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Toward a legal, national market for cannabis

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The story’s out in Pharmaceutical Commerce magazine: “Medical marijuana looks for a place in conventional drug distribution.” It’s based on all kinds of research and interviews with CEOs, legislators and prognosticators in this budding industry.

Frustrations are great as the right hand of the U.S. federal government (DEA) either doesn’t know — or care, or approve — of the actions, research and recommendations of its own left hand (NIH among others). Also, it’s interesting that some of the same Big Pharma industry players that fund crackdowns on marijuana-related crimes (according to current laws) may well be seeking ways to cash-in on the eventuality of legal cannabis commerce. Currently, money crossing state lines can lead to issues with money laundering, since the lowly weed is still an illegal Schedule 1 substance.

A tenuous relationship exists between Big pharma, the supplement market and dispensaries with regard to cannabis’ legality. (Photo: Cannabis Science)

Changes are coming from a few corners of the medical cannabis world — as my investigations, only some of which are published, attest. Eventually at the state and federal levels, the day will come when cannabis is as broadly accepted, profitable and legal as any FDA-approved supplement, OTC drug or prescription remedy.  Ongoing research, advocacy and public support make it seem inevitable if not imminent.

The story linked here includes interviews surrounding pharmaceutical business-related developments. But the medicinal/health benefits-related aspect of this plant don’t end with conventional drug development, owing much to proponents of the whole-plant entourage effect. There’s more to the story than this relatively 101-level view written for mainstream, non-cannabis-versed executives.

War over water? Consumer brands brace for impact

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War over water? If we can have wars over oil, why not water, farmland and other resources that drive economic development? It could happen, according to Nausheen Kaul, principal with A.T. Kearney, advisor to some of the world’s largest corporations.

Worsening inequality and aging populations contribute to global destabilization.

But it struck me how, based on the data they get from firms such as Kearney, how global organizations react: They’ve already begun moving to acquire or otherwise secure the world’s water supplies and prime agricultural real estate, Kaul said.

That was just one nugget from Kaul’s presentation on global economic trends. (My straight-news version of it’s here.) His main goal was insight-shedding, not fear-mongering.

What are the implications of this war-over-water business, beyond pure monetary gain?

There are a few ways to look at it. One is that that massive land-and-water grabs by Western firms will stabilize developing economies. Another perspective is that this activity will amount to economic colonization and will fuel the conflict as surely as the British political colonization did…and will ultimately fail. A third perspective is that conflict is inevitable, and given the regulatory climate, Big Money in the West must do what it does because regulations allow it and shareholders demand it; if Coke doesn’t gobble-up the world’s water and land, Pepsi will.

As global financial leaders invest, governments will continue to buckle under the pressure of aging populations and worsening inequality.

Natural resource and political instability, Kaul said, is already causing a “Global Resource Nexus” in which the interplay between the supply and demand of food, energy and water are driving some troubling developments. By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will be “hyper-urbanized” into cities, governments will buckle under the pressure to accommodate aging populations and technology developments will make or break efforts to feed more people, sustainably and with fewer resources.

Kaul presented solutions for how companies can prepare, but they’re all about benefits to business. Is what’s good for business always good for mankind?

I’d like to know, but don’t comment here; drop me a line.

How ‘Social’ marketing is like Soylent Green

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Goin' social in Tucson

Goin’ social with the Contract Packaging Association at the Tucson Omni/National

Okay, we get that Spam — the canned pink, meaty stuff — has a protected trademark, unless it has a lowercase “s,” in which it’s less edible still. And Kleenex ain’t just any paper product. Unlike brand names, however, in the struggle to make “social” interactions relevant, there aren’t many actual rules to governing relationships.

What’s social networking in a B2B sector where smallish businesses do outsourced manufacturing and packaging services for large brand-owners? The key — just as in the movie Soylent Green  — isn’t about industrial machinery, it’s…people.

Presentations, discussions with attendees and deep thoughts at a winter confab of the Contract Packaging Association led me to wonder how this group of (mostly) small business execs is un/like their counterparts in other sectors. One of the presenters, following a group participation event, noted that he’d never seen a group with so many self-identified “socializers” vs. other kinds of personality types. Then came dinner, drinks and a day of golfing around. So yeah.

It was a fun trip that led me to write a short column on those personalities, and the “people thing,” in my column for Contract Packaging magazine: “Where’s this Relationship Going?“

‘Dragon’s blood’ used to treat canine cancer patients

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This 'blood' is sap tapped from rainforest trees.

The ‘blood’s’ actually tapped sap from rainforest trees.

No, it’s not blood, or — duh — from dragons. But a new prescription drug carrying the nickname “dragon’s blood” is being developed for animal as well as human treatment. Tapped from a substance in rainforest tree, the latest drug of its type under development is, SP-303, an isolated and purified form of the medicinal rainforest plant Croton lechleri, seeks to treat chemotherapy-induced diarrhea (CID) in dogs. Drugs for human use have already been approved.

A variant native Latin American plant’s red resin — source of the nickname among indigenous populations — gained US approval for the treatment of HIV-associated diarrhea in humans in December 2012.

The company, Jaguar Animal Health, a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Napo Pharmaceuticals, received an investigational new animal drug application (INADA) number SP-303, and seeks to file an application for this indication later in the year. Jaguar and parent Napo are exclusively focused on marketing rainforest plant-derived drugs, nutraceuticals, and food supplements.

Read more in my full story, “‘Dragon’s blood’ used to treat chemo-induced diarrhea is slotted for dogs undergoing cancer treatment,” online at Pharmaceutical Commerce.

Yummy science: 3D-printing of human ‘liver strips’

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3D printing of live, human liver? Yup. Same for tissue with blood vessels, as well as kidney, muscle and breast cancer.  It all holds promise for the future, and sure beats cranking out plastic guns for the betterment of humankind.liver printer

Basically,  it’s  done by pushing living cells through what amounts to inkjet printer nozzles. Here’s an excerpt from the news story I wrote for Pharmaceutical Commerce.

Organovo (San Diego; www.organovo.com), is among the more ambitious firms, having bioprinted in the lab….Bioprinted liver tissue holds the most immediate promise; Organovo announced in late January that it had delivered its bioprinted liver tissue to an outside laboratory for experimentation. The biopprinted liver strips, roughly 20 cells thick, could provide a reliable (and profitable) supply for use in drug toxicity testing.

Learn more in the story, “3D printing of living tissue advances with first lab shipment.“