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5 reasons Israel is dominating the cannabis industry

From research to agricultural and technical innovation and liberal government policies, Israel is a central hub for advancing medical cannabis.

By Viva Sarah Press | February 13, 2017, 7:00 am

Legal cannabis sales across the world totaled $150 billion last year, and sales in the United States alone are expected to reach $21.8 billion by 2020.

Israel is at the center of this huge growth because of its well-developed ecosystem of cannabis researchers, farmers, entrepreneurs, pharma and government policies.

“You can’t put cannabis into a category. It’s not just pharma and it’s not just agro-tech. It’s not just lifestyle or recreational,” Saul Kaye, a pharmacist and the chief executive of iCAN: Israel-Cannabis venture fund, tells ISRAEL21c.

Kaye says Israel is up to 10 years ahead of other countries in innovation in the cannabis industry.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has a multidisciplinary center on cannabinoid research and Ariel University offers a course on the use of medical cannabis. The Volcani Agricultural Research Organization is building a national institute for medical marijuana research.

Startup accelerator Cann10 hosts an annual International Medical Cannabis Conference and iCAN hosts the annual CannaTech cannabis innovation summit. The next summit is set for March 20-22 in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli government announced last year that it will expand the number of doctors trained and authorized to prescribe medical marijuana. In January, the government announced plans to decriminalize personal marijuana use, and in February a government committee approved cannabis export.

“This change will significantly increase entrepreneurship and investment into cannabis in Israel as the old stigma of criminal cannabis disappears,” says Kaye.

Since the government’s mid-2016 reforms to open up licensing for as many marijuana growers as the market will support, over 200 individuals and groups have applied to join Israel’s current eight cannabis farms.

ISRAEL21c presents five reasons Israel is dominating the cannabis industry:

RESEARCH

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta called Israel “the medical marijuana research capital” in 2015. This didn’t happen overnight; Israel’s government has encouraged cannabis research since the 1960s.

Hebrew University Prof. Raphael Mechoulam, an Israel Prize winner, is credited with pioneering medical cannabis research 50 years ago. He isolated the active compound from cannabis, THC, and inspired generations of researchers in several countries.

Cannabis has been used in research to treat conditions including diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, myeloma, psoriasis, fibromyalgia, PTSD, cancer, multiple sclerosis (MS), chronic pain, and broken bones.

“Israel is one of the leading cannabinoid centers of research in the world. There are about two dozen groups working on it and people come from all around the world to see what we do,” Mechoulam told ISRAEL21c in 2012.

In January this year, the government announced it is investing $2.13 million in 13 research projects including the effect of cannabis on metabolic syndrome, MS, preventing transplanted organ rejection, and inhibiting the development of harmful bacteria.

GENETIC ENGINEERING

GMO may have a negative implication in food, but when it comes to medical marijuana, genetic engineering is deemed crucial for treating a range of diseases.

Israeli scientists are among the world leaders in modifying marijuana’s molecular structure to tailor cannabinoids to specific receptors for treating symptoms.

Hebrew University researchers synthesized 22 versions of the cannabinoid THC that have great potential for treating neurological and inflammatory diseases.

“The Hebrew University holds a rich IP bank of cannabis patents. It is easier to conduct cannabis research and clinical studies in Israel than in any other country in the world,” says Kaye.

AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES

Tikun Olam is the first and foremost supplier of medical cannabis in Israel, and one of the leading medical cannabis companies in the world. It has developed a range of proprietary varieties – perhaps up to 230 – used in clinical medical trials.

Existing growing technologies are being adapted to the marijuana crop, while new technologies are geared specifically to this healing plant.

Kaye points to drip irrigation as an example of old technology helping marijuana growers. “Companies like Netafim can adapt their technology to our needs,” he says. “For them, cannabis is just another crop.”

New entrepreneurs with agriculture technologies for the medical marijuana market include the Leaf home cultivation system and Flux’s IoT hydroponic gardening tool.

Using Flux’s smart device, Eddy, “you can dial in your favorite strain and Eddy will become your easy button, making that strain grow to perfection and according to your medical needs,” Flux founder and Marketing VP Karin Kloosterman tells ISRAEL21c.

