Breaking Through the Cannabis Cloud

Up to this point, I have resisted doing any episodes around cannabis because 1. I’m a little old-school 2. I probably don’t know enough and 3. I want to avoid, in the words of my guest, “being painted with green paint” and tainting the brand.Separating emotions from logic, however, if there are cannabis components that could be effective therapies, it would be foolish to ignore them. There is already one cannabis-derived compound approved by the FDA. Epidiolex is pharmaceutical-grade cannabidiol (CBD) prescribed for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. Pebble Life Science is taking a rigorous approach to investigate whether other compounds derived from hemp might be effective as therapies, either for other neurological disorders or even cancer, initially focused on ovarian.I spoke with Patrick Moran, the founder and CEO of Pebble Life Science about their approach, the challenges they have faced, and the success they have had in forming collaborations with the MD Anderson Cancer Center as well as participating in the NCI Applicant Assistance Program.Everything we discussed is in the pre-clinical phase, preparing for and gearing up toward clinical trials. A key event in this journey was the 2018 farm bill that allows the cultivation of hemp as long as the THC content is below 0.3%. That opened the door to growing and extracting components from hemp, all non-psychotropic, for investigation.Thanks for reading cc: Life Science! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Either way, I appreciate you spending time here.One obstacle was bridging the gap between (clinically unproven) claims of cannabis killing cancer and putting in place procedures to rigorously investigate those possibilities. Another challenge, as mentioned above, was breaking through the cloud of suspicion that exists around cannabis. After being invited to apply for a drug development grant by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, one reviewer labeled them as drug dealers.While the research staff took that hard, their legal team suggested taking their data and the positive feedback they had received from the other three CPRIT reviewers and contacting the NCI. That led to an NCI sponsorship for the NIH Applicant Assistant Program which Patrick said was invaluable in helping his executive team prepare to submit an SBIR grant to help fund clinical trials.Based on pre-clinical studies in mice, Pebble is currently focused on the potential of a hemp-derived compound as both an adjuvant therapy and a frontline monotherapy for ovarian cancer. At the end of our interview, I asked Patrick what he had learned that would be helpful to any biotech startup whether or not they are in the cannabis space.Interestingly, I’ve recently had another conversation with someone I hope will be on this podcast soon. We concluded that science is difficult. People can be more so. It’s yet one more challenge to get people to change their thinking or to deal with the obstacles they place in front of you, intentionally or not. I hope this episode help you figure that out on your own journey.There were a few terms I had to look up in our conversation. You may find these useful:RPPA analysisEntourage effectYour deepest insights are your best branding. I’d love to help you share them. Chat with me about custom content for your life science brand. Or visit my website.0 Comments This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cclifescience.substack.com