registered pharmaceutical product.”
That shift could make treatment far more accessible, particularly in markets where state or private insurers cover patient costs. It is a transformation Nel wants GESLabs to lead. With just three cannabis-based pharmaceuticals currently registered worldwide — Nabilone, Epidyolex, and Sativex — he believes the space is wide open for generics. “Our take on that is that we want to be a generic pharmaceutical manufacturer meaning we wait for the patents to expire and we develop a generic which we complete bioequivalence clinical trial before registering the products.”
He points out that progress is already visible. The company has validated products, achieved consistent production, and begun assembling dossiers for clinical trials. “We are around one third of the way through this pharmaceutical journey with generic medicines and clinical trials so it can be reimbursed to the patient,” Nel confirms. “This year, we have validated the products, we have consistently produced them, and we are building dossiers for them. The next stage is to commence clinical trials and we are fundraising for this right now.”
SECURING THE SUPPLY CHAIN
In any pharmaceutical business, supply chain management is a core determinant of success. For cannabis, with its complex regulations and strict quality requirements, that importance is amplified. Nel is clear on where the challenges and priorities lie.
“The most important part is testing. We need to source raw material from our cultivators. Then we need to test it according to a very strict monograph. There are few testing facilities in SA and we need to have a tight supply chain around quality control. That is the biggest challenge from an infrastructure perspective,” he says.
“The product then needs to be delivered to us in a temperature-controlled environment. Then, the supply chain that supports sees us only using audited pharmaceutical products. Our carrier oils, ethanol suppliers, packaging and much more has to be audited and tightly controlled. From an export perspective, every order has an import or export permit, and you have to work with the regulator to show you have the correct documentation. If the supply chain is not locked in, you will end up with challenges around permits or quality, and that is unacceptable.”
Fortunately, South Africa’s established pharmaceutical industry provides a strong foundation. “South Africa has an international pharmaceutical industry – the quality and infrastructure is there, it’s just about internalising the skills so that we can deliver. Around 80% of our people come from the major international pharma players that are active in SA.”
LONG-TERM MISSION
Beyond near-term audits and product launches, Nel describes a much broader mission for GESLabs. “Our mission statement has always been to stop the export of raw materials that have beneficial pharmaceutical APIs and sending them to Europe before buying back the medicine. Longer-term, we don’t want to only be known for cannabis medicine. We want to discover new medicines with cannabis as a core competency but not our only ingredient.”
The journey will take time, but the direction is clear. “The company is still in its early stages. We still need 10 years to achieve our dream,” he smiles. “What we are doing is reinvesting into critical knowledge and infrastructure from a scientific perspective to understand and register these medicines. We are not trying to be flashy – we are trying to be a proper pharmaceutical business. We are taking cannabis, which has been stigmatised over the past 20 years, and we are marrying it with traditional pharmaceutical medicines in a sustainable way.”
That means following the established pathway to market, rather than trying to bypass the system. “New products get to market through a traditional pathway and cannabis shouldn’t have a special pathway. It should move through the traditional pathway to make progress, and we are trying to adopt the pharmaceutical pathway to get products to market in the most compliant manner so that it is adopted by the medical industry.”
GESLabs has already proven that South Africa can host a world-class pharmaceutical manufacturer rooted in the cannabis industry. By maintaining focus on science, compliance, and partnerships, the business is growing its footprint in international markets while reinvesting in domestic capacity.
If South Africa’s cannabis sector is to deliver on its economic promise, companies like GESLabs will be at the forefront – creating value not just by exporting raw materials, but by keeping pharmaceutical manufacturing and intellectual development firmly within the country.