Canadian Companies Have Chance to Dominate Global Medical Cannabis Market.
Momentum Public Relations
Blog: March 21 2018
Tetra Bio-Pharma Receives FDA Orphan Drug Status for PPP001
Canadian Companies Have Chance to Dominate Global Medical Cannabis Market.
Grand View Research has predicted that the global medical marijuana market will reach US$55.8 billion by 2025.
When licensed medical marijuana producers first began to list on the Canadian stock exchanges they received sky high valuations.
Some analysts and producers looked beyond the domestic market and wondered if the legalization of marijuana in Canada would allow Canadian marijuana growers to take a dominant position in the global market as marijuana legalization rolled out around the world.
It now looks as if Canada stands a good chance to become a global leader in the development of cannabinoid-based drugs and the regulatory approvals that ensure their safety and efficacy.
The cannabinoid-based drug market is going to be huge. Grand View Research has predicted that the global medical marijuana market will reach US$55.8 billion by 2025.
A Bloomberg News story published in the Financial Post on December 28, 2017 explains why Canadian medical cannabis producers and drug companies are set to move onto the global stage.
The established use of medical cannabis in Canada and the legalization of recreational marijuana both play a part in this.
Canopy Growth CEO Bruce Linton was quoted in the story as saying that the theme for 2018 will be the globalization of medical cannabis. One of Canada’s first medical marijuana producers, Canopy already ships to Germany and has partnerships with companies in Australia, Spain and Jamaica.
In effect, Canada has first mover status on the international market and if domestic producers do the right things they stand a good chance of dominating the global market.
While medical cannabis is now being prescribed in a variety of jurisdictions, it is only being prescribed because of anecdotal evidence. There is no scientific proof that medical cannabis-based therapeutic treatments work. The pharmaceutical companies that succeed in providing regulatory approval backed by hard science stand to profit with a very large market share.
Canada is leading the way because while one might assume that research powerhouse the United States would be at the head of the line, American research is hamstrung by the fact that while legal in many states, it is not legal at the American federal level. This means that federal research funding is not available.
Against that backdrop Canadian biopharmaceutical research and development company Tetra Bio-Pharma, dedicated to becoming the first to prove the safety and efficacy of cannabis-based drugs, has received funding from the National Science and Research Council of Canada.
The company has already started a Phase 3 clinical study designed to prove the safety and efficacy of its flagship product, smokable PPP001, designed as a therapeutic treatment for chronic and cancer pain. The company believes that PPP001 will be on the market no later than 2019.
Canada’s ability to lead the international pack when it comes to the development of cannabis-based therapeutic drugs can be illustrated by two recent developments.
On March 14, 2018 Tetra Bio-Pharma announced that it had received “Orphan Drug Status” for PPP001, for the treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome by the American FDA.
Orphan drug status is a designation used to encourage research into drugs for the treatment of rare diseases that affect only a small percentage of the population, 200,000. It provides a seven year marketing exclusivity for the orphan drug.
Tetra Bio-Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to providing the science that will prove that medical cannabis-based drugs are safe and actually work.
Unless a dark horse dramatically emerges, Tetra Bio-Pharma will also be the first biopharmaceutical to be granted Health Canada and FDA approvals, which in return will grant the approved drugs a Drug Identification Number, DIN. DIN numbers allow the drug to be prescribed by doctors, sold by pharmacies and covered by insurance plans.
DIN numbers are the Holy Grail in pharmaceutical research. Once you have them your products are legal to market. Without a DIN number they can’t be sold.
Tetra has a pipeline of cannabis-based drugs under development and has recently created a veterinary division to create cannabis-based drugs for the lucrative cat and dog market.
The company has also just announced its first European foray with partner PS Innovations. PS Innovations manufactures Tetra’s trademarked RX Princeps Inhalation Device. Tetra announced on March 6, 2018 that PS Innovations will apply for CE Marking, a process that guaranties the product conforms to European regulations and can be sold in the European Economic Area where it will be listed as a Class 1 Medical Device.
Another indication that Canada stands a good chance of leading the medical cannabis world is the recent agreement between Sandoz Canada and licensed medical marijuana producer Tilray Inc. On March 19, 2018, Tilray announced that it had formed an exclusive partnership with Sandoz Canada to develop non-smokable cannabis-based therapeutic drugs delivered through gel caps or lotions.