PHARMA

In addition to decriminalizing personal marijuana use, the Israeli government is on a mission to regulate medical marijuana and make it more accessible and available by prescription at pharmacies.

“Cannabis should be considered, so far as possible, in the same manner as any other medicinal product, requiring supervision and regulation in order to protect public health and welfare, even when taking into account its special characteristics — being a plant rather than a product manufactured in a laboratory or factory,” according to the Health Ministry’s Medical Cannabis Unit.

OWC Pharmaceutical Research, a developer of cannabinoid-based therapies targeting a variety of different indications, and Breath of Life Pharma, which provides cannabis-based medical products and cannabinoid APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), are working with the Health Ministry, universities, medical institutions and researchers to develop cannabis-based pharmaceuticals and treatments.

International companies regularly join forces with Israeli academic and medical institutions to create new medications.

For example, Kalytera Therapeutics, a US company developing a new class of proprietary cannabidiol (CBD) therapeutics, recently licensed two synthetic cannabis derivatives from the Hebrew University’s technology transfer company Yissum, for eventual use in treating osteoporosis, bone fractures and other diseases.

“Medical cannabis is increasingly being used for a variety of indications, such as reducing nausea during chemotherapy and relieving pain and muscle spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients. Development of state-of-the art delivery systems for the active ingredients will undoubtedly pave the way for a wider variety of clinical indications for these types of drugs,” Yaacov Michlin, CEO of Yissum, told ISRAEL21c in 2015.

Kalytera also inked a multimillion-dollar deal to purchase Talent Biotech of Bnei Brak, a startup that won the pitch event at CannaTech 2016.

MEDICAL DEVICES

Once the cannabis has been grown, extracted and formulated, it needs a delivery system for proper dosage — a tablet, a patch, a nasal spray or a cigarette, for example. And that’s where Israeli ingenuity comes in.

Late last year, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries agreed to market medical cannabis for pain management in Israel with a revolutionary selective-dose pharmaceutical-grade medicinal plants inhaler from Tel Aviv-based Syqe Medical.

Israeli-American company Cannabics Pharmaceuticals is working to put the medicinal compounds of cannabis into a sustained-release capsule in standardized doses.

And Australia-based PhytoTech Medical is developing an adhesive patch with medical cannabis, based on Hebrew University technologies.

“Israel is way ahead in adaptable technologies for the industry in an industry that hasn’t yet created its own technologies,” says Kaye.

Source: https://www.israel21c.org/5-reasons-israel-is-dominating-the-cannabis-industry/

For Canada’s and Israel’s marijuana industries, a budding partnership

By Paul Lungen, Staff Reporter -

February 16, 2017

From the moment you enter the security-controlled reception area at MedReleaf, you notice there’s something different about the place.

Perhaps it’s the aroma in the air, reminiscent of marijuana plants, which happen to be growing in the thousands just metres away. Or maybe it’s the smell of money, as in the revenue generated by Canada’s largest medical marijuana producer. It might also be the aroma of Israel’s agri-tech sector, since the Markham, Ont. company is a partner with Tikun Olam, an Israeli firm that’s a pioneer in the development of medical grade marijuana to treat a variety of illnesses.

When it comes to the links between Canada and Israel in the pot industry, nobody is bogarting that joint. Israel and Canada are world leaders in this newish technology and co-operation between the two is growing.

Canada was one of the first jurisdictions to permit licensed companies to develop and sell marijuana extracts for medical purposes. Israel, for its part, is known around the world for its innovation in many high-tech industries, not the least of which is agri-tech, where research into marijuana’s active ingredients is decades old.

‘The whole world is looking at how Israel medicalizes marijuana’

It was an Israeli scientist, Prof. Raphael Mechoulam, who first investigated the therapeutic properties of cannabis. Around 50 years ago, when it was still illegal to do so, he acquired some hashish that had been seized by Israeli police. From that, he and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science revealed the structure of cannabidiol (CBD), a key therapeutic ingredient in cannabis. Later they isolated and synthesized THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis plants.

Last June, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev announced their findings into the efficacy of medical marijuana. They reported that medical marijuana users experienced significant pain relief and function with only minor side effects.

