Stock Prices
In last week’s roundup, we reported that Germany-based Farmako signed a large deal for cannabis coming from Macedonian grower, NYSK Holdings, via Pharmacan Polska. Over the course of last week, this move had a considerable impact on the stock prices of the major Canadian companies. Although still set on an upward trend with respect to 2018, Canopy Growth is already seeing downgrades in earnings estimates, as is Aurora Cannabis.
At first sight, this effect might appear incredible, since Canadian cannabis firms are solidly established in the global market and European companies, in most cases, are just emerging after the wave of legalisation across Europe.
The reason may lie behind a simple fact. Farmako confirms that they did contact Canadian suppliers to strike a deal with them. Yet, supply was short and prices very high, so a deal was not struck and Farmako moved on. At this time, Canadian companies could not provide help to supply the German market.
The question spontaneously arises: if Canadian producers cannot meet the demand now, what will happen in the near future?
Bruce Linton’s voice
On March 28th, CEO Bruce Linton joined James West for a wide-ranging discussion on the cannabis industry. Many topics have been discussed in the 30-minute conversation with Linton, who expressed his enthusiasm for the current situation ‘we’ve got another step to go, but I’m more excited about medical Europe and Q4 rec products in Canada, than I have been in the last several years for what the business is doing, because actually using that intellectual property and differentiating… So you need to be where the action is. It’s Europe, it’s there, it’s becoming South America.’
The conversation inevitably moved onto Canopy’s situation in Europe, which Linton explored in detail – we report a short extract.
James West: Right. Yeah, there’s very low volatility across Canopy shares, lately. Great, well, so you say you’re more excited about the medical opportunity in Europe; and give me an update, where is Canopy at in Europe right now?
Bruce Linton: So, well, we’re doing two things: one is, we continue to get and seek more approvals so we can have more diversity of products going into Europe, and those are the same ingredients and platforms we’re using to run clinical trials, whether the dog or human, in Canada. And so what we’re trying to do is make sure that as we finish out this year, our Phase II B’s, if they work as they should, will allow us to make claims as to how this combination of ingredients and delivery mechanisms may cause you to sleep.
So you’ll have this Q4 party with better products, and you’ll have this Q4 target finish line for some Phase II B trials, then you can convey those claims into other European markets. So if you have the right product mix is there, any of the right claims, you can start to see why that helps with insurers, doctors, pharmacists, all of that. And so we’re playing, I wouldn’t call it a long game, but I would say we’re playing a game that gets past the topic of just the ingredient.
Leafly Medical Cannabis Conference
Last Tuesday, March 26th, Leafly disclosed the dates of their Medical Cannabis Conference, next Autumn in Europe. The two-day Conference will take place in Berlin on September 20th and 21st 2019. Tickets will be available from April 30th 8 am – prices range from €189 to €239 for participants.
Leafly Medical Cannabis Conference is expected to cover four topics in two days through a scientific program with lectures, panels, and discussion groups. On Day 1, the set topics will be ‘Pain’ and ‘Neurology’; on Day 2, the focus will be moved onto ‘Paediatrics’ and ‘Palliative Medicine’. The preliminary program can be found here.
“350 experts from around the world are meeting in Berlin to discuss the future of cannabinoid medicine in Berlin at Leafly’s first medical conference. The event will feature international speakers, focus seminars, a research laboratory with user workshops and a trade exhibition”.
Israel
On the same day, March 26th, CannabisBPO, iCAN: Israel-Cannabis & CannaTech announced the extension of their collaboration partnership. The announcement precedes CannaTech’s annually Medical Cannabis Conference in Tel Aviv, which this year will take place at Tel Aviv Port on the Mediterranean Sea from April 1st to 3rd.
The extended partnership aims to increase CannaTech/iCAN network by improving customer support and contact centre services. All companies within iCAN incubator are expected – as far as the companies declare – to receive access to such services.
“The expanded partnership with CannabisBPO is a key step in discussing what the customer experience side of our industry needs to look like,” said Saul Kaye, CEO of CannaTech/iCAN.
Dan Berman, CEO of CannabisBPO, thus welcomed the extension of the partnership: “In partnership with iCAN, we are excited to lead the charge to provide scale and world class services to the global Cannabis industry.”
New Study on Medical Cannabis Efficacy
The article, “Prospective Analysis Of Safety And Efficacy Of Medical Cannabis In Large Unselected Population Of Patients With Cancer” just published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine, studied thousands of cancer patients at Tikun Olam clinics in Israel.
Tikun Olam published the following: 95.9% of respondents reported an improvement in their condition through use of medical cannabis, leading the study’s authors to conclude that “Cannabis as a palliative treatment for cancer patients is a well-tolerated, effective and safe option.” In medical terms, palliative treatment in cancer patients is aimed mainly to alleviate pain and nausea.
“These results demonstrate that, used together with traditional oncology therapies, specific cannabis strains are safe and effective with virtually no side effects,” said Sid Taubenfeld, Chief Executive Officer of Tikun Olam Pharmaceuticals.
The Stop and Chat 