Marijuana planting mobilizes businesses



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The regulation of the National Health Surveillance Agency that regulates the cultivation of marijuana for research and medical use is already starting to move the Brazilian market. At least two companies have been established in the country in recent years to join the sector, which they say is very promising.

Planting marijuana for research and drug preparation is already allowed by law. But for that to happen, there must be some regulation: rules that determine who, how and where the harvest can be done. That's precisely what Anvisa should start discussing this month. Among the points that will be defined are whether the plantation will be in greenhouses, in open places, and how will safety be.

"Only with medicinal plants used for the treatment of pain, the calculation is that we can move 2 billion R $ per year," says Mário Grieco, director of Knox Medical, an American company specializing in the production and the sale of medical marijuana sativa cannabis.

Knox began operations in February and is looking in the Southeast the ideal area to Build a factory In Valinhos (SP), Entourage Phytolab was created, a company that has already invested US $ 4 million (R $ 15.6 million) for research and development of a structure that paves the way for the production of cannabis-based drugs in Brazil

The initial objective of the Two companies is producing a drug against refractory epilepsy, a form of non-drug disease on the market.But the list of potential new drugs is significant. For example, recently completed the formulation of the first drug. In addition, he already has four other compositions in the queue, which should also be developed

"The list made by Canadian health authorities brings 39 diseases that could have as an indication drugs made with cannabis," says Caio Abreu , director of Entourage. There are studies that indicate improvement in patients with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, glaucoma, fibromyalgia and Crohn's disease

The company's name Abreu is a reference to the disease. combined effect of the different components of cannabis. The plant has about 80 cannabinoids. The best known are cannabidiol and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) among 400 other components. Some studies indicate that the combined use of its components may be more effective and safer than isolated substances. Abreu

Costs

Today, to research cannabis, you have to import the product. Each gram, says Abreu, costs about $ 4. "If we did the harvest itself, the costs could be a fifth of that." Entourage has already prepared the project for the shed where the planting could be done. But the work will only begin when the discussion is more precise.

The release of the plantation is only one of the aspects followed by entrepreneurs. There are also expectations about how regulation will be. In some countries, such as the Netherlands, Canada, and Israel, the use of marijuana-derived therapeutic products has been dispensed from all the rituals that guide the release of drugs, such as clinical research

. called market access, will be repeated. That's why Entourage has two plans. If clinical research is provided among the requirements for the registration of the product, it will invest in the development of other combinations. Otherwise, a research model with patients is already ready for the formulation developed for refractory epilepsy. The information comes from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo

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