Cannabis | Evening Standard

The founder of London’s first listed medicinal cannabis company stated that the industry must get rid of its “deceptive” image before the company can realize its clinical and commercial potential.

Roby Zomer, CEO of MGC Pharma, said: “The industry needs to change so that doctors can treat cannabis as a drug, not just a lifestyle product.”

Although medical marijuana was legalized in November for diseases such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, there are very few prescriptions for the NHS.

Although the U.S. cannabis market is predicted to be worth 57 billion U.S. dollars by 2027, compared with superstars in the life sciences and biotechnology fields, this reluctance is one of the factors that have led to investors’ enthusiasm for plant-derived medicines. .

Following the announcement of the details of the new trial, MGC’s share price rose 5.5% to 3.08 pence, which is still far below Canaccord Genuity’s latest 8 pence “speculative purchase” price target, which will make its market value more than 100 million pounds.

Zomer said: “We need time, we are only just beginning. We are a small company, the valuation is undervalued-but for me, we are in the same alliance with Pfizer.”

As he spoke, MGC’s Covid-19 drug CimetrA (an oral spray derived from turmeric) received an emergency import permit and could start trials in the pandemic-hit India.

The drug targets the receptor to suppress the immune system’s overreaction to the virus, and suppress the “cytokine storm” that can cause organ failure and cause death.

Israel is undergoing the final phase of testing, and the company is still in discussions with EU and US agencies and the World Health Organization.

Since its launch in 2015, MGC Pharma has evolved from a nutrition and cosmetics brand to a clinical therapy, and currently has approximately 50 scientists in its research center in Slovenia.

When the pandemic broke out in March last year, their attention turned to Covid-19.

Zomer, 40, has every reason to believe in the effectiveness of CimetrA: he and his wife took the drug after they tested positive for Covid after returning from a visit in Russia in January.

“When the plane landed in Israel, I tested it and it was positive. We are all together and it hit me a lot,” he said. “For two weeks, I could barely breathe, talk, or walk up the stairs.

“We all took CimetrA and within 48 hours my wife was able to work normally. It took me longer, but within a week I was like a new person. So yes, I fully believe it works.

“The CEO of Pfizer didn’t try his vaccine on himself before getting FDA approval!”

If it obtains marketing approval for emergency use in India, after a 90-day review process supervised by Medopharm, the company intends to apply for a license to sell CimetrA over the counter.

The cost of a course is about US$100, which is a small part of the cost of existing synthetic treatments.

Zomer added: “Ultimately, we need to learn to coexist with Covid. The vaccine is reducing transmission, but as we have seen in Israel, it has not stopped it.

“We need safe, affordable, and easy-to-manage treatments to suppress symptoms and prevent hospitalization and death.”

MGC has factories in Germany and the United States, and built a special factory in Malta to expand the scale of production of millions of doses.

In June, MGC’s epilepsy treatment CannEpil became the first medical-grade cannabis product to be prescribed free of charge under the Irish Health Insurance Plan.

Zomer said: “I am very excited to develop MGC from an idea to a participant in a major alliance of pharmaceutical companies. This is an exciting time.

“We have seen our efforts in science mature into truly breakthrough medicine in less than 18 months.”