According to BGU, the use of medical marijuana has grown substantially in Israel, with about 20,000 people now registered as users.

In Israel, as in other countries, there have been moves to decriminalize marijuana’s use, if not legalize it entirely.

Last year, Australia legalized the growth of cannabis for medicinal purposes. Several U.S. states have done so, though not the federal government. In late January, Israel’s public security minister, Gilad Erdan, announced a “shift to decriminalization with responsibility,” away from the current law that criminalizes possession and sale of the drug.

Likud MK Sharren Haskel trumpeted the announcement on Facebook: “We won! The continuous struggle that we lead brought results,” she said.

Haskel, who was born in Toronto and returns regularly to visit her parents, said she’s been campaigning to remove the criminal sanctions and stigma attached to marijuana use for some time. Cannabis is not a gateway drug, she said, and Israel expends a huge amount of resources to investigate and prosecute simple possession.

That makes no sense, given its widespread use and harmlessness. In fact, she continued, marijuana possesses tremendous medical benefits that Israel is developing.

“Israel is leading in research in medical marijuana,” she said. “The whole world is looking at how Israel medicalizes marijuana.”

As Haskel sees it, marijuana should be looked at like any other new medication, with research into its efficacy and the development of ways to deliver it to patients.

“The government has funded and opened a course to train 100 doctors in how to use medical marijuana for treatment,” she said.

As marijuana becomes normalized, Haskel expects it to become a key agricultural export. Right now, plants are cultivated by six farms, but about 40 more have applied for permits to grow it legally, she said. In Canada, too, medical marijuana has captured the attention of investors and financial advisers.

Cannacord Genuity, a firm that provides Canadian equity research, studied the investment opportunities in a report released last fall. “Forget the puns, this is a serious business,” it stated.

“The Canadian cannabis industry has experienced significant growth, fuelled in part by the near-term prospect of a legalized recreational market in Canada, which is expected to benefit current medical marijuana producers, and a growing level of acceptance of marijuana use internationally,” the report said.

‘Canada has the capital markets to fund developments and Israel is doing the research, which costs a lot of money, so we’ll see more investments’

“We believe the global landscape of cannabis is currently in the midst of transformational change. In response to increasing social acceptance, many large countries, such as the United States, Australia and Canada are in the process of enacting regulations that will permit legal access to marijuana to millions of individuals.”

Demand for medical cannabis in Canada is growing quickly, with more than 100,000 registered patients, a “significant uptake” over the numbers a few years ago. Cannacord believes “patients in Canada will consume more than 150,000 kg of cannabis per year by 2021, which could equate to $1.8 billion in retail sales.”

Recreational use could be a game changer, with a vast illegal market replaced by legal sales worth as much as $6 billion by 2021. Companies with current licenses are well positioned to take advantage of the change, Cannacord concludes.

Saul Kaye, founder and CEO of iCan:Israel-Cannabis, an Israeli company that identifies, invests in and showcases start-ups and innovators in the medical marijuana space, said capital markets are becoming increasingly interested in investment opportunities.

Not only is there potential for good returns, but there is an expectation that more and more jurisdictions will permit recreational use of the drug.

“We’re all very early in this industry,” he said by phone from Israel. His firm has access to capital and connections worldwide, including Canada, putting it in a favourable place to ride the growing wave of marijuana use, he said.

Right now, he added, the focus is on medical use, and the plant’s active ingredients have proven beneficial in treating a wide variety of maladies, including epilepsy, cancer, Parkinson’s, Crohn’s, glaucoma, restless leg syndrome, and even tinnitus (ringing in the ears).

Every year, iCan hosts a conference in Israel called CannaTech, which brings together scientists, businesspeople, researchers and investors to discuss developments in the industry while seeking potential collaborations.

Canadians feature prominently in the event, both as speakers and guests, said Daniel Goldstein, iCan’s senior vice-president for strategic investments.

“Last year, we had representatives from Canadian companies at CannaTech, including a couple of licensed producers,” he said.

“Some are looking at investing and doing business relations with Israel because of Israel’s position as one of the leaders in the R & D of medical cannabis in the world,” he said.

Since it’s still a young industry, the opportunity exists for early entrants to get in ahead of big pharma, Goldstein added.

