Tilray  (TLRY)  shares jumped on Tuesday after the company said it would supply cannabis products to a French government health agency for experimentation. 

Tilray will supply medical cannabis products to the French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products to serve patients. The 18-to-24 month experimentation stage is set to begin in this quarter.

The patients to be treated in the study have disorders including, among others, epilepsy, cancer, and multiple sclerosis and other central-nervous-system diseases.

The accord is a milestone for Tilray as it expands operations in Europe, Chief Executive Brendan Kennedy said in a statement.

Shares of Tilray, based in Nanaimo, British Columbia, at last check jumped 11% to $19.04. The stock had more than doubled in 2021 through the close of Monday trading. The shares are currently trading at around their level of a year earlier.

Canopy Growth Rises on CBD Pet Products Deal With Martha Stewart

The company said that its sales and distribution arrangements in Europe will enable patients across the Continent to access its medical cannabis products. 

Tilray opened a grow house in Portugal in 2019 to gain a foothold in the European market. That same year the company signed an initial $3.3 million supply agreement to deliver medical cannabis to a German distributor 

["Our] 2.5 million square feet of cultivation and state-of-the-art processing space in Europe is an important differentiator, which will enable us to reduce costs and improve margins while hedging against regulatory risk," Kennedy said at the time. 

The company's Portugal production facility features research and quality-control labs, packaging, and distribution sites for medical cannabis. 

Tilray says the facility also serves as a hub for its clinical-research and product-development efforts in Europe.