Sandoz is owned by Novatis and the agreement represents big pharma’s first venture into developing cannabinoid-based therapeutic treatments.
Pascal Biosciences discovered certain cannabinoids that help our immune system kill tumor cells.
Canopy Growth also has a medical division that holds a number of patents. If Canada can develop the momentum that comes with first mover status there is a good chance that it can dominate the global medical cannabis market.
- Published in Blog
Sun Life Signals the Start of Mass Medical Cannabis Market
Momentum Public Relations
Blog: February 16 2018
Sun Life Signals the Start of Mass Medical Cannabis Market
Aphria Becomes SAQ Recreational Marijuana Supplier
Tetra Bio-Pharma Receives Approval for Phase Three Medical Cannabis Cancer Chronic Pain Treatment
As the countdown to marijuana legalization accelerates the acceptance of medical cannabis has become more common. A defining moment has taken place with the decision by the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada to include medical cannabis in group benefit health plans. It is the first Canadian insurance company to do so.
According to the Globe And Mail, employers will have the option of including medical cannabis coverage under an extended group health care benefit plan, starting on March 1, 2018.
As any Canadian knows Sun Life is a huge company. Its benefit plan serves 22,000 companies and covers more than five million employees and dependents.
In the Globe And Mail Story by Clare O’Hara, the senior vice-president of group benefits at Sun Life, Doug Jones, is reported to have said that the company decided to include medical cannabis coverage in its group benefit health plans because the companies it offered coverage to were asking about cannabis coverage on an increasing basis.
Employers will now have the choice about whether to include medical cannabis coverage and up to what level. Under the new system, coverage will be available from $1,500 to $6,000. So far coverage is going to be extended to five severe conditions including chronic cancer pain, nausea associated with chemotherapy and palliative care.
Eight Capital has predicted the international medical cannabis market at C$180 Billion within 10-15 Years.
Sun Life obviously sees medical cannabis coverage as a valuable commodity either in terms of customer retention or customer acquisition.
A significant factor in all of this is that Sun Life is offering coverage without the benefit of a DIN number. DIN stands for drug identification number. A DIN number is awarded to a drug that has successfully gone through clinical testing and been approved by Health Canada in Canada or the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.
Once a drug has a DIN number it can be legally prescribed by doctors and covered under insurance plans. While Canada has been allowing the sale of medical marijuana through licensed growers nobody yet has actually proved that medical marijuana works.
That is about to change. Montreal-based Tetra Bio-Pharma, (TSXV: TBP) (OTCQB: TBPMF) has just received Health Canada approval for the phase 3 clinical trial of a smokable dried cannabis prescription drug. The drug, now known as PPP001, targets chronic pain, as well as pain associated with advanced cancer.
The clinical testing is designed to prove the safety and efficacy of medical cannabis and specifically of PPP001. Tetra Bio-Pharma CEO Bernard Fortier describes it like this: “It will be a landmark trial. It will be a landmark approval. It will be the first smokable cannabis drug that will be approved, as a legitimate drug, to be prescribed by physicians.”
Tetra has a strong development pipeline featuring drugs that treat chronic pain, nausea, insomnia, PTSD, and eye ailments. As CEO Bernard Fortier says, “We are not a one molecule company.”
In late 2017 Tetra launched its first product, the trademarked Rx Princeps, a unique blend of dried medical marijuana used in its ongoing clinical trials for PPP001, a chronic pain treatment for terminal cancer patients. Rx Princeps is available for registered medical marijuana users in Canada through Tetra’s partner and licensed medical cannabis producer Aphria Inc.
Aphria, (TSXV: APH) (USOTC:APHQF) has recently been snapping up other licensed growers in the industry and is Canada’s lowest cost cannabis producer. It has also just signed a deal to become one of the six licensed growers chosen to provide marijuana to Quebec’s Societe des alcohols du Quebec (SAQ), the provincial liquor agency chosen to also distribute marijuana when legalization comes into effect. Aphria will be providing up to 12,000 Kgs of marijuana to Quebec annually.
With six different growers all offering different types of marijuana it would seem fair that Quebec is going to treat marijuana much as it does wine by providing a wide variety of product. Marijuana has come a long way but it still offers an investment opportunity in either producers or drug development companies like Tetra that may not come again.
- Published in Blog, Medical Marijuana, News Home, Tetra Bio Pharma