Of course, big pharma is not exactly asleep at the switch. In late 2016, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries announced it had partnered with Tel Aviv-based Syqe Medical to market medical cannabis in an inhaler.

Meanwhile, in another development demonstrating the growth in the medical application of marijuana, Kalytera Therapeutics, a company listed on the TSX Venture exchange, announced it had entered into a letter of intent to acquire Talent Biotechs Ltd., a privately held Israeli developer of cannabidiol (CBD) therapeutics.

Talent is currently advancing a clinical program investigating the use of CBD to prevent and treat host disease, which can arise after stem-cell or bone-marrow transplants.

For Goldstein, these developments suggest that “Canada is a big player, but there is definitely more room for collaboration.” Israel, for its part, encourages research, and the government even funds some of it.

The Israeli approach, Goldstein added, focuses on medical, not recreational, use of marijuana. That could mean the export of the plant’s flowers, as well as finished products such as oils or capsules.

Shimmy Posen is intimately familiar with the budding industry and the Israeli scene. The Toronto lawyer has participated in trade missions to Israel and will address CannaTech 2017 on taking companies public in Canada.

Israel’s “start-up nation” brand extends to agri-tech, where it has a substantial head start on other countries in researching and applying cannabis for medical purposes, he said.

“I would suggest that since Canada is at the forefront of financing these deals, I would expect that companies in Israel would look to Canada to take them to the next level,” Posen said.

“There are some companies out there trying to position themselves as the Starbucks of marijuana once it becomes legal,” he said.

What’s more, Posen suggests, there are Israel-based companies interested in listing on the TSX Venture Exchange or the Canadian Securities Exchange to raise capital to fund their growth.

Sidney Himmel, an independent financial adviser with a specialty in science-based industries, said Canada is one of the world’s most advanced countries when it comes to delivering the medicinal benefits of marijuana on a controlled, standardized basis and in terms of financing, research and distribution.

He credits Canada’s advanced state of legalization and destigimatization, making the industry more acceptable for stockbrokers and banks.

Meanwhile, Israeli companies are looking at marijuana “in terms of classic drug development.”

Such approaches and the ability to provide medicine in accurate doses and strengths is necessary before most doctors will be comfortable prescribing medication derived from botanicals such as cannabis, Himmel said.

All that should lead to more collaboration.

“I believe there will be more ties between Canadian and Israeli companies,” Himmel said. “Canada has the capital markets to fund such developments and Israel is doing the research, which costs a lot of money, so we’ll see more investments.”

Those links will likely be magnified as more and more Canadian investors see the potential for expanding medical marijuana into the broader recreational sphere, he added.

Over at MedReleaf, ties between Canada and Israel are well established. The privately held company has more than a dozen products in its lineup, with more than one-third based on “Israeli genetics” whose seeds originated in Israel, said CEO Neil Closner.

Some even bear their Israeli names, which in turn were based on their original patients. Eran Almog is one. Avi Dekel is another strain, which provides anti-inflammatory benefits without side effects associated with marijuana, like getting high.

Closner said one of the challenges for companies like his is convincing doctors that marijuana is a legitimate treatment option. More and more physicians are choosing it, and for some, the fact the meds originate in Israel adds a layer of credibility. “Israelis are known as innovators and thought-leaders, so doctors are amenable to accepting that it’s a good innovation,” Closner said.

Like other new medical marijuana producers, MedReleaf “started at zero,” Closner said. Today, he reckons it’s Canada’s largest company in the sector, based on revenue.

Growth prospects are apparent. In addition to the company’s 55,000-square- foot headquarters, of which 30,000 square feet are reserved for plants, a 210,000-square-foot plant-growing facility is currently under construction.

Closner credits MedReleafs’ ties with Tikun Olam for helping spur growth, which he said is running at 10 per cent per month.

International expansion is on Closner’s radar.

“Canada has the opportunity to become the leader of medical research into medical marijuana,” he said.

With its know-how and financial resources, the potential is sky-high.

“If we do it properly, we have the opportunity to be global leaders,” Closner said.

Source: http://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/for-canada-and-israels-marijuana-industries-a-budding-partnership