Bit of a long read but i found it was relevant to what we are investing in, read it or don't , just thought i would post it for those that are interested.
Why THC and their Southport production facility is important, for the Aussie supply market, i have highlighted some relevant info to how the south port facility could be the answer to some issues .
“The prescriptions for MC in Australia have steadily increased each month, growing at about 117% on average ,the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA’s) online Special Access Scheme approval portal is making it much easier for doctors to apply for approval to prescribe unapproved medicinal cannabis.
“Doctors are reporting that the TGA is reviewing applications and responding quickly, sometimes within hours. Some state health authorities have also made it easier by removing the need for the doctor to get TGA and state health authority approvals. However, most states still require state health authority approval for paediatric prescriptions, and in some cases for S8 medicines.”Challenges in the supply chain Community pharmacist Sami Isaac says that it’s not the prescribing process that’s the issue with medicinal cannabis;
it’s the actual supply process that is the problem.“The laws are in place to ensure that if a doctor can verify that a patient needs medicinal cannabis the special access can be applied for and approved by the TGA (so long as the patient meets the criteria).
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The issue is the supply process. If we had started cultivating cannabis for medicinal purposes in Australia prior to the legislation being put in place, that might have put us in a better place with regards to the supply chain.
“Essentially, how it works is that the patient seeks the advice of a trained specialist, the doctor then applies for a TGA approval. Once TGA approval is received, the doctor is provided with a letter, which they can hand to the patient and that grants them access to a valid prescription.“The patient takes the script to the pharmacy and requests the medication in the same way they would with any S8 medication. However, the pharmacy then has to hold the TGA approval and apply through the manufacturer (in some cases the doctor will specify a certain brand)
to have the product imported.“It’s a very lengthy process.
The other issue that myself and my colleagues notice in practice is that it’s still a private prescription that cannot be covered through the PBS, which leaves patients out of pocket.“Additionally, the issue of the sponsorship and going through the Special Access Scheme is quite difficult and the pharmacy doesn’t get reimbursed very much.“What’s more, there are instances where
the doctor has advised the patient how much the product will cost, but they don’t take into account the processes and the administration fees the pharmacist has to pay in order to be a sponsor.“This is where remuneration needs to come into play and the cultivation we’re currently seeing in Australia needs to be fast tracked. We need to be able to cultivate and provide adequate supply at a PBS cost,” says Isaac.While the Medicinal Cannabis Medicines Portal has helped to streamline the process and support healthcare practitioners who have registered to prescribe or dispense medicinal cannabis, issues seem to lie with the structure of the supply chain.Isaac explains,
“Let’s just say the doctor prescribes a different cannabis product. To access it you have to contact the supplier itself. The supplier could be in Canada, the US or Europe, which can make it difficult. If it’s not the same consistent companies that we’re contacting it becomes quite difficult and certainly time consuming to add them to the system in the first instance. As a result, the efficiency is lost.
“While if it was through the PBS, if it was an Australian-based TGA-approved product or if we were only dealing with one product, I feel it would streamline things; not only for the patient, but for the doctor and pharmacist too.
There would be fewer issues with regards to trying to obtain access and sponsorship.”He adds, “In cases where you have a patient who needs the medicine for a terminal illness or to help with MS-associated muscle spasticity, not being able to tell your patient honestly when the supply will come in is difficult.“The human connection is lost and you don’t want to lose rapport with people you’ve been serving for years. This is where I feel it’s a very complex problem.“Certainly, the study I did back in 2016 showed that
pharmacists are open to partaking in medicinal cannabis, just as long as all the measures are in place to make sure it is streamlined and standardised.”
The information from that article i feel is pertinent to THC Through the Southport facility the scale and technology will enable THC to offer patients a higher quality, more consistent cannabis medicine at a significantly lower cost than the currently imported products available to Australian patients,the manufacturing permit also allows THC Global to accept and process medicinal cannabis plant material from any Australian licenced and permitted cultivator,the potential alone of the % of income they get from those that want to use the southport facility is huge.
THC has stated in the ANNs that 2020 was their year previous years were all about foundations and licenses ,now licensed it is on course to produce both packaged and bulk medicinal cannabis with a commercial launch provisioned for early 2020 , "so i intend to impatiently wait " for those pesky ANNs.., GLTAH, don't shoot the messenger
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